Free like a bird in San Gerardo de Dota

Buenos dias!

San Gerardo, a mountain village, is not the most turistic spot in Costa Rica. But it has an enormous variety of birds.
And it is very cold sometimes (especially when we arrived). Luckily we had a small electric fire in our room which we used all night and still I needed 4 blankets. This is also Costa Rica!

The lucky shot of our stay there was one of the Quetzal, the most beautiful bird I've seen in Costa Rica.

Some of the birds frequently seen there were the hummingbirds, woodpickers and the blue-gray tanager.

There was also a waterfall. The path leading to the waterfall was a tricky one!

In my next blog I'll be flying around in Tortuguero.

Ciao!

Marijke

Bahia Drake

Hello there!

Finally my blog about Bahia Drake. We've already been to San Gerardo de Dota and Tortuguero in the meantime. Hopefully I can still blog about it while I'm here.

So to reach Bahia Drake we took a boat transfer from Sierpe. And yes in Sierpe they know Belgium!

It was a 1 hour boat trip until we were dropped on the shore in front of our lodge.

Dropped together with the lettuce we were going to eat that evening.

A room with a view they say. In the river you could find a caiman. If you prefer something more bigger like a crocodile I advise you to go to the beach. (I saw a crocodile passing by 2 meters from the shore) I must say it was nice swimming there. Not crowded like in Manuel Antonio (I wonder why :) )

Next day we did a snorkling tour to Isla del Caño. The snorkling guide told us that this was the second best Costa Rican place to see seelife. The best place is an island near Columbia Coco island if I remember well (which is extremely expensive).

If we were lucky we could see some dolphins and maybe a whale… Never thought there suddenly would appear 2 big whales with their baby just 3 meters in front of our boat! Amazing!

I had just put my camera away so the pics I have are from a distance. Arrgghhhh!!!

There were also 3 divers in our boat who immediately jumped into the water. One of them gave me this video. Having this healed my dissappointment of not having a good picture.

Having lunch on the island. What’s wrong Joke?

We saw many colored fish. We even saw turtles! We went to the open see with the divers to see more but then it went completely wrong for Joke… The see too rough, the boat ride too bumpy… Luckily she could rest in the arms of our friendly guide J

And that’s how Joke’s first snorkling experience ended.

That evening I stayed in the restaurant internetting when Joke ran by in panic.

I had to come to our lodge immediately!

There was a lizard above her bed. Que problema!!!

Next day: San Pedrillo (Corcovado) national park with its waterfall

We didn’t see much that day. I think all the animals hid when they felt the guide’s enthusiasm that day…

A bird, can’t remember which one:

Though this wasn’t the most interesting tour I am glad I shot this one of the a mother spider monkey with her baby.

The guide told that a man from National Geographic spent 6 months in Corcovado just to shoot a couple of pics of the monkeys.

This was a nice bird, I think it’s a sort of heron but I’m not sure.

An escargot anyone?

And the waterfalls ofcourse. The highest waterfall:

And the smaller one, a little lower:

Who’d think that only 2 hours after this peaceful sunset a tropical storm would hit Drake bay.

For 6 hours rain poured down and the hugest lightning show kept us all awake during the night. The lodge’s owner had never seen a storm like that in 10 years time… and again I was lucky enough to witness it.

Good night y’all,

Marijke

 

Manuel Antonio - a tropical paradise

Buenas tardes,

Okay I promise in this blogpost there won't be rainy pics. I heard you have already seen enough rain in Belgium by now! (And I also promise I won't post a smiley here)

 

Before arriving in Manuel Antonio we made a quick stop at Playa Jaco. It’s also a surfer’s paradise.

Joke’s juice was far better than my salad, which literally just was salad! Luckily it only cost like 12 dollars …

Let's see what the sunny Manuel Antonio has to show you.

In the national park we came across an amazing variety of reptiles, mammals, reptiles…

This little lizard (should search for the specific name) was a hard one to find. Too bad I couldn’t get it completely sharp.

Find the sloth! We saw both the two-toed and three-toed.

 The cutest monkey I have ever seen, the squirrel monkey

Crabs with red legs

 

A fiery-billed aracari, very nice!

This is the Gaudy leaf frog, unfortunately sleeping and on the other side of the leaf…

Can you find this one?

 This is the boa constrictor hiding between logs of wood on the beach. Shot of the day, yes!!!

 The Jesus Christ lizard that can walk over water.

Manuel Antonio has 3 beaches, number 2 and 3 are inside the park, number 1 outside.

This is number 3

For those who don’t know how bananas grow. Nice detail, it takes 1,5 years to grow a banana!

As you can see Manuel Antonio has a huge variety of species. Next stop will be Drake bay with the Corcovado national park.

Hasta pronto,

Maria

Montellueve... huh Monteverde

From Arenal we drove to Monteverde. It was a bumpy ride and the weather switched to cloudy to misty and rainy... And that's how our stay in Monteverde was: rainy! But that's why it's called the rainforest I guess...

On our way we suddenly saw this sign in Santa Elena. The witnesses are everywhere, even in the mountains!

We caught this beautiful sunset in the evening:

The next day it wasn't raining in the morning luckily and so we did a hiking trip through the rainforest (with the hanging bridges). There was also a hummingbird garden (colibri) which had many different kinds of hummingbirds flying around. The sound of them flying around your ears is unbelievable, taking pictures was a challenge. They are incredibly fast and they hardly sit still!

Time to leave again... When we left Monteverde the scenery was amazing. At one side of the mountain we had the misty Monteverde and other mountain villages. At the other side of the mountain the sun showed up and we got to see the magnificent Arenal lake!

Up to Manuel Antonio and the sun!!!

Hasta pronto,

Maria