When K had his gardener plant a Zinnia bed on the hillside just above my roof, I got my gardener to add a bench for viewing the many butterflies there. Now with the high winds continuing and me seeing very view birds from house-level, I have been trying the hillside bench and that is where I got the Gray Hawk and all of the last few days’ birds. I even got a Red-lored Parrot one day! But because he was near the top of the far hill, not a very good photo. I may or may not share it later. 🙂
Here is a gallery with three views from the bench that you email receivers may need to go online to properly see the left-to-right sequence (click post title above to go online). The email version does funny things with the photos sometimes. 🙂
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE and then click through a manual slideshow . . .
Front-Left to trees around my house.Straight ahead above George’s roof to one hill + his trees.Front-Right to far hill and my landlord’s close slope & fence.
More bird photos coming from this new birding spot! 🙂 So far I’ve shared these: a Gray Hawk, a Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, a Stripe-headed Sparrow, a Great Kiskadee and tomorrow a Streaked Flycatcher and maybe later the Red-lored Parrot (grainy photo). A lot more variety than what I was seeing from my terrace rocking chair! 🙂 And though a little earlier, this was the spot from where I got that cool photo of two Keel-billed Toucans perched with a Chachalaca on the hill behind George’s house! 🙂 Right now I’m not scheduled to travel until the first week of July, so this is my nature photography mirador! And who knows, before long, eBird just might list it as one of the “Birding Hot Spots” in Costa Rica! 🙂
The Spanish word “Mirador” is translated to English as a lookout point, vantage point or viewpoint to see a “vista” which in several languages is a view or sight. With a 2.5 km hike up the hill or a 4×4 jeep ride from the Hotel Savegre you can see the hills on the other side of the Savegre River that runs through the hotel property. After our hike through the cloud forest, we saw the views and then like sissies, rode back down the mountain in the jeep! :-) I did walk it the last time I was there! :-) Here’s five photos below or see them in the gallery: Savegre Mirador.
This final post on the Rincón de la Vieja trip shares some scenery and a little more about the hotel and park that I hope provides a “sense of place” concerning this unique national park and adjacent hotel.
Sense of place is the sixth sense, an internal compass and map made by memory and spatial perception together.
~Rebecca Solnit
In the northwestern corner of Costa Rica there are volcanoes and ranches. Rincón de la Vieja is unique to all the volcano parks in this drier, western part of the country, reminding me of the southwestern U.S. with persons riding horses as common as bikes and wildness depicts the beauty and sense of place. Plus this hotel is a working ranch. Here’s two galleries and brief evaluations of both the hotel and the place.
Hotel Hacienda Guachipelín
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Hacienda Guachipelín is a large, old, ranch-style hotel on more than 2,000 hectors of land with more waterfalls than the park (8) and it is a working farm & ranch where you can actually be “a cowboy for a day” helping real cowhands or just take one of several horseback riding trips. And seasonally watch a rodeo!
All the typical adventure tours are also available like zip lines, white water rafting, tubing, rappelling, canyoneering, biking, ATV, hot springs & mud baths, a Spa, plus an on-property serpentarium, butterfly garden, Mirador (scenic overlook), and more trails than you will likely use!
My room was basic, comfortable and good for my purposes. It was a longer walk to the restaurant than some and if you need to be close, request that when making your reservation. They offered to move me but I need the walks!
The restaurant food is okay good, just not great, with the wait staff service also mediocre except for the separate bar which had great service! In high season or fuller capacity the restaurant is all buffet style and breakfast is buffet even in low season (now). I am not fond of buffets. 🙂 I ate my usual two meals a day here; a big breakfast from the buffet & omelette bar with an early, good dinner from the menu at outdoor Bar (one of above photos). Restaurant didn’t start dinner until 6:30.
The Scenery
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Sorry I failed to get photos of horseback-riders!
Gorgeous trees!
Flowers everywhere!
Working farm.
Working farm – Greenhouse for Tomatoes.
Oropendola Waterfall.
All national parks are well maintained here!
Vista from Hotel Mirador.
Vistas from all over hotel grounds.
Chorreras Waterfall.
Crested Guan in the Park.
In foothills of mountains.
Well-maintained Trails
My favorite farm road!
One or two trips to the park is enough to see most everything there. Had I gone a second time I would have done the 10-K walk to their largest waterfall, Cangreja Waterfall, but didn’t this time. Much of the rest is like a smaller Yellowstone park with lots of thermal activity from the volcano (hot springs, bubbling mud, steam or smoke, and yellow rocks from the sulfur).
There is actually more to see and do on the hotel property than in the park, especially for the adventurer or the bird-watcher. And though I saw birds in both places, you see more on hotel property because it is more open and walking the farm roads is the best way to see and photograph birds. I saw 25-30 species, photographing most and got four new birds, “Lifers,” here: the Lesser Ground Cuckoo, White-fronted Parrot, Magpie Jay, and Western Wood Pewee. Very good for me! Plus I got two new butterfly species and some new snakes in their serpentarium.
“I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.”
