Best of Costa Rica with Llama Travel Part II

It poured with rain at the dock when we arrived to meet Ricardo and Carlos.  It meant I wore my new poncho for the first and only time of the trip.  It had been very useful protecting my camera from the spray on the boat.  We made it to the minibuses and made our way to a banana plantation then to our lunch stop, which was where we had breakfast on the way down.  Pam and Chris had upgraded so were dropped off at another restaurant.  We were lucky to see the resident sloths at our place - a two-toed and a three-toed sloth with baby on the same tree.  Apparently rare to see the two-toed and there were two of them here.  I concentrated on the two sloths on one tree.

As it was Saturday it was maintenance work on the plantation

Ricardo explaining banana production.  Three stages on righthand pic

A bit blurry - taken from the minibus

The sloth with baby - grey is the 3 toed.

Mango stall snapped from the bus

Brahman cattle

Supermarket

Coconut stall

Thrush type bird at the Arenal Manoa hotel grounds id by Lynn, a birder I met doing conservation work as a clay coloured thrush

Arenal Manoa is a beautiful hotel with rooms set in extensive grounds.  Lots of opportunities for birdwatching.  Avril, Judy and I ate at the bar by the hot springs pool and were joined by Sue then Bill and Barbara.  An early night and woken by the howler monkeys just after 5 am.  Spent a couple of hours walking around the grounds and taking photos before breakfast.

Great Kisakadee with nesting material

Rufous collared sparrow

Birds on the wire - id by Lynn who thinks they are Buff throated or possibly, Black headed saltators

This hummingbird was singing his heart out and did not seem to worry about me

A finch of some sort

Posing hummingbird

This grey speckled bird was by my room but difficult to get a better photo - Barred Antshrike

I watched the kingfisher fishing but failed to get him coming out of the water.  Amazon kingfisher, I think

Mainly because I was distracted by the iguana in the tree

Another few birds to id.

We were collected by Ricardo and Carlos and taken into La Fortuna for lunch and a walk around before going on to Arenal Volcano and a short walk.

Turkey Vulture

Inside of the church

Shopfronts

Female coati group at the roadside as they have learnt they are fed by passing locals

Ricardo giving us info on the volcano and walk

Arenal volcano

Volcanic rock

Male coati in the forest - usually solitary

Great curassow, there were three of them in the paths - all female

We went on to the Arenal hot springs and chilled out.  Then had a large buffet dinner before returning to the hotel where I was greeted with this turn down service.

More howler monkey action the next morning so more photos before we were taken to Monteverde.

Looks like trees but there is a little yellow bird in this pic, might be a prothonotary warbler - click on it to make it larger

Not a sharp one of these doves but had to put them on the blog

Laughing Falcon eating a snake.  Had I moved around to the right I could have lost the wire

smaller flycatcher

Tried to photo the cattle egret flying in - failed and then saw the Brahman cattle had moved into the field

One of the four squirrel species in Costa Rica

Leaf cutter ants

David pointed out the hummingbird nest and she flew in as I was watching

We had a lovely drive to Monteverde, stopping after an hour at a cafe which claimed to have really good coffee but no barista machine - luckily I had stocked up on caffeine (even if it wasn't an espresso) at breakfast.  The scenery on the ride was like UK with palm trees - quote from Bill or Chris.  Unfortunately, I didn't manage to record the scenes.

Saw a few cowboys on the drive

Arenal lake

Before we arrived at our hotel El Establio, we stopped off for a walk over some hanging bridges.

A couple on the zip wire seen from the walk

Blue-Crowned Trogon

Apparently hummingbirds like this fruit

Tree creeper

Another couple of birds to id

Arrived at El Establio after stopping at St Elena for lunch.   Set in grounds on a very steep hill so shuttles were needed to get to our rooms.  I thought the large room with huge bathroom and a desk for the computer was lovely but there were a few complainers in the second group who thought it was basic!  Apparently they needed a wardrobe and the mini bar to be stocked!!!!  I was more interested in the beautiful view we had and the opportunities to see more wildlife.  I went on a short walk up towards the trail.

I saw a couple of coatis on the walk

This is a black guan spotted by the guide who was with a group of Americans on the trail

The hotel had some hummingbird feeders so spent some time to try and get images - failed.  These are four out of six I saw.  Ruby throated hummingbird on the left flying in.

Evening view from my room

The next morning we were up early and taken down to breakfast by Ricardo and Carlos then went on to walk through the St Elena reserve.

Morning view from my room

In the forest

Bare-shanked screech owl is the round object in the pic

Climbed a tall tower and persuaded up the steep ladder a the top to see Arenal volcano.  Other images were the bromeliads, orchids and some sort of fuchsia flower

Hummingbird taken from a distance

Butterfly

Looking up

Tree snake which nearly fell on the cashier in the gift shop

Freed by Mario from the other bus - spot the flicking tounge

A beetle

We had the afternoon free before our night walk excursion.  I walked more of the trails but forgot my map so didn't get right up to the top.  A few images from my walk below.  I did see a blue crowned Mot Mot but not a good photo.  I spotted one later which makes it into the blog.

Met a couple of Americans at the hummingbird feeders where I met Sue and they showed us beautiful images of a pair of Resplendent Quetzels which were making a nest at the Monteverde reserve.  We went there for our night walk and saw the location but no sign of them roosting.

I took my shorter lens for this excursion which was a mistake for the hummingbirds, of which there were many.  It was getting dark so the photos are a record.

Hummingbirds

Underwoods Rainfrog

Three wolf spiders

Common Rainfrog

A cricket

We saw a tinamou roosting but could not get a pic.  Ricardo offered us an extra excursion early the next morning.  The Resplendent Quetzel had been seen at 06.30 am in the carpark of the reserve.  A few of us got up early and spent half an hour looking at every bird but the Quetzel.  We saw the Blue-crowned Mot Mot but the photo below was the one I saw at the tour desk at El Establio just after breakfast.

Blue-crowned Mot Mot

There were feeders at the tour desk and we had a chance to view more birds while the groups were checking out.

Red legged honeycreeper

Thick billed euphonia- id by Lynn

Then it was back to San Jose.  We stopped off to see the view of our hotel from the road just out of St Elena.  We stopped off by the Pacific to view the sea and then a stop for lunch before returning to hotel Tryp.

El Establio is in the square

There is a bird in this pic - white throated jay

Parrot

At the coast

Barbara and Sue with images of the sea each side - I was playing

Artist at our lunch stop

The second group left us after the lunch stop to go on to Manuel Antonio.  Chris and Pam and Barbara and Bill were going their separate ways to Manuel Antionio.  I have heard from Bill that unfortunately Barbara had an accident and ended up in hospital so their trip was curtailed and they missed their break in New York.  Best wishes for speedy recovery, Barbara.

That is the end of a wonderful trip.  Very well organised by Llama Travel and Swiss Travel.