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Rancho Naturalista (Part I)
More about the group
Costa Rica bird list (3 trips)
Previous CR trip ... 2001Click thumbnails for larger photos |
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Sunday,
May 18, 2003 Hotel Montana
de Fuego We checked out at 8 a.m.
and the Interbus driver arrived at 8:15 a.m. to transport us to our next
destination. We are on our
own. No Charlie and Nino to take care of everything for us.
The bus was full - 12 passengers all going to different hotels in
the Arenal area. To top it
off, our driver is surely not Nino! There were a few times when I cringed. Definitely an “accelerator/brakes” kind of guy! We departed San Jose in
sun, went through a bit of rain, back into sun when we stopped halfway
for a bathroom break and then ended the trip in clouds and mist. Arrived a little before noon but did not get into our room
until after 1 p.m. Efficiency
is not a by-word at Hotel Montana de Fuego, but we will survive.
The grounds are lovely and quite spread out.
We are in a new building, not one of the cabins, a very long
distance from the restaurant. When we were about
halfway to our room the heavens opened.
Along with the fellow who was carrying our bags, we dashed onto
the porch of one of the nearby cabins and waited for the storm to abate.
And waited. And
waited! Finally we took
advantage of a slight respite in the deluge to dash to our room, but
ended soaked to the skin anyway. As the desk clerk gave us
our key, he casually mentioned that we could probably change rooms
tomorrow. We wondered why
we would want to change since he said we were in the newest facility.
We found out that the view of the volcano (if it ever comes out)
would be a bit obstructed plus the fact that it was a two-story building
and there was no insulation! We
could hear every word said by the people above us and when they walked
across the floor it sounded like elephants had invaded! There were no little maps
of the property, which would have been nice because it is so spread out.
Nowhere could we find out the hours for meals or the hours for
the pool and spa. There was
a TV in the room but no remote control.
No one offered us one when we checked in.
Finally we asked for one so that Jim could check out the news.
Essentially we had to drag information out of the desk clerk.
Customer service was not their strong suit! The rain continued off
and on all afternoon, and we definitely could not see Arenal Volcano.
But with three nights here, maybe we will get at least one
chance. Since we had not had
lunch we headed to the restaurant at 6 p.m.
They were setting up for what appeared to be a big promotional
dinner for Renault Trucks. No
one had informed us that the restaurant was off limits this evening.
So we asked if we could eat dinner.
The fellow said, “Now??”
We answered, “Yes, now.”
So lo and behold he found a little table off to the side that
they had not prepared for the group that was apparently coming and we
were allowed to order a meal. Natalie
had warned us that the kitchen ran hot and cold when it came to food
preparation, but the meal was good and the waiter was pleasant.
We left an hour later but the big group had not yet arrived.
The next morning at breakfast we found out that three large tour
buses had pulled in with over 100 people for dinner and an overnight.
That was why we were put in the building so far away, even though
our reservations had been made more than a year previously. Monday,
May 19, 2003 Hotel Montana
de Fuego
We let the front desk
know that we definitely did want to move to one of the cabins and around
noon we struck gold. They
moved us to Cabin #35, which is one of the choice cabins for viewing the
volcano – provided it ever comes out from behind the clouds.
We settled in and decided to make lunch out of a couple of
protein bars and a soft drink. Sitting
on our little front porch with its supposed view of Arenal, we were
munching away when suddenly the clouds parted and there it was!
The Mountain of Fire with puffs of volcanic smoke being emitted.
Hopefully it would be visible at night, as we have been told that
there is often a red glow. About mid-afternoon, we
were astounded to see a Costa Rica Expeditions bus roll in right next to
our cabin. Then I
remembered Marco commenting that there would be one group in that area
when we were there. It was
Margherita Bottazzi who, like Charlie, is a Master Naturalist Guide.
She was leading a group of students from a college in Atlanta,
Ga. It began to rain again
about 3:30 p.m.. Came down
in buckets! We had planned
to go to the pool but decided to just sit on our balcony on the back of
the room and bird because there were lots of trees in that direction,
and the birds were seeking shelter from the rain.
Far in the distance we could, with our binoculars, see a troop of
howlers who were also trying to find shelter. By the time we went to
supper at 6:30 p.m., the rain had stopped and the sky was trying to
clear. Just as we ordered
our meal, we began to see the red glow from Arenal and then a boom and
red rocks tumbling down the slopes!
We were actually going to get to see this phenomenal mountain do
its thing! It was quite
impressive but not bright enough to be able to photograph it. |
As Charlie and Vicki told us “goodbye” on Saturday evening, he asked if we would call them tonight. When we returned to the room we placed the call. It was great to hear their voices again. We thanked them once more for having us in their home and thanked Charlie for a wonderful two weeks with our group. He said that he wished all his groups were as easy to lead as ours. Of course, it pleases me to hear him say that. We
told him about seeing Arenal at dinner tonight and that we were heading
up to Cano Negro tomorrow on a day trip with a guide.
He immediately said, “I’ll call you tomorrow night to find
out how it went and what you saw.” We protested that it wasn’t necessary for him to do that
but he insisted. Then he
told us that he would be representing CRE at meetings on Thursday and
Friday in Sarapiqui. The
meetings were being held to discuss the feasibility of doing night boat
tours in Tortugero National Park and Michael Kaye had asked him to go
and assess the input of the other companies as well as the park
officials. Tuesday,
May 20, 2003 Hotel Montana de Fuego Did a bit of birding as
we waited for breakfast to begin. Margherita
and her group were out as well and she helped us identify a small flock
of Orange-chinned Parakeets before we hurried into the open-air dining
area for coffee and some rolls. We were picked up and
taken into La Fortuna to join a very large group (two full bus loads of
people) for the trip to Cano Negro.
There were 10 of us “tourists” and 35 students with six
teachers. Once we got there, the students all went on one boat with
their teachers. We were
with the local guide, Felix. As
Jim remarked, this really makes us appreciate the time we had with our
friends, Charlie and Nino. The ride to and from Cano Negro was long but Felix was good about having the driver stop when something was spotted along the way. One place we stopped that was very interesting was about halfway to Los Chiles (the town near Cano Negro). We came to a little settlement named Muelle. As we turned a curve that went through the town there was a river bridge and a small soda next to the river. Gigantic mango trees were growing on the river bank and the buses stopped! Felix announced that we could get out and walk across the river on the bridge. Of course, we were wondering “why” are we doing this?
As we reached the center of the bridge, we found out why.
In those trees overhanging the river sat about 30 green
iguanas!!! Maybe there were more but we counted at least 30.
Some of them were huge! Felix
told us that the fellow who owns the soda
puts out the leftovers for them so they come for the food and enjoy
hanging out in the trees. He
also told us that several years ago poachers slaughtered a large number
of the iguanas one night. Some
of the campesinos still eat them and according to Felix they taste like
chicken if cooked properly. They
are herbivores, Finally we arrived in Los Chiles, only 5 kilometers from the Nicaragua border. Had a bathroom break at a soda in town and then headed to the boat dock at the Rio Frio. The boats are covered, which is nice, and by traveling on the river we will get into the Cano Negro. We are the only birders in this group. All the others are interested in caimans and monkeys, but by the end of the trip we had them looking at birds as well. One of the guys, a surfer, said, “Hey, I didn’t realize that birds could be so interesting.”
Lunch was included and
had been picked up when we stopped at the soda.
We stopped along the river at a place where others had stopped
before us, disembarked and stood around eating lunch.
It was delicious and healthy.
Arroz con pollo, chayote and cassava cooked together (one of my
favorites) with papaya for dessert.
There was a family with two kids in our group and the 6-year-old
boy refused to eat anything and pitched a fit.
Other than that it was a pleasant enough stop.
The return on the bus
seemed long but everyone was tired so many people fell asleep. We finally got back to the hotel around 4:30 p.m. and jumped
right into the shower. The volcano was socked in
again that evening and at 6:30 p.m. the bottom dropped out. The rain came down in torrents.
We finally made it to the restaurant.
Dinner was not as good as the two previous nights.
Maybe we are just getting jaded. As we were packing for
our early departure, the phone rang.
Sure enough it was Charlie asking how the day had gone, who was
our guide and what had we seen. He
was pleased that our list included a pair of jabirus, a roseate
spoonbill and a great pootoo
and said that he knew who Felix was.
Then he recounted his day for us including that he and Vicki had
taken the time to go out for a drink at a neighborhood bar just to have
some time to themselves. We
are already looking forward to seeing them again on our return trip in
2006. In closing this entry I
must make note of the fact that today is Dr. Skutch’s 99th
birthday! Wednesday,
May 21, 2003 Home of Bob Leffler & Judy McNutt
Awoke to a downpour.
Decided we’d take our bags to the reception area if there was a
break in the rain and then try to get to breakfast before our 7:45 a.m.
departure. We managed to do
these things, which was good because the van from Interbus was right on
time. This time I asked the
driver if Jim could sit up front with him in order to stave off motion
sickness which can hit Jim pretty hard at times.
We picked up only two other couples from other hotels so the bus
wasn’t full this time, which was pretty nice.
We arrived at the Hotel
Fiesta in Puntarenas right at 10:30 a.m.
Bob Leffler and his hired man were there to meet us with the ATV
and trailer. We piled the
luggage into the trailer and walked about 300 yards to “Sapo Beach,”
Bob and Judy’s place. |
Their property is 3 acres
and goes from the highway down to the beach.
The house, which they have totally renovated, was built around
1950 and was used as a vacation home by a Tico family.
They retained the hired man/caretaker, who had been there for
many years, and his wife helps Judy at times with housework and such. In fact, we had a delicious ceviche for lunch, which
had been made by this lady. It
was the best we’ve ever had! We
were totally lazy sitting in the shade by the pool all afternoon
watching the birds come in to drink or take a little dip.
The only drawback to this
lovely place is that the main highway to the port of Caldera passes
right by them. The highway
is crowded with transport trucks loaded with freight and it can be very
noisy at all hours of the day and night.
Of course, sometimes it’s worse than others.
Bob and Judy advised us to sleep with earplugs, which we did. It helped a great deal. A bit of explanation is
in order as to how we met Bob and Judy.
When I joined the aforementioned Costa Rica Living list, I was
required to write a letter of introduction.
The fact that I lived in Colorado was in the letter.
Very soon I received an email “off list” from a fellow who
said that he was from Denver but living now in Costa Rica.
That fellow was Bob! Thursday,
May 22, 2003 Home of Bob Leffler & Judy McNutt About 7:30 a.m. everyone
was ready and we climbed into Bob’s Mustang convertible to ride into
town. This is really a neat
experience because we will get to see life in Costa Rica through their
eyes. All we’ve ever done
before is to be tourists! Bob
drove us down some of the main streets and pointed out places of
interest. We ended up at the dock where the fishing boats come in and
where the covered mercado
begins. Walking through the
market was really neat. I
loved stopping to look at various fruits and vegetables that we had not
seen before. By the time we
had passed all the stalls we ended up at the soda
where we were to have breakfast.
The menu was posted in large letters on the wall.
There was a table available so we took up residence.
The gallo pinto, fried egg, tortillas and coffee were
delicious! It was hot and
humid but the place was open on the street side and there were fans in
operation so we ate in comfort. Afterwards, we walked out
on to the street and accompanied Judy on some errands to the local
hardware stores. It took
several tries in different stores but she finally found part of what she
was looking for. Before
heading back to Sapo Beach, we stopped in a little bakery to buy some
bread and a few items to have for breakfast before we depart tomorrow
morning. When we got home, Judy
taught me how to make platanos, from plantains so that we could
have them with the ceviche for lunch today.
That was fun because I always enjoy learning something new in the
kitchen. We were very lazy this
afternoon and just hung out at their pool.
Tonight we are taking Judy and Bob out to dinner at a little
restaurant they like called “Eagle’s Nest.”
Sometimes there is a hang glider pilot at the restaurant and for
a fee he will take people off the cliff for a bit of a thrill.
Judy was hoping that he was going to be there this evening but
unfortunately he wasn’t. She
had talked the fellows into “taking a flight” if the pilot had been
there. The view from the open
air restaurant was fantastic and we got there in time for sunset and to
see all the flocks of pelicans and egrets heading to roost. The shrimp I had for my meal were really good, but the
mosquitoes had a good meal too - my ankles! The ride back to Sapo
Beach in the convertible was super.
Made me feel like I was back in college.
That was probably the last time I’d ridden in a convertible at
night with a beautiful moon shining overhead! Friday,
May 23, 2003 Flying back to Colorado Judy and Bob drove us to
the airport near San Jose in the Mustang and then headed off to do errands.
We stood in line for about 30 minutes to check in - would have
been worse if we had not gotten the exit visas ahead of time!
Thankfully we did not get pulled for the random baggage check!
We had enough time to purchase a slice of pizza and a coke from a
vendor on the concourse, do a little shopping in the Café Britt shop
right across from our gate (macadamia nuts covered in dark chocolate!),
and watch a ferocious thunderstorm and downpour before boarding our
flight. No problems in Atlanta
either. Just had to declare
the tiny orchid seedling that carried its own inspection papers.
The agricultural inspector took his set of papers, looked at the
seedling, which is totally sealed and supposed to stay that way for a
year, and sent us on our way. Arrived in Denver at
11:15 p.m. and waited an hour for the person who was to pick us up
before snagging at cab to bring us to Boulder in the middle of the night
to the tune of $100.00. Thankfully
we still had that much cash between us! We were two tired
travelers when we finally stumbled into our home.
Tired but happy because once again we had traveled to one of the
most beautiful countries in the world and done it in the company of
friends! Pura Vida indeed!!! |
