Blogs from Limón, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 6

In the afternoon a few of our group trek down to the park entrance, don our hired wellies and set off along what turns out to be a VERY long path running parallel to the beach. We pass my geocache at one point and I show everyone the leaf cutter ants pointing the way. Despite being on our own without the spotting and ID skills of a guide we manage to see and identify quite a bit between us. Some of our group are really eagle eyed and we see both howler and white faced capuchin monkeys, two little lizards in a fight, land crabs, leaf cutter ants and two really beautiful red and black butterflies later identified as Pierella and a type of Helliconious - melpomene. But the most impressive bird we saw, thanks to ... read more

Trying to fall asleep in San Jose is a bit of a challenge to say the least. It's bad enough trying to outsmart your messed up body clock but when you add into the mix massively amplified music and incessant train honking it becomes nigh on impossible. It's therefore a bleary eyed group who meet in the hotel lobby at 8am, bags packed and ready to travel to Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast. After a short van ride to the coach station we stuff our main bags in the hold then try to find a seat on board. Half of us squeeze long legs into seats with enough leg room for a ten year old and the rest have to stand. We are taking the same road through the cloud forest and unfortunately after about half ... read more

How To Get There FROM SAN JOSE We tried to get the 10am direct bus from Gran Terminal del Caribe. We walked there from out hostel, queued up to get tickets and found the bus actually leaves from Terminal San Carlos. There were a few other people there who were in the same situation. One couple had been told the wrong terminal by their hotel and we relied on the Lonely Planet which is wrong. If you to get the direct bus go to Terminal San Carlos. We didn't have enough time to change bus stations and buy tickets for the direct bus and there are only 4 a day so we decided to go via Puerto Limon. This bus does leave from Gran Terminal del Caribe. You need to buy tickets from the offices behind ... read more

Dear Readers, Hot on the heels of my last update, thought I'd give you a flavour of some of the highlights from the first 3 days in March in Jalova (the location in the National Park where Base is located). 1 March: got up earlier than needed so I could spot birds in Base. Binos in hand wandered from the garden area, to the back of the kitchen and then back near the compost bins. Pretty good start to the day as managed to see (and identify no less) a Blue-gray Tanager, Common Tody Flycatcher and spotted the resident Clay Colored Robin (yes I know American spelling of colour but I am following how it's spelt in the bird book). That morning after breakfast there was no survey because Saturdays are the official 'day off' in ... read more

Dear All, Hope this finds you well and dandy. So what have I been up to in the last few weeks. A few volunteers left last month and we had a handful of new ones arrive - Kathrine, Benedict and Jessica. They love Ian's porridge but are undecided about getting stuck in the mud on monkey surveys....especially when they don't see any monkeys either. After a few days rest out of the jungle (when I last posted some pictures) we got back into the jungle and the interns (including me) were hit with a list of tasks to complete in addition to carrying out surveys and preparing ourselves to start to lead some surveys to! More of that later. In relation to animals and bird spotting, the new volunteers (and interns) were treated to a trip ... read more