birdmeister
Well-known member
Hello all,
I've just come back from one of the trips of my lifetime and I'd like to share a bit of how it went.
I travelled to Costa Rica with six other students and a professor from my university as part of a Field Biology course. We covered a marvelous range of habitats during our journey, which I will go into more detail on later. My final bird species tally was 233, somewhat light but good for me considering this was not a dedicated birding trip and it was my first visit to the tropics! Trip birds are marked in bold. Lifers are in red, and the few heard-only birds that I included are in their own category of green.
Consider yourself forewarned that this is not a typical trip report. I will give some logistical details, but precise location directions should not be necessary given the well-known places we explored. In addition, I'm quite sure that very few BF members will be taking a Field Biology trip anytime soon! Nevertheless, I'll start with some general information and notes.
Many people mention their trip cost. My situation was rather unique in that my fee was for the trip altogether, so I simply don't know the exact numbers of many expenses! I will say, though, that Costa Rica was moderately expensive for the most part.
At no point during the trip did I have any real fear of theft or danger. I had already been warned to be careful of pickpockets in San Jose (the capital) and still had no trouble.
Lodging proved to be highly variable but always manageable. Our hotel in San Jose was fine in every way. The CIEE field station just below the Monteverde cloud forest had some decent cabins to stay in. These had only a few critters, some hot water, and clean rooms. Palo Verde National Park was among the more rustic destinations, with simple rooms that had one window and no air conditioning. This was a small inconvenience due to the HOT temperatures, but really it wasn't that bad. Bathrooms and showers were separate and simple, and we were told to watch for scorpions in every room. We were all reveling in the luxury of the famous Arenal Observatory Lodge, with its scorpion-shaped towels, high-quality showers, and impeccable neatness! Not counting the last night in the same San Jose hotel, our final stop was at the OTS station at La Selva. Here, again, was no air conditioning, but the bigger issue was the humidity. As a result, any wet clothing never truly dried and both rooms smelled somewhat of sewage (!). The bathrooms were again simple, with cold showers being the staple. Thankfully, we never had any serious problems with our nightly lodging.
We had guides in almost all locations, but only two or three proved to be very good with bird ID. More on these in the report, though, since some were excellent.
The weather was also worth mentioning. Although I'll go into more detail in each entry, for the most part the weather was unexpectedly dry and pleasant! This carried a slightly unsettled note at Monteverde, where we were told that the number of dry days is increasing dramatically in the cloud forest. Many locations were quite breezy, save for La Selva.
My camera was rather low-key, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 with no special lenses. As a result, most pictures are not much to write home about but provide a bit of enrichment.
I will mention as many non-birds as possible, including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and a splash of insects and arthropods. All of these will be in blue.
Of course I will be happy to provide more information if people wish!
Here goes...
I've just come back from one of the trips of my lifetime and I'd like to share a bit of how it went.
I travelled to Costa Rica with six other students and a professor from my university as part of a Field Biology course. We covered a marvelous range of habitats during our journey, which I will go into more detail on later. My final bird species tally was 233, somewhat light but good for me considering this was not a dedicated birding trip and it was my first visit to the tropics! Trip birds are marked in bold. Lifers are in red, and the few heard-only birds that I included are in their own category of green.
Consider yourself forewarned that this is not a typical trip report. I will give some logistical details, but precise location directions should not be necessary given the well-known places we explored. In addition, I'm quite sure that very few BF members will be taking a Field Biology trip anytime soon! Nevertheless, I'll start with some general information and notes.
Many people mention their trip cost. My situation was rather unique in that my fee was for the trip altogether, so I simply don't know the exact numbers of many expenses! I will say, though, that Costa Rica was moderately expensive for the most part.
At no point during the trip did I have any real fear of theft or danger. I had already been warned to be careful of pickpockets in San Jose (the capital) and still had no trouble.
Lodging proved to be highly variable but always manageable. Our hotel in San Jose was fine in every way. The CIEE field station just below the Monteverde cloud forest had some decent cabins to stay in. These had only a few critters, some hot water, and clean rooms. Palo Verde National Park was among the more rustic destinations, with simple rooms that had one window and no air conditioning. This was a small inconvenience due to the HOT temperatures, but really it wasn't that bad. Bathrooms and showers were separate and simple, and we were told to watch for scorpions in every room. We were all reveling in the luxury of the famous Arenal Observatory Lodge, with its scorpion-shaped towels, high-quality showers, and impeccable neatness! Not counting the last night in the same San Jose hotel, our final stop was at the OTS station at La Selva. Here, again, was no air conditioning, but the bigger issue was the humidity. As a result, any wet clothing never truly dried and both rooms smelled somewhat of sewage (!). The bathrooms were again simple, with cold showers being the staple. Thankfully, we never had any serious problems with our nightly lodging.
We had guides in almost all locations, but only two or three proved to be very good with bird ID. More on these in the report, though, since some were excellent.
The weather was also worth mentioning. Although I'll go into more detail in each entry, for the most part the weather was unexpectedly dry and pleasant! This carried a slightly unsettled note at Monteverde, where we were told that the number of dry days is increasing dramatically in the cloud forest. Many locations were quite breezy, save for La Selva.
My camera was rather low-key, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 with no special lenses. As a result, most pictures are not much to write home about but provide a bit of enrichment.
I will mention as many non-birds as possible, including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and a splash of insects and arthropods. All of these will be in blue.
Of course I will be happy to provide more information if people wish!
Here goes...
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