In Pursuit of the Elusive Quetzal

---

In Pursuit of the Elusive Quetzal
Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Santa Elena By TicoTime
May 6th 2007

Bell Bird
One of the top two most sought after birds in all of Costa Rica (out of many hundreds), second only to the resplendent Quetzal. Its call reverberates through the jungle for a 1 mile radius and sounds... Wow, a lot sure has happened since May 4... Hope your seat belts are buckled.

First thing in the morning on Jenny´s birthday, she went to check out of our hotel (Casa Real in Liberia) before we went for Desayunos across the street, an Iguana jumped down off of a roof right in front of her. I heard her scream and jump back and saw the beast, about as long as your arm. Very cool, and Jenny even liked it once she caught her breath.

After huevos rancheros and drinks, we hustled off to the bus depot, just making it there barely 4 minutes early. Alas, the bus driver was on Tico Time and had left early. Luckily, an enterprising young man named Oscar came to the rescue with bus times, fares and then -- once I relented and figured it wasn´t a scam -- a ride to Cañas in his old (front wheel drive, even) Subaru. Along the way he treated us to Spanish lessons and cultural/local insights. He said that next time we´re in the area not to stay at a hotel, because he´d cook for us at his apartment where we were welcome to stay.

Momota
Jenny spotted this from far off (Tjerk and Lise would be proud) and David quickly hunted it as it was moving around. He settled on a fence post, while waiting for us to leave before he went home. He...
From Cañas, we were off to Tilran to wait for the next autobus bound for Monteverde/Santa Elena. This is where the fun begins, as Han Solo says. This ageing Volvo bus doubled as local cargo transport, school bus and gringo transport. Boy did they pack that to the gills. We were in the front seat, which meant that not only did Jenny have the gringo backpacks essentially in her lap, but the engine was taking our leg room and making an absurd amount of heat and noise. But it was well worth it, as we were allowed a glimpse into the daily lives of these wonderful people.

It appeared that the drivers knew the people quite well, and they had some genuine camraderie with the passengers; many of whom were primary school children. At one point, a wheathered old lady got off, only to reappear from her roadside house (shack, really) with a different bag and frosty cold water. Must have been running errands. Later on another elderly woman got on with a chicken in a box, only to get off about 5 stops later.

This gruelling trip was an everyday occurrence for the locals, where it took
St. Elena Reserve
The clouds were decidedly absent but the weather was pristine. This forest is younger than Monty. Amazing what nature can do in such a short span of time, so long as we let it.about four hours to go 39 km through the mountains on a rough mountainside road. It was not an issue that the spedometer didn´t work, as the road didn´t allow for more than 30 km/hr or so. There were amazing views of the rolling green hills with terraced coffee plantations and grazing cattle, and villas randomly sprinkled about. Jaw dropping, for sure. When I wasn´t watching that over my right shoulder, I was keeping an eye toward the left where the driver was avoiding potholes by driving on the left side of the road... even if it was a left handed uphill corner. At one point, we even had a bit of a race with an old man on horseback, and boy was he ever winning for a while... as we would pass once, then stop and along he´d trot. We swapped leads about 4 or 5 times. When the driver wasn´t in the middle of conversation with his friends, it all seemed very safe.

When we got to Santa Elena, we settled in at the Pension Colibri for a very reasonable 23,000 colones for two days. The room was kind of what you´d expect at a cottage, with
Gadzooks!
Jenny took this. From very close. That is David´s hand in the frame. He proceeded to poke it with a twig, for fun, and to scare the girls. I liked him.wood panelling and floors. The tiled shower was as huge as it was clean, with quite a surprising showerhead. Electric, with exposed wires. Too bad it didn´t get hot though. There was even a swan-shaped folded towel on the bed. In the courtyard and on our private balcony there were colourful flowers as decoration. Even some friendly kittys who liked the catnip in the organic bug spray mom got us.

We booked a tour at Reserva Santa Elena, with transport to and from, for a mere 1000 colones each way/per person and $18US each at student rate (paid colones but can´t remember how many). This was well worth it.

As soon as we got there, literally even before registering, we saw a hand sized male tarantula! This is rare, as he would have been far from his den and was out in the day time. Then we were greeted by Carlitos, the park mascot, a collard-peccary or javalena. He thinks he´s a dog, because his mother was shot and he was raised/suckled by a dog. Pig on the outside, dog inside. Very funny.

Our guide, David (Dah-veed), was an amazing host. Having been a guide for 10
Waiting for the first jeep of the day
I figured I´d lounge in the hammock while waiting for the jeep-taxi and the kitty liked my organic bugspray (or the catnip in it) and came to hang out. You see, I do allow pictures Mom, just none of ... years, and growing up in the region, he knew everything, or nearly so. He went to a Quaker school as a child, and thus spoke English fluently. Straight away, David explained that at this time, we were unlikely to see a lot of animals, as the fruit was in the lower laying regions because of recent weather. So they naturally migrated to that. But he was very good at filling the tour with glimpses of the miniscule flowers of the jungle, amazing facts of strangler figs, and even led us to see a much sought-after Bell Bird through his Swarvoski (sp?) crystal spotting scope. Neat. All the while, he was trying to get to one of the couple resplendant quetzals (ket-sahls) he could hear, and was calling all along. With his acute hearing, he´d stop mid-sentence sometimes, whistle, and move off... but alas, no quetzals would show themselves. His keen eye spotted a sleeping Blue Morpho butterfly, which looks like bark with its wings closed. And therein lies the difference between moths and butterflies; upon landing, moths spread their wings, and butterflies close them. Cool. We even saw hummingbird nests, which are tiny. No clouds in the cloud forrest that
Hot shower, anyone?
I wonder how this would fare with our electrical codes back home... Nathan?day, too warm, but still very, very cool. The whole thing grew from nothing after it was clearcut in the late 1970s. Amazing.

When we finished, he pointed Jenny and I toward a short trail we´d like since we didn´t want to go back to town so soon. The highlight was definitely climbing an observation tower and being above the canopy when clouds rolled over from the opposite mountain range. We also agreed to go on a twilight tour with him (and an American, Emily, from D.C.) on his family preserve, Hidden Valley, later in the evening. This was a good choice, as it was two tours for less than the price of one. We went birding at dusk, and then on a night tour at the preserve later on. I´ll leave it to Jenny to fill in the details of the animals, as her memory is better with that than mine. I really liked that he showed us a relative of pepper (called a candle holder) that is a natural mosquito repellent. The spot we were watching for Toucanettes had a pig farm down yonder, and boy do those hogs squeal like the dickens.

I would --
Active, and 6km away.
Typically ensconsed in clouds, this is a rare sight peoples. Enjoy. Hopefully we get it clear like so when we do the hike to see red hot mag-ma!and will -- recommend David and his services to anyone, as he was most helpful and interested in the subjects at hand. We must have glazed over so much on our solo walk, without his eyes and ears to guide us. There really is just so much, it´s like sensory overload in the jungle. Ahem. Montane forrest

For David´s freelance tour (that´s how he rolls actually, totally freelance) it was a mere 15,500 colones for the two of us, so I paid an even 16k. Much less than the other tours, and even cheaper than lodgings some places. The interesting thing about that was that the American girl Emily couldn´t pay at the day tour because her friend left due to nausea and had the cash. So she was going to pay at the night tour. But she realized after getting home that she accidentally way over paid. So she called David and he came over right away to give it back. What a guy. And he didn´t even charge for the dinner recommendation, or the insight about the other parks. He was just happy to share what he knew.

Today, at David´s recommendation of course, we took a jeep-boat-jeep trip to La Fortuna to avoid going back to Tilran on the bus before coming here. In all it saved at least 5 hours, and only cost about $20 US each, through the tourist info centre in Santa Elena. Cheaper than what the hotel was offering too.

On the way to San Carlos (on one side of Laguna Arenal) our driver spotted a pair of howler monkeys in the trees along the roadside. After hearing the beasts through two days in the jungle, it was a bit anticlimactic to see them like that but boy did they put on a show. An adults-only show, if you catch the drift, though short-lived... I snapped a half dozen frames (everyone else took a shot too) and we were off. After a short hour and a half, we were at the lake where they flooded the former Arenal town for the hydro-dam to get on our boat. While crossing we saw 3 or 4 white herons on the shore. I read there´s bass in the lake too. They must like the flooded houses to swim around in.

La Fortuna is nice, full of businesses and construction but still very Tico in vibe. We had pizza for dinner at Pizzarrea Cubanos, a small pizza is the size of a large and costs us 2800 colones ($6.50 CAN). Such good sauce... mama mia!

Here in Fortuna we are staying at La Choza for a very reasonable 20,800 for two nights ($20 US) in a room with private hot water shower (no electric works here) in a bright room with a double and single bed. There´s even a desk and coffee maker. Bueno.

Tomorrow we go to the scenic Rio Celeste where there´s an azure blue river that came highly recommended by David. The next day that we will try the night hike up Volcán Arénal to see red-hot MAG-MA spewing out the mouth of the crater. From our door it really is a magnificient sight. Jenny woke me up from my nap to see it as the clouds had parted. Of course, that was after it was too late too book a tour up, but oh well. Tomorrow maybe.

The other big draw here are, of course, the hot springs that are fed by the volcano. The tour up to it includes admissions to either and we can´t wait to take advantage of that. I´ve never had a massage and fully intend to have one after soaking in one the hot springs´ (actually, I´ve never even done that before!!) many pools. If we really like it here, we´ll stay another day and do a horseback tour to a highly recommended (LP guide) waterfall.

I´m going to turn it over to Jenny and we´ll upload photos tonight as Internet access is included in the price of the room here so we have a bit of time.

Cheers!

Buenos Noches!

Well, I guess it is up to me to fill you on the ypes of birds we saw last night. Ok, we saw parrots, Momotas (Nicuragua´s national bird) which have blue heads and other beautiful colours and actually live in holes in banks. We saw tucanettes and brown bellied jays, a type of warbler and black vultures. We also heard Costa Rica´s national bird which is a type of grey robin but I do not remember what it is called. It does sound very pretty though.

The night tour was kinda fun in a creepy sort of sense. A few steps in I spotted out first turantula. I also spotted the second turantula which is the second most poisonus turantula. I can´t remember the name....but I got close and took a picture. We saw an itty bitty cute little frog and a sleeping momota. It was all and all a great time!!!

Today I had a bit of a tummy ache and took it easy once we arrive here in La Fortuna. I feel better now after naping. I think tomorrow we go to Rio Celeste for some hiking, swimming and hot springs. 5am wake up it is!!!

Hugs for all and my brain is tired!!! =)

Jenny

---

Photos

Bell Bird
One of the top two most sought after birds in all of Costa Rica (out of many hundreds), second only to the resplendent Quetzal. Its call reverberates through the jungle for a 1 mile radius and sounds sort of like a bell.

Momota
Jenny spotted this from far off (Tjerk and Lise would be proud) and David quickly hunted it as it was moving around. He settled on a fence post, while waiting for us to leave before he went home. He ate the larvae and then had a frog next time we looked. We took too long and eventually saw him go into his home, right in a hole in the dirt along the roadside.

St. Elena Reserve
The clouds were decidedly absent but the weather was pristine. This forest is younger than Monty. Amazing what nature can do in such a short span of time, so long as we let it.

Gadzooks!
Jenny took this. From very close. That is David´s hand in the frame. He proceeded to poke it with a twig, for fun, and to scare the girls. I liked him.

Waiting for the first jeep of the day
I figured I´d lounge in the hammock while waiting for the jeep-taxi and the kitty liked my organic bugspray (or the catnip in it) and came to hang out. You see, I do allow pictures Mom, just none of those firing squad ones. Take notes.

Hot shower, anyone?
I wonder how this would fare with our electrical codes back home... Nathan?

Active, and 6km away.
Typically ensconsed in clouds, this is a rare sight peoples. Enjoy. Hopefully we get it clear like so when we do the hike to see red hot mag-ma!

Comments

[Monty]

That shower head is a beauty! Don't worry about the code issues, you need to find out if there is a patent on that sucker. It sounds like you've really been getting your money's worth down there in both scenery and dollar value. Here in Calgary we had 20 degree weather and then snow and then hot and now it's cloudy and will probably rain. It's fun to watch everyone here complain about the weather but maybe not as good as exotic food and fauna. Thanks for the pictures and commentary.

[Dean]

Momota
How did you take that shot man? With the circled frame? That's a great shot!