There are three things that you can depend upon on a tour within
the tropical rain forest of Costa Rica, lush greenery, remarkable exotic
animals and little to no internet connectivity.
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Luis, our Guide |
We are into our eight day of our tour of the natural wonders
of this wonderful Central American country. I
usually get frustrated with the limitations of a planned tour. It can drive me nuts trying to grab pictures
while the group moves ahead and out of site, but I have learned to accept the
restrictions and enjoy the experience while planning to come back another day
for the carefully constructed shots that I would prefer. In the meantime, I take what I can get. Happily,
we have a small friendly group of fellow explorers and a remarkably
knowledgeable guide. Our itinerary is
packed, making it difficult to find time to describe our experiences so
far, but I didn’t want to miss a blog and
thought it would be a good time to share some of the few image among the nearly
4,000 that I have shot so far. I will
have a lot of work to do when I get home.
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Hanging Bridges |
This morning we hiked through the tops of the tropical
forest on hanging bridges and this evening we will be visiting a sugar
plantation and local farm, for a traditional dinner, but just now I have a
couple of free hours to try to post a small sample of images.
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"Jesus Christ" Lizard, Walks on Water |
This trip is mostly about the diversity and beauty of the
wildlife, and especially the birds. As I always point out, I am not a birder,
but it is impossible to ignore the excitement of see the wild range of winged
species. We have explored the variety of
animal around the Alajuela Poas Volcano in the highlands above the capital of
San Jose and visited the Doka Coffee Estate to learn about the production of
one of Costa Rica’s highest quality coffees
|
Jacana, Tortuguero |
We spent two day at a lodge in the isolated Caribbean costal
village of Tortuguero. The Tortuguero
National Park includes a network of natural waterways which is home to a remarkable
diversity of plants and animal life including more than 100 reptiles, 60
mammals and hundreds of bird species.
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Three Toed Sloth Family |
From Tortuguero we traveled by boat and bus to the Seva
Verde Lodge in Sarapiqui, in Costa Rica’s Caribbean lowland. One again we hiked through the rainforest
sampling one of Central America’s richest sites for birds. We also had a chance to white water raft down
the Sarapiqui River.
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Shooting the Sarapiqui |
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Red Eye Tree Frog |
I have now moved to Arenal Volcano National Park and hiked
to a spot at the edge of one of the volocano’s most recent eruptions. The spot had a great view of Arenal’s classic
conical peak and also Arenal Lake. This large
man-made lake provides hydroelectric power and also shifted the drainage of the
region from the Caribbean to the pacific.
I can only touch on the wonderful time we have enjoyed so
far, and the remarkable experiences have been greatly amplified by the
knowledge that all of you back in New England have been struggling through all
the snow and cold. We will be heading
back to reality next Thursday. Try to
keep the storms away until after then. The
Meantime, stay warm and GO PATS!