Knowing from past experiences that the return trip by boat and bus to San Jose is more tiring and less of an adventure, I chose to try flying back this time and not that early 6am flight! 🙂 But rather I took the 12:40 afternoon flight – and here is
The Story in Pictures
The Tortuguero Airport Parking Lot . . . A boat landing. My lodge “driver” dropped me off here and I walked over to the landing strip.
The Tortuguero Airport Terminal. 🙂
Just another bunch of tourists, European & Canadian.I love taking off alongside a beach! (Like in Limon)Up over the village of Tortuguero . . .. . . and over some of the rivers & canals I traveled this week.And the beautiful Costa Rican Farms.Our one stop before San Jose was at La Fortuna with Arenal Volcano towering above.
Sometimes I think I live a charmed life getting to see such beautiful sights! (Even though my suitcase did not make it on our overloaded flight and is suppose to be delivered by taxi sometime this evening.) I love being “Retired in Costa Rica” and I’m still processing the bird and other wildlife photos from this Tortuguero trip – but coming soon!
Getting to and from anywhere in Tortuguero is only by boat with outsiders able to use the Tortuguero Landing Strip to fly here by small plane. All week I have been traveling around this rainforest park by boat including my private birding trip in a canoe this afternoon with Ricardo doing the paddling and me making photos! 🙂 One photo below is from that canoe trip. It is a different world, a water world! Tomorrow the lodge takes me by boat to the Tortuguero Landing Strip for my flight out which is a relief since the gravel roads between Guapiles and the boat dock are in bad condition right now. It is only the second time I’ve gone to an airport by boat with the other being at Drake Bay.
River Scene Shots
From the main river a sign marks the canal to this lodge.
My dusk canoe birding today.
As the sun goes down it gets dark in the canals and river, but you can see all the stars! 🙂
Tranquil and green!
On tours we pull up under birds, monkeys and other sights along the way.
Tours, birding and general transportation is all by boat.
Palms remind you that this is a tropical paradise!
We passed all kinds of other boats.
Wilderness is a necessity there must be places for human beings to satisfy their souls.
The first boat ride is through the jungle to the lodge in the river and canals of Tortuguero National Park. “Tortuguero, One of Costa Rica’s most popular ecotourism destinations . . . a study of Rainforest, freshwater and marine biology. The park and small town of Tortuguero are accessible by boat or small aircraft. When people think of Rainforest, the first thing that automatically comes to their minds is Tortuguero.” For just the facts, see the Wikipedia Article on Tortuguero Park, there is no “official” website for the park. The previous park link & quote is from one of many tour companies here.
And since most have to pay for entrance to the National Park (my resident old man status gets me in free) the lodge boats stop at the park headquarters first which is at the little village of poor people that all lodges seem to be required to take tourists to and our guide got it over with along with park tickets before we ever got to the lodge. We were given an hour to wander and though with nothing there I needed (food & souvenirs) I used the time to make photos. Yes, I came here for the jungle, birds and other wildlife and that is what I have been doing since leaving this village, but I will still be longer processing and presenting my wildlife photos. This was easier to put together on another busy day with two boat trips and one rainforest hike.
Funky Village
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Village Murals
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3 Village Birds
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Of course there are more birds in this village in the jungle, but these are the only 3 I got photos of! 🙂
I have so many photos, it is late, and I am tired. So I’m just sharing the butterfly and flower photos made at our breakfast stop in Guapiles this morning. The lodge and the whole National Park is wonderful, but I can’t start showing it tonight. Here’s some color on the way to the jungle! 🙂
When the lodge in Tortuguero tells me their van they will pick me up at any hotel in San Jose at around 5am and I live at an hour+ away, getting up at 3am to get there is not appealing, thus when I go to Tortuguero (my 3rd time now) I usually use my Hilton Honor points from an American Express Card to spend the night at Hampton Inn Airport. Well, Hampton Inn was full this time for the night I needed and thus the next closest Hilton Hotel was DoubleTree Cariari, at the Cariari Country Club, also called an airport hotel (5 miles). But it used to be an independent, locally owned unique Costa Rican Hotel Cariari. And I’m glad I couldn’t get in the “cookie cutter” Hampton Inn which is an identical building/room as all Hampton Inns in the U.S. Nothing unique or Costa Rican about it except the coffee and staff! 🙂 And the Cariari is the favorite hotel of my new friends from Durango, Colorado.
My favorite transportation from Atenas, Walter’s Taxis & Tours, brought me here midday and I’m enjoying the exploration of a new hotel to me. Here are a few my cell phone photos made here:
ART
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GARDEN
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HOTEL
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Tomorrow morning at 5:30 AM I leave for Tortuguero National Park on the North Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica.
The other morning before breakfast I just walked through my garden using my cell phone to snap a few happy sights. This slide show of 14 shots shows just one reason I like Costa Rica so much – year-around! 🙂
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I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty. ~Georgia O’Keeffe
I hesitate to rank or say there is only one favorite birding lodge, but this is in the top 3 or 4 best easily based on both the number of birds I photographed (53+) and the new birds I photographed for the first time or “lifers” of which there were these 7:
This is also one of the best or easiest places in Costa Rica (the whole world?) to get close photos of the King Vulture. My previous photos were made through a spotting scope, so I was thrilled to have Sergio pick me up at the lodge and take me to his blind on a nearby bluff where the King Vultures hangout and from his blind that he calls a “hide” I was about 20 to 30 feet from King Vultures.
Plus the lodge guides are excellent birding guides and found birds I would never have found on my own plus on the night hike I got a photo of the rare Red-webbed Tree Frog which is on the cover of my book. The DIY trails are excellent also for birding where I got several birds on my own.
The food is very good with excellent wait staff and by planning ahead nearly a year I got one of the 4 Tree Houses as my Treehouse Room for the week – an unbelievably unique experience which yielded all the Howler Monkey photos in my gallery (by climbing up 55 steps to my room). Or see my entire “Trip Gallery” 2019 Maquenque Ecolodge.
And check out the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodgea true experience in nature! I highly recommend it for all nature lovers and especially for birders! Just be aware that it is not near anything familiar, a 4-hour drive from my house in Atenas to a river on the Nicaragua border.
Every leaf is a work of art and I love trying to capture some of it! There are so many things to see and focus on in the rainforest and sometimes a simple leaf is the best eye candy! Enjoy the slideshow!
is what the Dermatologist says about the cause of skin cancer. But he also says if I continue to get too much sun it will make it worse, so my two wide-brim hats and 60 SPF Sunscreen, called El Protector Solar here or informally protección de sol. I dislike it but when I know I will be in the sun much, I use the sunscreen now and wear my big hat everytime I go out!
SKIN CANCER SURGERY ON MY FACE THIS TIME
The only other skin cancer removed was from my arm a month or two ago and it was comparatively easy with a lot more skin on the arm. Sorry if the photo below grosses you out, but I was really surprised at how much this facial growth had grown with this big of a scar or “more than 15 stitches” said the doctor, though I counted more like 20 or 21 in the photo. My eye is partially swollen and partially closed but it will get back to normal soon. I went back to the doctor the day after surgery (Wed) and he changed the bandage which I will permanently remove Thursday. Air helps healing. And he prescribed a cream I put on it twice a day for at least two weeks when I see him again for a checkup, after my next photography trip of course! 🙂 I have to keep my priorities straight you know!
MOHS SURGERY
It was Mohs surgery Tuesday which the link describes or basically it is a pathologist there with the surgeon doing biopsies on every bit removed until there is no sign of cancer. With this he is now more certain he got all the cancer and didn’t remove too much “good skin” which is more limited on the face. He was prepared to graft a piece of skin from my cheek if necessary, but thankfully it was not. And in two weeks or so I will be back to normal with a noticeable scar on my face. No problem! Just call me “Scarface.” 🙂
Surgery day bandage
The 15+ stitches
That’s Life! – ¡Así es la vida!
¡Pura Vida!
And tomorrow I will go back to sharing more from my great trip to Maquenque Eco Lodge!(Link is to the Gallery)
And oh yeah, that sunset photo above is one I made at Arenal Volcano National Park. After all, this article is mostly about the sun! 🙂
