COSTA RICA Uvita

The view from our first small villa at www.shelter-from-the-storm.net

included a troupe of White-faced Capuchins,

          and Chestnut-mandibled Toucans.

Wall minus luggage

We moved to Villa La Cuesta after 2 days because we wanted more space. La Cuesta is beautiful. Note the painting on one wall and the ceiling in our bedroom.

Hummingbirds in background!

Great-tailed Grackle - seen everywhere - prettier than our crows

White Hawk

Mantled Howler monkey next to our balcony in primary rainforest

8cm crabs like to come indoors.

Secondary growth at Shelter from the Storm

At the Rancho (bar area) next to the pool, Daryl makes great margaritas.

Our villa was between the small towns of Uvita and Dominical, Uvita being the best place for shopping and commerce. Between headlands every few kilometres were beaches, pretty from a distance but not attractive to Aussies for 3 reasons - brown rocky sand, poor surf and mostly requiring money for 'safe' parking (protection against thieves).  We had intended to visit Manuel Antonio 45 minutes north, famous for animals in the National Park bordering the ocean, for snorkeling and beach.  However, we drove the very winding road down there en route to Uvita and found the place appalling.  Tourist places lined the road and as we got closer to the beach, touts accosted the car, wanting us to pay to park at their place.  We were even stopped at a barricade by the Tourist Police, just wanting to give us a brochure about safety!  We could not see the park or beach from the road to judge whether or not parking was a good idea.  It may be worth the hassle but we did not find out.

So we set out to explore our immediate options, paid $5 each to enter a National Park beach, walk along it  for 10 minutes and back to our car.  The money did entitle us to enter other beaches.

It was high tide when we visited Playa Uvita so we couldn't see the Whale's Tail formation (Ballena).

But we did see a White Ibis and a crab.

There were cabins, camping spots and a walk along the foreshore at this beach in Ballena National Park.

Dominical Beach had a lifesaver, a notice warning of rips, a strong rip, some would-be surfers, no charge for parking and a line of outdoor shops.

60 cm lizard on road at beach

Finding a comfortable place to sit was almost as difficult as getting your hair wet in the surf.

On our last day we went to Hacienda Baru for a hike uphill at 7:30am.  We learned that attempts to produce cocoa in Costa Rica have been thwarted by a fungus attacking mature pods. Green and black poison dart frogs were everywhere, too fast to photograph.Saw our first Fiery-billed Aracari and, best of all, had a really close encounter with a 3-toed sloth and baby.

Later, we drove around the Dominical area beside an estuary and took our first photo of the BeGo rental car which we grew to love.

We only ate out once in our week at Uvita because we were too tired and/or didn't feel like driving at least 8 km to a restaurant.  However, our meal at a small local soda was excellent - shrimp ceviche, baked fish and seafood mixture (latter photo was awful but the food was great).

Our last day in Costa Rica was spent driving from Uvita to Alajuela.  We were advised to drive the coastal route to the airport.  Instead, we took the untravelled (for us) winding mountain road, which found us at 3800m stopping to look at the almost alpine scenery - and noticing the puddle of coolant under the car.  Then the drive through San Jose came horribly unstuck.  Our map showed an eastern freeway which Daryl advised was yet to be built.  He was right - again!  David had put a route into the GPS which he stubbornly refused to change.  I cried as we went around the same roads over and over again in heavy traffic.  Eventually David took charge and drove with GPS on his knee, finding his way to Alajuela somehow.

Hotel Pura Vida had no vacancy so we spent the night at Alegria, a very comfortable B & B, easy to find if you do NOT follow the GPS waypoints given on their website.  We found ourselves out in the countryside and had to retrace our steps to use the road directions.  Even then, the GREEN fence outside looks grey.  www.alegriabandb.com

 Fortunately, we had hours to spare for all these misadventures and are still happily married.

COSTA RICA Corcovado National Park

I had some qualms about a return trip of over 100km in a small boat downriver and out into the Pacific Ocean, in order to visit Corcovado National Park.  Our experience on the upriver trip and observations of other groups waiting for boats gave me confidence, so we booked a trip 2 days later.  This time, we were going to walk for 4 hours. Rain delayed our departure but we landed at San Pedrillo, after an exciting bumpy ride through a low ocean swell. 

 We walked to the Ranger Station and then across a small creek  to a trail behind the beach.  After lunch, we walked to a waterfall.  Walking was easy, mostly flat.  Two other couples were with us, one Costa Rican, the other American.  Our young guide, Oscar, was knowledgeable and the boat captain, Kayla (? spelling), made us feel safe.

San Pedrillo Ranger Station & lunch stop - very clean

American Oystercatcher

Brown Pelican

Our first sightings in the rainforest were a coati nosing along a log and a tapir wallow.  We never saw a tapir.

 Near this lagoon we saw an adult Common/Mangrove Hawk.

Some trees had very buttressed roots.


Oscar found a Forest Rocket Frog.

The trail took us back to the shore where we disturbed this White-nosed Coati digging for crabs.

 He soon returned to his activity and was last seen upended (definitely male) head down a hole.

Back into the rainforest, we had good views of Spider Monkeys, including a baby with circus ambitions and no fear.

The waterfall was not impressive at this end of the dry season, though we did see a Bare-throated Tiger-heron fishing and a hummingbird nest with tiny baby.

David photographed one of the few unfriendly aspects of this rainforest - we saw no lawyer vines, no stinging trees (though there are such trees at La Selva if you know where to look), no leeches, almost no mosquitoes and found no ticks.

On the way through the mangroves, Oscar was keen to show us a Common Potoo.  Can you see it?

And the mangroves at low tide were rather grand.


La Perle has a cafe and shop above the boat ramps.  We spent quite some time looking at these masks as we wanted to buy some.  They are made by a tribe some 25 kms away at Boruca and the diablo masks are related to traditional ceremonies.  Some more touristy masks just feature animals.  Most are carved in balsa; some in teak.  We had seen them elsewhere and could not find one as interesting as those in Shelter from the Storm.  The largest masks sell here for $100 and we would have bought one if we were sure Customs would let us keep it (or not charge a lot for fumigation).

COSTA RICA Sierpe River

Readers may wonder what else we did while staying at Uvita.  One morning we rose at 4:30 to drive south to Sierpe for a 6:30am tour upriver.  The trip was mainly on the Pan-American Highway, then right after a bridge at Palmar Norte for the Sierpe road.  To our surprise and delight, all the roads were good and we arrived by 6am after failing to cross the bridge and getting lost.

The company offering this tour and many other options is a thriving group called La Perla del Sur.  They operate a lodge nearby which would be a good choice if you want to spend more time at Corcovado.  www.perladelsur.net

Our captain and guide was Jose whose enthusiasm for the animals was unbounded.  He was expert at manouevring the boat into the best position for viewing and photographing.  There were 2 other tourists on this trip, pleasant French people with their own guide.  Above, Jose is tempting a capuchin with fruit juice.

Mother and baby ended up on his shoulder sipping juice

Jose was also interested in these grasshoppers, which are migratory.  He made sure we appreciated the wings.

We saw many interesting birds, including this Green Heron ...

a Southern Lapwing ...

Purple Gallinule

Bare-throated Tiger-heron

Jose was really excited when he spotted (without binoculars) another Bare-throated Tiger-heron with baby in nest.

David noticed this Common/Mangrove Black Hawk (juvenile).




We liked seeing the Orange-chinned Parrot but were ecstatic over a tree full of Scarlet Macaws.

There were also many reptiles.

Jose tried hard to find a position where we could see the head of this tree boa.

Jesus basilisks were fairly common.  This one was about 30 cm.

Caiman, 2m

A fairly long American crocodile

Not many mammals but we liked the long-nosed bats seen at the boatshed and under a bridge.

And we had fun with the howler monkey, both guides imitating the call to provoke a response.