Costa Rica 2023!
We just returned home from an incredible trip to Costa Rica! We stayed in the Bajos del Toro region in the Cloud Forest. This area is about 80 minutes north of the San Jose airport.
We can’t say enough about the people, landscapes, waterfalls, birds, wildlife, food, water, air, etc…. all absolutely pure and beautiful! In general, the temps were in the mid-60’s with clouds and some sun in the mornings with clouds and/or mist and rain in the afternoons into the evenings. We were at about 4,000ft elevation, in a basin, surrounded by mountains and on one side was the Poas Volcano. We never saw the top of the Volcano as it stayed socked in with the clouds. The other absolutely amazing thing about this area - NO mosquitoes!!! They do not survive at that altitude… I can’t describe how amazing it was to be out and not be swatting 1,000 mosquitoes as I photographed more species of birds than I thought would be possible!!! Needless to say… I was out the door before sunrise and was out all day! We loved it so much we booked a week in March for next year!
I came home with zillions of shots so today is hopefully only the beginning of what I hope will be several posts to share with you the birds, mammals and landscapes of this gorgeous part of Costa Rica.
I hope you enjoy!
There were three incredible waterfalls near the property we stayed at - it was about an hour and 20 min hike to the highest one. The trail was well worn but was rocky and muddy - it was absolutely incredible to be in the middle of an Old Growth forest and only hear the stream, birds and waterfalls (once you were near them)! Absolutely unforgettable! This is the stream (they call it a river) that we followed up towards the waterfalls…
Our first full morning there I had scheduled a private guide to take me birding! I met Jose at 6am in the pouring rain. After we introduced ourselves he asked me if I was up for it - I said -Jose, it is a dream come true to be here and to be with you - let’s go!! He was totally game for it and we had the first of many amazing outings together! I already can’t wait for time with him next year… Thankfully before we left home I confirmed that my camera and lens can take a lot of rain and be a-ok. I did bring my rain sleeve for my camera and lens so I felt as long as he wanted to stay out I could…. so off we went!
About an hour into our first outing together… the rain stopped and even more birds were singing! And then I saw this gorgeous bird all by itself on a perfect perch - just gorgeous!
Social Flycatcher
One day we hired a driver to take us to a National Park and I spotted this small flock of these black colored birds and I asked our wonderful driver to stop so I could hop out and photograph them. He told me - anytime you want to stop just ask! That is all he needed to say to me! :-). It was raining, a nice soft and gentle rain, when one of these guys landed on this gorgeous wooden fence post.
Groove-billed Ani
This Bird!! At first I thought I was seeing a Pterodactyl flying!!! lol. I tried photographing these birds many mornings and finally had this opportunity when he was eating this piece of fruit from this wild fruit tree. I have forgotten the name of the fruit but it begins with a “g”…. tons of birds loved this fruit and it was all perfectly ripe for them.
Montezuma Oropendola
The day we had the driver take us to a National Park we had a guide take us on some trails through the area. As we were walking across a very high and narrow suspension bridge - we spotted 5 Howler monkeys in a group of trees near the river’s edge! It was amazing to be so high up on the bridge to be able to be about the same height of the monkeys in the tops of the trees! The huge challenge was that the bridge was constantly bouncing when anyone moved or walked!!!! So I took the shots while holding my breath and trying to keep as steady as possible, while bounding up and down!! :-). The other four monkeys stayed hidden for the most part - this one put on quite a show and then they all went swinging away!!! Incredible…. When we came back over that bridge about 90 minutes later you never would have known there was ever a monkey anywhere…
Howler Monkey
For this post I will leave you with this… a truly remarkable sighting and experience…
One of the mammals we hoped we would see would be a sloth. Four years ago we were in Costa Rica and were fortunate enough to see a sloth… way up in a tree behind many branches and leaves - but you could still make out that it was a sloth. This year…. wow!!!! At the end of our time with our guide in the National Park I asked our guide if he had any extra time to go on another trail in the hopes of seeing a sloth…. Long story short - he went over to a female guide and asked her and she gave us the thumbs up!! So off we went with both guides and finally the female guide stopped dead in her tracks and just pointed up!!! We could NOT believe it!!! We actually had as clear a view as you could hope for as we looked way, way up to see mom and her baby!!! Our guess is that mom’s head is tucked under behind the branch (left side of photo) and her arms are wrapped around the baby. To have this view of the baby’s face was more than we could have ever asked for!!! Oh, and these are two-toed sloths - we learned that the three-toed sloths have what looks like a permanent smile on their faces. Truly breathtaking… and something we will never forget… They never moved an inch… never a twitch, never an eye open… just resting so peacefully…
Mom Sloth with baby!