January 24, 2016

We are back in Okemos from our little jaunt to Costa Rica. Too much to write about, plus about a thousand pictures to process, for one installment. So this will just be a quick trip overview. More will follow.

The general itinerary was leaving dreary Okemos and flying to San Jose, Costa Rica. We met up with Stefan at the Miami airport. In San Jose Stefan rented a car and we took off for the Savegre hotel and nature reserve, about 60 miles south of San Jose. Sixty miles as the crow flies. More than 60 miles when going by poorly marked roads full of insane drivers. As Matt Ely once said, Latin American driving is essentially macadam based mayhem. Double yellow centerlines are apparently only a guideline, and not a no-passing rule. But with perseverance, determination, GPS, and no small amount of descriptive language, Stefan got us through. The Costa Rican road system is probably French designed.

Our driveway when we left.

Savegre is in the cloud forest area, up in the mountains at an elevation of about 7,200 feet. Quite cool in temperature but way above freezing and no snow. Cloud forest, open areas, trails, rivers, waterfalls, great birding and a good place for photography. Popular place for guys with really big lenses. I could only look in envy with my biggish lens. Lots of Asian and European tourists, including some incredibly rude French ones. At least they gave us someone to laugh at the whole trip.

Lise and Stefan on trail at Savegre

Savagre river in color.

Savagre river in black and white.

Green violet-eared Hummingbird.

Resplendent quetzal. Costa Rica’s national bird. Right above our room.

After Savegre we drove down to the coast near Uvita. Elevation somewhere around 10 feet. Very hot and humid system. Nothing quite as intense as near equatorial sun. OK, maybe French arrogance.

We stayed in a very nice vacation rental with a lot of jungle around it and quick access to the Pacific coast. There was a waterfall about a half mile hot and sweaty walk away. Lots of great birding, much of it right from our deck.

Lattice house, where we stayed.

View over the infinity pool at sunrise.

Waterfall on the property.

Stefan and Lise in waterfall

Green honeycreeper from the deck.

Great kiskadee from the deck.

Golden-crowned tanager from the deck.

Chesnut-billed toucan from the deck.

The house functioned as a base camp for a fair number of activities in the area. One activity was a horseback ride to Nauyaca Falls.

Ed riding a hay burner. (Meredith Strobel picture)

A monkey on along the trail.

Lise and Stefan at the upper falls. (Meredith Strobel picture)

Nuacaya Falls upper falls in color.

Nuacaya Falls upper falls in B&W.

Ed climbing the lower falls. (Meredith Strobel picture)

Ed jumping from the lower falls. (Meredith Strobel picture)

Only down side to that trip was Lise getting kicked by a horse. Actually another horse kicked her horse and caught her leg. I’m sure the other horse was trained by the French to be obnoxious. The horse incident didn’t really lay Lise up too badly and she still managed to get around. She and Stefan did a canopy tour on zip lines. And she could still get in hikes around the property.

Lise recouperating.

Hiking in the jungle.

Most to my liking was access to the beach. In Costa Rica the coast is pretty much open access. You just pull over where ever you can find a spot. People set up stalls selling drinks and other beach type of stuff. Lots of surfer types. Lots of ExPats hanging around. Everything kind of laid back. They call it Pura Vida. Something I could really get in to.

Lise and Stefan at the beach.

Ed at the beach. (Stefan Eichhorn picture)

Lifeguards hired by the locals for the beach they use. Most beaches are unguarded.

The lady in red managed the house we stayed in. She brought her kids and dog to the beach every day.

Selling refreshments.

Making an offering to the beach gods?

Sunset in color

Sunset in B & W.

Along the beach.

Along the beach.

Getting back home was interesting. Instead of trying to drive back to San Jose we took what amounted to a bush plane from the coast. They weighed you and your luggage. With a ton of camera and birding gear, plus a couple bottles of rum, we were about a hundred pounds overweight. There was an orange stick hanging off the tail of the airplane that I believe told them when the plane was at maximum capacity. As each person got in the stick got closer to the ground. Luckily we didn’t bottom it out and we sat right behind the pilot and copilot. But we made it to San Jose and eventually to Detroit via Miami. We got up about 6:00 AM Michigan time and got home 22 hours later at 3:00 AM Michigan time.