It was quite an experience sleeping out in our cabin, a couple of km from the main buildings, and listening to the tropical downpour pelt continuously on the metal roof. But the experience morphed into reality as the downpour continued to pour down at our 5:45 meeting time to begin the day's walking and birding. I figured everyone would Whatsapp each other and collectively decide to stay "home" and play cards. But no, our guide was out there and ready to roll!
The evolving realization about this tour and other tours offered, even by our same company, is that there can be a conflict between binocular based birding and bird photography. The binocular is much faster and can "see through" leaves. The "aiming" is easier and there are no focussing issues. But of course, the binocular birder comes away with no photos, just a list of what they thought they saw. The photographer needs more time, to compose the shot, and to get the focus and exposure right. With this in mind, our tour company does distinguish between general birding and bird photography tours. But mostly, they are described in compromise terms, blending both types of clients. This had been mostly working for us so far. I will say though, that having the birders mill about, shouting out the names of birds they were seeing, was getting on my nerves, as I struggled to turn on my camera and focus on some dark shapes in the distance.
But today, in the unrelenting downpour, the camera could either stay under cover, in a garbage bag, or venture out and risk total drowning. The binocular people had much less mechanism to protect, and worse, our guide has telescopic vision, and was shouting out bird names without benefit of optics of any kind!
In these conditions, the group set off into the dense jungle, with me tagging along with my camera in a garbage bag, and Dodie tagging behind that. Worse, especially from Dodie's point of view, was that our trail began by crossing the big river, on something called the "Stone Bridge". It turns out this was not made of stone, but only named after a fellow named Stone. In fact it was a swaying suspension bridge. Dodie hates these the way I hate heights. She let everyone cross (and quite bouncing the bridge) and then did make it across. The group and us carried on into the jungle, which by virtue of being a jungle had light too low for my camera, even not in the rain.
All that was the downside. On the other side was the fact that we were in not only the densest jungle in Costa Rica, but quite possibly the densest in the world. Our guide stopped to give ecological explanations, such as on the life cycle of the poison dart frog, or the was Helliconia actually works in terms of where are its flowers and seeds. He picked up one of the many giant millipedes and explained where are its sexual organs (too much information!?).
About half way through the morning, we took the opportunity for Dodie to return to the restaurant building, since there really was little in the walk for her. I carried on with the group, for the experience and a lot just to not be a spoil sport. But when we did return to the buildings at lunch time, I was totally drenched. I mean, did you ever stay in the bath too long, and have your fingers wrinkle? Like that! To boot, the Lumix camera, carried across Europe and repaired in Victoria, died, with the same symptoms as before. Perhaps it hates 110% humidity. Dunno.
Meanwhile Dodie, who had returned to the open air but covered dining area had been bagging new birds with the naked eye. She (turning into a real and not a photo "birder") recorded at least 20 species, almost all new to us. Without Alex the guide being present, she just used the bird ID cards we had brought to make the identifications.
We got a lift back to the cabins with the tour bus, but we will shortly begin to walk back again to the dining area. We should be able to shoot more birds from under the cover. Except for the walk back to the buildings, I am just not going to take my remaining cameras out in the rain. We did buy some quite tough ponchos now, from the research station, so transport of cameras and computer on the trails should be reasonably dry. If you are reading this, it means the computer survived!
Today is the first day of the "dry" season in Costa Rica, but of course we are here on the slope that faces the prevailing winds. With the mountains behind us, the situation is exactly like the west coast of Vancouver Island. That is, it's just a heavy rain rain forest. More or less always.
Except for making a casual tourist like me crabby, all this is of course the area's claim to fame. In fact, La Selva is a real world class phenomenon. It runs from basically sea level, where we are now, up the nearby volcano, to 10,000 feet. There is surrounding land that has been stripped for fixed crop farming, but this reserve comprises an eco corridor from the sea to the mountain top. If your poncho and boots are good, that's great!
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You can see La Selva on the left, occupying a huge swath of land going up the volcano.
Over one the right near the summit is Cinchona, where we were yesterday. |
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The lands to the west have been cleared for agriculture, accentuating the ecological significance of La Selva |
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| We are here. |
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| Yes here! |
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| Near the dining area |
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| Jungle path |
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| Jungle river |
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| Vultures |
Well here’s a day for the record books. I hope it dries out and any of your cameras survive. It’s also very funny, if you’re in the right frame of mind. Did you ever see the film. Mr, Hobbs Takes a Vacation?
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