Blogs from Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 14

Quebrada Ganado Wednesday We took an early walk partway down to the macaw's nest, but no bird sightings. We passed an interesting fruit tree, probably a grapefruit. We returned by way of the river estuary. Many shore birds, and several guys fishing from shore. Many birds were swarming over one area of the ocean, with pelicans diving straight down into the water. The bigger fish (perhaps tuna) drive the smaller ones toward shore, and then the birds have a feast. Later in the morning we heard "caws" coming from the beach. We went down to their favorite tree by the beach (probably an almond). We saw two macaws, but couldn't get any good photos. This is beginning to become an obsession! Later when Bob was looking for some hotel reservations, I walked down there again, but ... read more

Quebrada Ganado Monday (We lost Internet for most of the day yesterday.) The people here are very friendly and helpful. Yesterday when we got into Quebrada Ganado, we needed groceries and a taxi. Bob talked to a young man on the corner who called a cab for us. As we were waiting for the cab with our bags by the grocery store, another young man asked if we needed help. The cab driver was also very helpful. At 6am today I heard the red macaw's "caw". Went outside to look and saw two fly over the swimming pool. I later saw two fly over the ocean. They have a very distinctive sound. Took some walks early in the morning before the heat set in. We walked along the beach, past a few shacks and tents with ... read more

Quebrada Ganado Sunday (The blog city is listed as Tarcoles, which is the closest place to Quebrada Ganado, where we currently are.) About 80 baby turtles were released to the sea last night about 8pm. We didn't see it, but were told by a hotel traveler. Would have been interesting. Today was a travel day. We caught the 8am bus this morning back to Paquera ($7 for two tickets). A monkey was at the bus stop again. It was fun to watch him going from tree to tree, but he was too fast for a good photo. The bus was about 15 minutes late, and we had a little delay for road construction, but we made all our connections. Lots of passengers got in an out in Cabano. We drove through Tambor, a fairly affluent town ... read more

Thursday Breakfast again on our deck. (Bob makes good coffee!) I noticed that the trees were full of large blue birds with black tufted feathers. I googled and found that they were white-throated magpie jays, 17 to 22 inches in length. The local name for them is "urraca". We left some bread on the railing for them. Also spotted a squirrel, called a variegated squirrel, very different from those at home. These are more orange in color, have a black back, and a bushy gray and black tail. Today we walked south along the ocean. Lots of rocks and fishing boats, beautiful scenery. We found the path for the waterfalls, a series of three. We got to the first one, a series of small cascades, very clear water. Our book says to follow the well-marked trails, ... read more

Tuesday Nice sunny morning, but very windy. We had our usual good breakfast here. I asked the host when the parakeets would be here in his tree, and he said they were there at 5am. Missed them! They may be back about 4pm, but sometimes they don't show up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Our original plan was to go to the Santa Elena Reserve, but since we were in Monteverde yesterday, we decided to pass on this one. This reserve is smaller than Monteverde. However, ten percent of the species here aren't found in Monteverde, which is on the other side of the continental divide. Spent the morning making online reservations for stops later in our trip. We had an easy, relaxed day today, but we did spend quite a bit of time walking around ... read more