Bougainvillea to La Selva (OMG Tropical Paradise!)

 We had planned to go through both photos describing the day and the ones of birds each day, sorting and identifying the birds and posting both ones new to us and generally great shots as well. But that blew up today, as we made over 500 photos today and then had to go to both dinner and a group meeting. It will take us days and not hours to make sense of today. So, we'll try to tell and illustrate the story of the journey. and post a few of the most interesting bird photos. The rest will come when we have hours and days back home!

Meanwhile, we are hoping that lots of our cycling audience are actually following this expedition. Here in (rather lame) Blogspot you can still leave comments - just need to look for the thing to click. Let us know you are out there. We find this thing to be as tough or tougher than a cycle tour, and any moral support would be most welcome!

We began at 5:45 a.m. at Bougainvillea. 5:45 is the magic time, because it's when the light arrives. The extensive grounds of the hotel are nevertheless becoming a bit familiar, and we circled it again with the very effective guide Alex. And indeed, we came up with some things that were new, especially some decent shots of the owls.

Mottled Owl

Two of them!

The grounds had beautiful things other than birds - butterflies, trees and flowers!
 

The group is becoming fairly cohesive, politely supporting each other on the walks.

Bougainvillea is located not too far from San Jose, about 1200 m above the Pacific. It is separated from the Caribbean by the continental divide - the extension of the same mountains that exist in Canada/US and in South America. Our agenda for today was to climb that central ridge of the country (in the bus!!) and to descend all the way to basically sea level on the Caribbean side. In doing this we would pass through the cloud forest that exists at the higher altitudes and then descend to tropical lowlands. Although Costa Rica is small, the combination of the prevailing winds from the north east and the various mountains (and over 60 active and dormant volcanoes) creates dozens of eco zones. It is just like the island of Hawaii in that respect.

Over the hump and down!

The road to the top was again narrow and winding, with no shoulder.  And it did not just climb. Rather, there are numerous streams flowing off the mountains forming ravines, and the road would circle down and then up these. We have to be done with wondering if we could cycle here. The jury has not only returned and given its verdict on this, it is home sitting in the easy chair!

Without this van we have no hope.

The Pacific slope is a major coffee growing region. Birders and ecologists generally can be dismayed by monocultures like this, that also include pineapple, oil palm, and sugar cane, but sometimes they form habitat for certain birds. We stopped at several coffee plantations, and also along the road, looking for birds.

Lots of coffee

There seemed to be quite a bit of shade provided for the coffee trees.

Alex tries to call in who knows what, beside the coffee

Here beans are interplanted with coffee

The bananas absorb water and provide shade for the coffee

The road wound round and round and up and up, until we were enveloped in mists. In places waterfalls pounded down, and into deep ravines.

 

Red headed Barbet

Black Guan

Incredible

Finally, at the top, we came to the most amazing place. It is called Chinchona Soda and Feeders. Perched on the edge of a ravine - the one with waterfall shown above, it features home cooked food from a woodstove, but also in a way that blows the mind of any birder, fruit feeders hanging over the ravine. Here there is a fantastic variety of birds, seen up close. We saw dozens of species - all new to us - and took hundreds of photos! There is not time or energy here at the end of the day to go through it all, or even to choose the best photos. Here are some random ones to give the idea. We'll properly develop this section later!

Red Headed Barbet

Blue-gray Tanager

Summer Tanager

Violet Sabrewing

Green Crowned Brilliant

Palm Tanager

Crimson Collared Tanager

Clay colored Thrush

Blue-gray Tanager

Northern Emerald Toucanet


We hung out at Chinchona for a really long time, 'cause why would you want to leave!  

Eventually we of course set off down the mountain, but the wonders were not over. As we descended, other species turned up, notably Toucans by the roadside, and even Macaws, and some monkeys.

Southern Lapwing

Great Green Macaw

We had now descended close to sea level, and the air had become warm and humid.  Each time we jumped out of the van to look at a bird, our lenses fogged up. That's why the Toucan below looks rather dull. Later, I can fix photos like this in the computer.

Keel Billed Toucan

Look, fixed!

Yellow Throated Toucan

... and fixed!

We arrived at the research station, and if it were not late at night here , and with limited internet, I would have lots to describe. I will just say that it is super humid and hot, and that tomorrow at 5:45 a.m. when we start walking, we are cautioned to have long clothes and lots of bug spray.  Also sturdy shoes against snakes, like the Fer de Lance. No kidding, we are also not allowed on the trails after dark, because night is their favourite time. It promises to be a full day of jungle walking. Gotta get to bed to get ready. Sorry for the abbreviated and poorly captioned  report today!!

Crested Guan

Crested Guan