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| Just a gravel road you say? Well rainy season has made it a pot-holed rub board! Driving a rent car on this to my hotel reminded me of driving in The Gambia. Only we have mountains here! los bosques en las montañas |
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| From the road I snapped this view on cell phone of Tarcoles River dumping into the Pacific Ocean on a cloudy day. But no views like this from Hotel Villa Lapas which is deep in the forest on the edge of Parque Nacional Carara. |
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| Part of this little simple mountain lodge is made into a Spanish Colonial Village. I’m sleeping in a tile-roofed hacienda with plaster walls and a musty smell. Español colonial hotel de estilo |
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| To make the colonial village complete, they have a little church (for weddings they say). Old and simple but just right for a birder with the forest up against the backs of buildings. The food was okay for dinner. You go to the beach town of Jaco for modern hotels. con la iglesia |
I’ve heard birds and seen a bat but the only wildlife I’ve photographed on the arrival afternoon are the leaf-cutter ants at right.
I did drive 6 km up the dirt road to Pura Vida Gardens which are simply beautiful in a hard to get to place with beautiful vistas and flowers and a view of what they call the tallest waterfall in Costa Rica. They also call it “Pura Vida Waterfalls,” but it is better know by “Bijagual Waterfalls” (name of nearby town) and “Manantial de Agua Viva Waterfalls.” I’m going with this last name.
I will do a separate post on the gardens tomorrow. Then tomorrow’s tour in the park is when I hope to collect a lot of bird photos. We’ll see! I trusted the hotel to get me a guide, so “proof’s in the pudding!”
I’m still reading Don Quiote and picking up Sancho’s habit of quoting truisms! 🙂 And I would love to hear from someone who has read it with your opinions, feelings, or meaning of the book. I’ve nearly quit reading it several times, saying “This is stupid!” But know how historically significant it is, so I keep trudging on through it at about 70% now.
Expect several more days of blogging from this trip. 🙂
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~Scott Adams (Dilbert creator)