Tag: Arenal Observatory Lodge

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Danta Waterfall

After seeing the monkeys but no birds, I hiked on past some beautiful scenery that I’ll share later and on down to the Danta Waterfall. It was a sunny day but evidently the wrong time for the best photographs. For better photos, see my gallery 2018 Danta Waterfall or even the 2019 Shot was better than these. Next time I will come here in April or May which seems to be better for photos. 🙂 CLICK image to enlarge:

  • Danta Waterfall
  • Danta Waterfall
  • Danta Waterfall Approach
  • Danta Waterfall Trail Sign
Danta Waterfall, Arenal Observatory, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Monkeying Around Christmas Eve

December 24 was a beautiful, sunshiny day! And my 6 year anniversary of living Retired in Costa Rica! I arrived on Christmas Eve 2014 and haven’t stopped exploring this tropical paradise a single day and I’m still blogging about it! Except for the first two Christmases getting “settled in” as a Costa Rica Resident, I have traveled every Christmas week since, to a National Park or other nature preserve.

The 23rd (day before yesterday) was when I scheduled Néstor, my birding guide here, and it was totally cloudy and raining all day. With nothing planned the 24th, it was a bright blue sky, sunny day! So I went hiking on my own, figuring maybe I could see some of the same birds in better light for better photos. Nada! Nothing! Almost no birds! Maybe they were in the tree tops “sunning?” 🙂 But . . .

On the other hand, on the first three rainy days I saw no monkeys and yesterday on the trail looking for birds I saw this troop or family of Mantled Howler Monkeys (my gallery link). They were way high in the Cecropia trees eating leaves, but I managed to get a few distant shots of these common monkeys here:

“We’ve just barely stopped being monkeys.”

~Duncan Trussell

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Christmas Day’s main event was a visit to the nearby Butterfly Conservatory this morning, but it may be a few days before I get to those photos! 🙂 A Merry Weekend to you! And tomorrow, Saturday, I go to Caño Negro Reserve for birding – always a good place for birds.

Arenal Observatory Lodge, Arenal Volcano National Park

¡Pura Vida!

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Yesterday’s Birds

When on these National Park trips I always get behind in sharing my photos because I am so busy in these wonderful nature places and have so many photos to process it is difficult to keep up. But here’s photos of 18 of the 24 species photographed with the other 6 photos not worth sharing! 🙂 Actually the Long-billed Gnatwren photo is not worth sharing, but since it is one of 4 “Lifers” yesterday, I feel compelled to “prove” I saw it! 🙂

And I know that yesterday I said that the Bicolored Antbird was my only “Lifer” (first time seen bird) but I still had not gone through all the 700+ photos and discovered that I actually had 4 lifers on this hike (plus I had another Lifer Monday not a part of this count: the Emerald Tanager) plus a “first in Costa Rica,” meaning I have photos of it from some other country. Yesterday’s 4 Lifers are:

  1. Bicolored Antbird
  2. Spotted Antbird
  3. Long-billed Gnatwren
  4. Carmiol’s Tanager

My sighting/photo of the immature Cinnamon Becard was my “first time in Costa Rica,” though I made photos of an adult Cinnamon Becard on one of my Panama trips.

Remember that it was cloudy and raining all day yesterday, making photography very difficult, (interestingly it was sunny all day today and I saw fewer birds!) but here’s one photo of each species except the Rufous-winged Tanager where I include one of both the male and the female since they are so different. CLICK image to enlarge:

  • Bicolored Antbird
  • Spotted Antbird
  • Red-legged Honeycreeper
  • Black-stripped Sparrow
  • Great Curassow Male
  • Palm Tanager
  • Crested Guan
  • Yellow-throated Toucan
  • Carmiol’s Tanager
  • Summer Tanager
  • Crimson-collared Tanager
  • Cinnamon Becard Immature
  • Scarlet-rumped Tanager
  • Black Phoebe
  • Pale-billed Woodpecker
  • Long-billed Gnatwren
  • Bay-headed Tanager Male
  • Rufous-winged Tanager Female
  • Rufous-winged Tanager Male
And notice that there is an overlap of only 4 birds with my first day list. 🙂

And there is always my Costa Rica Birds Gallery!

“What I saw was just one eye
In the dawn as I was going:
A bird can carry all the sky
In that little button glowing.

Never in my life I went
So deep into the firmament.”

― Harold Monro

¡Pura Vida!

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Bicolored Antbird – Another “Lifer”

For most people it would be a horrible day with almost constant rain, but my all morning birding hike with breakfast break was good for me including this one “Lifer” or first-time seen bird.

I still don’t have a count of how many birds I photographed in the terrible light, but I will report on that tomorrow. Nestor says he saw or heard 82 species and I’m sure I didn’t see half that number, but will tell tomorrow. The selfie here is me with Nestor, my guide.

This Bicolored Antbird is my first to see or photograph and my second Lifer on this trip. Learn more about him at the eBird Description. CLICK below images to enlarge:

  • Bicolored Antbird
  • Bicolored Antbird
  • Bicolored Antbird
  • Bicolored Antbird
Today’s Lifer

See all my birds in my CR Birds Gallery.


“Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

¡Pura Vida!

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1st 24 Hours of Birds

My birding hikes are not until tomorrow, so these 20 species I got on my own and wanted to get them out before what I hope will be some new or different birds with Guide Nestor whom I’ve had on both of my previous trips here. He is good! They always ask if you have any target birds for the hike and I will tell him the same thing I did last year, “Yes, the Umbrella Bird and the Yellow-eared Toucanet.” These are both fairly rare birds and difficult to find in the thick forest and I want to add them to my collection. 🙂 But I won’t get my hopes up!

I just hope we don’t have rain tomorrow morning like we have had most of today. Here we are on the Caribbean Slope which tends to have more rain than the Pacific slope where I live. But it is still the beginning of the dry season here with less rain than they’ve had the last 6 months. We will bird from 6-8 AM, have breakfast, then the rest of the morning. So I’m hopeful with a half day with a birding guide I will get lots of birds!

Now a slide show of the last 24 hours of birds on my own with two shots of Scarlet-rumped Tanager because the male and female are totally different and two of the Brown Jay with one flying and the other perched; 22 shots of 20 species including my “lifer” I introduced yesterday:

  • Turkey Vulture
  • Great Curassow Male
  • Green Honeycreeper Female
  • Palm Tanager
  • Golden Hooded Tanager
  • Montezuma Oropendola
  • Clay-colored Thrush – Yigüirro
  • Red-billed Pigeon
  • Crested Guan
  • Silver-throated Tanager
  • Bananaquit
  • Baltimore Oriole Female
  • Blue-gray Tanager
  • Yellow-throated Euphonia, Female
  • Brown Jay
  • Brown Jay
  • Collared Aracari
  • Buff-throated Saltator
  • Tropical Kiingbird
  • Emerald Tanager
  • Scarlet-rumped Tanager Male
  • Scarlet-rumped Tanager Female

See my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

“The bird who dares to fall is the bird who learns to fly.”

¡Pura Vida!

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A “Lifer” in first afternoon

I arrived at Arenal Observatory Lodge in time for lunch with my driver and my first afternoon of looking for birds with 11 species photographed including the above Emerald Tanager (link to eBird description) which is a “Lifer” or first-time-seen bird for me! And a colorful one found only in Central America plus Columbia & Ecuador.

I did lots of walking including to the top of the 28 meters or 92 ft. tall observation tower with 146 steps on stairs. I’ve gotten lots of birds and monkeys from this tower in the past, but not today with it being overcast and very windy when I went up today, but I got several landscape shots including this one I call “A Sea of Treetops.”

My “Sea of Treetops” shot today from the top of Arenal Observatory’s observation tower.

“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

¡Pura Vida!

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Webcam from My Room

Well . . . almost – actually just ABOVE my room is the Arenal Observatory Webcam going 24/7, rotating between Lake Arenal in sunset shot above and on the volcano as in the photo below. Both these photos are views from the deck of my room, similar to the Webcam views. My first year to come here I lucked into this room and have requested it now for the third time.

Check out my 2018 Arenal Observatory Visit gallery and then I returned in 2019 for different things seen and photographed, especially more birds in 2019.

Volcano View from My Room, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica

I’m writing this before I leave home to be released mid-day on my arrival day to start my blogging early from Arenal! 🙂 Everything should be green from months of rainy season that officially ended with November and it is now Summer (Dry Season) in Costa Rica! Though the weather forecast and above Webcam indicate there are still rain clouds at Arenal, which is okay! 🙂 The forest will still offer all the same wildness as a dry day! 🙂

I can hardly wait to explore the forests of Arenal again!

¡Pura Vida!

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Next Trip in 2 Weeks!

I’m counting down the days now for my next trip here in Costa Rica – just two weeks from today I will be at Arenal Observatory Lodge at the base of one of our largest volcanoes that is occasionally active (feature photo is view of it from my room & I get the same room each time) . But most of all I anticipate being in a great cloud forest, rich with birds and other nature for a week of hiking at Christmas! It’s hard to imagine a better Christmas! 🙂

I will feel safe from the virus as the lodge is extremely cautious and I will be mostly out in nature solo, so not worried about COVID19, though I’m always cautious and live in a sensible country with required distance rules and mask-wearing. (How can the USA be so stupid about the virus?)

My last two trips to Arenal include some great photos from the trip 2019 November 11-17 and from the first time which is always the best – that’s 2018-May 4-9. Check out my photos from both to see why I’m excited about returning. Plus while there I will celebrate 6 years of living in Costa Rica, AND becoming a permanent resident this year! 🙂

I’ve been limiting my travels during this pandemic, but ready to get started again with trips now scheduled for Christmas Week, the middle of January and another in March. More normal for me! 🙂 My new goal is a trip somewhere in Costa Rica at least every two months.

And oh yeah, that January trip is to the mountains for Quetzales at Savegre Mountain Lodge while my March trip is back on a west coast beach at Tambor Tropical Resort! It sure is fun to be “Retired in Costa Rica!” 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Covid Cancels Another Trip

My November trip was going to be a repeat to another favorite birding location, Rancho Humo on the Tempisque River at Palo Verde National Park with the nearest town 30+ minutes away, Nicoya. It is a quiet, peaceful rural retreat with luxury rooms and meals on a ranch that still had 800 head of cattle the last time I was there. Featured photo is a White-faced Capuchin Monkey is from my one visit there. It’s a great retreat for couples, families, or anyone wanting peace and quiet in nature, plus the real draw is birds for me, with one of the heavier concentration of birds in the country, especially inland water birds and one of only 2 places here where you might see the rare Jabiru Stork. I saw just one my last visit there.

A month ago they told me they planned to reopen November 1 when our borders are open to all countries for the first time since March. The entry requirements no longer include a negative Covid19 test, but still require sufficient medical insurance, masks, social distancing, etc. But tourists aren’t storming our borders and to make it worse, the U.S. Embassy recommends not traveling here because there is a new wave of the virus here like almost everywhere else. Gloomy – especially for the tourism businesses!

Thus Rancho Humo decided to not open and I had to cancel my reservation which fortunately was not pre-paid like some hotels are requiring now. But I’m still disappointed.

I will keep busy locally with walks and photography and continue my website & photo gallery building, so still a happy retiree in Costa Rica! 🙂 And I may even have Walter (my driver) take me on a couple of Water Fall Day Trips. We will see.

I’m still booked for Arenal Observatory for Christmas and they are open now, so I don’t anticipate any problem there. It is listed as one of the “Birding Hot Spots” of Costa Rica and is one of my top 5 favorite lodges, so I know that Christmas will be good and in the wilderness again! 🙂 And by the way, lodges like this take extra precautions because of the pandemic to keep everything sanitized and people masked and socially distanced, plus I spend most of my time solo hiking in the wilderness, so little chance of getting the virus. And just look at what I see from my sanitized room there:

Arenal Volcano View from My Room — same room each time — I love it! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Arenal Trip Photo Gallery

Wow! Another great trip to one of my top 5 or 6 favorite places in Costa Rica, Arenal Observatory Lodge, with photos of 49 bird species , including the two new lifers for me! Plus 7 other animal species, a new birding trail (Bogarín), the waterfall, wonderful hiking trails and gardens to walk through, and the tallest birding tower in Costa Rica where this year I got lots of Honeycreepers in place of all the monkeys photographed last year, plus a repeat of my favorite room 29 and really good food! I have been so busy after the trip that it has been difficult to process all the photos, but finally done! Check them out at (or click image):

https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2019-November-11-17-Arenal-Observatory

 

Arenal-2019-Screenshot-WEB

Leave the road, take the trails.

~Pythagoras

Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!