What We Thought of It All

I have just been looking back at some pages of this blog, and I must say it is fabulous. Just a few days since we returned home, and I had forgotten how many unique and colourful bird shots we had, and how interesting the tale of our odyssey among the various locations and ecosystems was. 

Just as is often said, Costa Rica is a really amazing patchwork of very different eco zones, each filled with its own birds, animals, and plants. And these surround the traffic clogged central valley containing San Jose. Dodie still maintains she hated San Jose, but it did have a very lively and car free core that I found fun to walk.

The idea of being on a tour with a group and a bus was something new for us, and as independent cyclists we usually look down on bus tours. In this case, while it is true that we were being dragged around, and dumped out at various points of interest, at least our group of just 10 did not totally flood the destination points. And we really did get to see and learn things that we were not going to get on our own, or through any other way. Also, although the tour may seem to be a lazy way to go, we found it totally exhausting. We always started exactly at dawn (5:30 a.m.) with some sort of jungle walk, and the action did not even stop at dark (5:30 p.m.) because additional time was used reviewing the results of the day.

In addition our guide Alex proved to be an incredible master of  environmental knowledge, with an unexcelled ability to glance into a forest and detect and identify small birds and other creatures at a distance. I would never have believed such accomplishment was possible, and it was an honour just to see it in action.


Talamanca Hummingbird


What with being drenched, frozen, steamed, and run all over the place, we came back puffy and exhausted. It was not exactly the tropical lark we had imagined, but I do think we got our money's worth.

One of our objectives in this trip was to assess whether we could return with our bicycles. The answer to that is a clear no. Almost all the roads we were on were steep and winding and/or with no shoulder and lots of traffic. Apparently in the north west there are flatter roads, but we are sure they still lack shoulders and are narrow and winding. No, bicycles are just not on. So if we return, it's likely to be via a tour again. And because the tour always is going to remote eco systems, where you have to eat in restaurants and have little choice of accommodation, it's never going to be cheap. So this could well have been a once in a lifetime. As such, we are really glad we managed to do it!


You have to find a way to Sevegre or another remote site, to see this!






Birders, one serious, one not so much!


But Costa Rica was gorgeous!




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