Month: April 2024

We had no plans for today, Friday, but we still woke up near sunrise, hearing birds and howler monkeys. Before breakfast, we walked out to the road to see what birds might be there. Then about 7:30am, we went to the breakfast buffet for a satisfying breakfast that included lots of fresh fruit, pastries and gallo pinto. We spent the morning and much of the afternoon lounging around, either on our second floor deck, next to the river, or near the dining room, finding a few new species of birds too. Chilamate has been a great place for birds.

In late morning there was a downpour that lasted maybe 15-20 minutes, with water streamed off the corrugated metal roofs of the buildings and walkways,

As an aside for insect lovers, there are a few pathways for leaf-cutter ants on the grounds at Chilamate. Here’s one of them:

Before dinner we went to the bar to get a bottle of Imperial beer for each of us, the Costa Rican national beer. Then we helped ourselves to another delicious buffet dinner that included two salads, chicken and fish, rice, vegetables, beans and very sweet pineapple for dessert.

As we walked back to our room, we could hear something calling from the forest that we hadn’t heard before. When we asked the Merlin app to analyze the sound, it told us it was a Crested Owl, which was exciting for us. Then we returned to the room and noticed it was noticeably hotter and/or more humid suddenly, which was similar to what we had experienced last night before it poured down rain. It will be interesting to see if it rains overnight.

Yesterday, Thursday, Stephanie and I were up before sunrise again after a very warm and humid night. We ran our two room fans all night, blowing directly on us, to be able to sleep. We could hear some distant howler monkeys and nearby birds upon waking.

We had scheduled a bird walk to start at 6am, before breakfast, so we got dressed, geared up with binoculars, cameras and water, then walked to the reception area of the lodge to meet our guide. He was an older gentleman named Jaime, a native of Sarapiquí. We began our walk together on the retreat grounds, then next to the river and on a dirt road that led to a rural residential area. Jaime was a wonderful guide whose English was very good and his knowledge of birds, other animals, and the area was extensive. Over the next two hours, we saw 47 bird species and learned a lot about natural things in the area. All of it was accomplished at a very slow, leisurely pace in the 80+ degree heat and humidity. After we returned to Chilamate grounds, Stephanie and I ate breakfast from the buffet. Jaime, who had stayed around on the grounds while we ate, then showed us where he had found some small white bats sleeping under a large leaf, which was very interesting to see. He also explained about the tiny, colorful poison dart frogs that are plentiful on the grounds of Chilamate. They’re poisonous to eat or lick, but not to touch.

Stephanie and I spent the afternoon on the deck outside our room, looking at birds, horses in the adjacent field, and taking short walks around the ground. In the afternoon it reached more than 85 degrees and very high humidity under partly cloudy skies. When there wasn’t a breeze it was very hot. My phone’s weather app said it felt like 100 degrees due to the humidity and I’d agree. Chilamate doesn’t serve lunch and there aren’t other restaurants within a short walking distance, so instead we snacked on cookies, fruit and chocolates that we had on hand.

After a 6:30 dinner, we met our second guide of the day, Jon, who took us on a night walk through the trails on the grounds of Chilamate. He is a young herpetologist who is very enthusiastic about snakes, lizards and such. He walked up to meet us with a very slender long brown snake. Great way to immediately grab our attention. It wasn’t a poisonous but both of us declined his invitation to hold it. Thankfully, we didn’t see any other snakes during our walk through the jungle. We did see two different species of opossums, many lizards, spiders and frogs, a mouse balancing on fence wire, and bullet ants which can sting very painfully. We also heard two different calls of a Great Potoo, a nocturnal bird, which were very cool to hear. But it was so hot and humid during the walk, I was mostly thinking of how nice a cold shower would be. We finished the interesting and enjoyable walk after two hours.

In our room afterwards, we showered and went to bed. Moments later, it started to pour rain on our metal roof and the rain continued for much of the night. We were so lucky that it had held off until after our walks!

Today, Wednesday, Stephanie and I traveled to a lower altitude location on the Caribbean side of the country, from Bosque de Paz at 4700 feet to Sarapiquí at 223 feet. It got a lot warmer and more humid in about 2 hours of travel.

We started the day early again, walking in the forest at Bosque de Paz before enjoying our last breakfast there at 7:30am. I took a few photos, one of the ever present clouds and others from our breakfast table that looked out over the hummingbird feeders and grounds.

Our driver came to pick us up at 10. It was Rolando, who had brought us to San Gerardo de Dota on the second day of the trip. As he drove, we talked to him in Spanish again. He stopped along the road in a couple of places so we could get out and look at the birds, plus we stopped for lunch at a “soda”, a restaurant that serves traditional Costa Rican food. We arrived at Chilamate Rainforest Eco Retreat about 12:30pm.

Right away, we knew it would be different than our previous places. We had to drive over a one-lane bridge topped with wooden planks, then walk through and take our luggage through a horse pasture. Rolando carried our suitcases. At the reception desk after the staff member confirmed we had a reservation, Rolando said goodbye.

Our room is on the second floor of one of the many different buildings and it overlooks the horse pasture. We have two fans going in the room, no A/C. The grounds are right next to the Sarapiquí River and the restaurant is outdoors, under a roof. But there are lots of birds, which we confirmed during a couple of walks around the grounds.

I think staying here will be a new adventure.

It rained most of the night last night and continued this morning. After donning our rain gear, we met the lodge’s birding guide, Mario, at 5:45am. We had requested a guided walk on the trails of Bosque de Paz because someone familiar with the calls and locations of local birds can enable us to see so many more.

Mario’s English skill wasn’t strong, so we switched to Spanish early in the walk and communicated better. Over the next 2.5 hours we walked the trails through primary (never previously cut) and secondary cloud forest in the rain, seeing and hearing quite a lot. Early on, we were lucky to see a group of white-faced monkeys high in the trees, which was exciting. (We had heard a distant group of howler monkeys yesterday morning.) But the birding was challenging because the foliage is so thick and the overcast sky didn’t provide much light. Mario could hear much more than we saw. It was too dark and wet to take any photos. Nevertheless, it was fun to be out with him.

We returned about 8:15 and went straight in for breakfast. The food was similar to yesterday’s: scrambled eggs, gallo pinto, fresh fruit and also one slice of French toast with freshly made fruit juice. As we ate we watched hummingbirds at the feeders in front of the restaurant windows and a coati eating corn that had been scattered on the grass by the staff.

After breakfast we collected a bag of our dirty clothes for their laundry service and a staff member brought them back clean, dry and folded about 3 hours later. It’s too humid here for hand-washed clothes to dry in the room, so we were happy they offered the service.

Lunch was a pork chop in a tomato, onion and mushroom sauce, rice, beans, green salad and pineapple ice cream with blackberry syrup. We vegged out in the room for a while and then went for a walk around the grounds, including their extensive orchid garden. But the orchids weren’t in bloom yet; they’ll start blooming later in April and in May.

As we were returning to our room, we saw Mario looking at something. He motioned us over and pointed to a faraway tree, saying there were howler monkeys in it. He got out a spotting scope so we could see them better, but even then they were just black round blobs in the tree. Evidently they were eating and they soon moved away. Then Mario took us out the driveway gate onto the road to look for birds. We didn’t see any, but we took advantage of the opportunity and took a picture of him in front of the reserve’s sign.

About 30 minutes before dinner, we sat outside in front of the restaurant, with bottles of Imperial beer in hand (a Costa Rican beer), looking for the Black and White Owl to return to perch in the tree where he was last night. He didn’t show up, but we enjoyed the darkening skies and the fireflies as we drank beer.

Our final dinner at Bosque de Paz was baked chicken, rice, cauliflower and broccoli in white sauce and a cake roll for dessert. Afterwards we went outside to look at the moths and bugs that were attracted to a white sheet lit up by a black light as well as the regular exterior lights. We saw two beautiful brown moths that were huge, about 5 inches across! Stephanie took pictures of many of them.

It was a cool and quiet night last night, which permitted a good night’s sleep for both Stephanie and I. The low temperature was perhaps in the high 50s, humidity about 85 percent, and we only heard frogs all night. All outside lights are turned off on all Bosque de Paz buildings at 9pm every night so to not disturb the wildlife.

This morning, we awoke very early again and each indulged in very nice hot showers. We took a walk on a short trail before our 7:30am breakfast and saw a coati (animal) near the restaurant that was following the staff around as they walked around outside. They had named her Lolita and as one staff member took the hummingbird feeders down to refill, she followed him and he let her lick the sugar water from the feeder. It was cute.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs, gallo pinto, little round toasts, fresh fruit and fresh tropical fruit juice. We decided to walk a couple of the trails around the lodge today and go with the birding guide tomorrow. So after breakfast we gathered our binoculars, cameras and rain coats, then chose a trail from the map they provided. It was raining a little and windy, but walking in the forest kept us fairly dry.

We saw several new birds and a hummingbird nest hidden under a banana leaf with two babies in it. Cicadas were singing and so were the birds. It was a very pleasant and relaxing walk on a very nice trail, although a tree had fallen over it at one point so we had to double back instead of completing the loop.

We returned for lunch at 12:30, and saw that a tour group of 12 people had arrived. The reserve owners, Señor Gonzalez and his wife, also ate lunch in the restaurant after greeting all the guests. After lunch, we chose another trail to explore, walking for around an hour. Then we returned to the room to read and relax.

After it got dark at 6pm, we walked in front of the restaurant and found Mario the birding guide. He was excited to show us the Black and White Owl perched high in a tree overhead. It evidently perches there often at sunset, but hadn’t been there last night. It was a beautiful bird and we got good looks through our binoculars. Fireflies were out again too.

Dinner was fish with really good tartar sauce, carrot and broccoli soup, mashed squash, herbed zucchini and a molded pudding for dessert. It was a relaxed and satisfying day.