Dates: 8th June 2022 to 22nd June 2022
Base: Occidental Papagayo, Guanacaste
Excursions undertaken: Palo Verde River Tempisque cruise, Arenal Mistico Park Hanging Bridges tour, Tenorio National Park tour, Sensoria Rainforest tour.
Company: Kate
Yesterday, I looked through all c.3,000 photos that I took in Costa Rica for the first time since visiting in June 2022. I decided to write-up a retrospective trip report.
Costa Rica is the most biodiverse country in the world. It's motto is 'Pura Vida', embodying a carefree, optimistic, and peaceful way of life, representing a shared identity, a positive outlook, and appreciation for the simple things.
Costa Rica is not a cheap counry to visit but it is one of the most incredible places on earth. Instead of paying a significant amount of money for a guided trip, we opted instead to book a package holiday, via TUI, and book several excursions from our base in Guanacaste. I think this worked-well as an introduction to Costa Rica costing us less than half of what a guided trip would have cost. If returning, I would however prefer a multi-centre stay and/or use of a hire car. The Occidental Papagayo Hotel is fantastic but alas it is no longer offered by TUI.
Would I return? In an instant!
In advance of arriving, given we were not using a guide, I read-up about the various venomous snakes, spiders, etc. During the trip, I did once make the schoolboy error of not checking inside my shoes before putting them on - on feeling something crawling next to my foot inside my shoe, thankfully it was just a large cricket! Costa Rica is very much 'insect central'. If you don't like beasties, It's not the place for you. Some are enormous but most, including the big ones, are completely harmless. Definitely pack mosquito repellant and cover-up in the evenings. While the risk of malaria is low, the risk of Dengue is higher.
Costa Rica was very much a learning experience from a photography viewpoint. In the rainforest and cloudforest, it is generally very dark and much of the wildlife is distant. In the rainy season, everything is wet and humidity is pretty-much 100%. You need a good dry bag and a fast lens with a decent zoom. A camera that handles high ISO well would also be advantageous. I just used what I had at the time - a Canon 7DMarkII and a mix of Canon 200mm f2.8 prime lens and a Canon 400mm f5.6 prime lens. At times, I would have preferred a 600mm lens.
We opted to go in June i.e. during the rainy season. I really enjoyed the hot and humid sunny mornings, and afternoon thunderstorms. However, during the rainy season please note that mosquitoes are more active.
From our arrival, we saw an incredible amount of wildlife within our hotel grounds. We saw Coati, a Screech Owl, beautiful Turquoise-browed Motmots, a Crested Caracara and much more all within our first 24 hours. We explored the local area on foot and were fortunate to be close to an estuary where we saw various heron. I managed to miss photographing as many birds and other wildlife as I managed to capture including Skunk and Raccoon - it was simply too dark to photograph them.
Here follows a number of photographs which I took on our trip. Apologies if any of the IDs are incorrect. I have attempted to ID birds using Birds of Costa Rica Helm Field Guide and Mammals using Mammals of Costa Rica Helm Field Guide. Insects, arachnids and reptiles using Google Lens and Google.
Turquoise-browed Motmot:
White-throated Magpie-Jay :
Great Kiskadee:
Pacific Screech Owl :
Turkey Vulture:
Crested Caracara:
Black-headed Trogon:
Groove-billed Ani:
Streak-backed Oriole:
Inca Dove?:
Great Black Hawk:
Anhinga:
Bare-throated Tiger Heron:
Green Kingfisher:
Boat-billed Heron:
Black-crowned Night Heron :
Brown Pelican:
Cinnamon Hummingbird:
Boat-billed Flycatcher?:
Stripe-headed Sparrow:
Lineated Woodpecker:
Black-mandibled Toucan:
White-winged Dove:
Great White Egret:
Black Vulture:
Ruddy Turnstone:
Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks:
Juvenile Yellow-Crowned Night Heron?:
?:
Magnificent Frigatebird (fem.):
Inca Doves?:
Surfbirds:
Hoffmann's Woodpecker:
Green Heron:
Magnificent Frigatebird (male):
Little Blue Heron?:
White Ibis:
Whimbrel:
Orange-fronted Parakeets:
Grey-breasted Martin?:
Keel-billed Toucan:
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird:
Rufous-tailed Jacamar:
Rufous Motmot:
Passerini's Tanager?:
?:
Rufous-naped Wren:
?:
Melodious Blackbird?:
Montezuma Oropendola:
Crested Guan:
Laughing Gull:
Yellow-naped Parrots:
?:
Great-tailed Grackle:
Red-eyed Tree Frog:
Strawberry Poison Dart Frog:
White-nosed Coati:
Long-nosed Bats:
White-throated Capuchin Monkey:
Two-toed Sloth:
Three-toed Sloth:
Central American Spider Monkeys:
Central American Agouti:
Mantled Howler Monkeys:
Variegated Squirrel:
Red Land Crab:
Ghost Crabs:
Spiny Sea Urchin:
Zebra Longwing Butterfly:
Mangrove Buckeye Butterfly:
Gulf Fritillary:
Swallowtail Butterfly:
Pseudopolybia Wasps?:
Harvestman?:
Flat-faced Longhorn Beetle:
Tiger Longwing Butterfly:
Owl Butterfly:
Banded Orange Heliconian:
Caio Romulus Moth:
Common Basilisk:
Black Iguana:
Brown Basilisk:
Baby Crocodile:
Crocodile:
Green Iguana:
Racerunner Lizard:
Lizard:
Yellow Spotted Tropical Night Lizard?:
Eyelash Pit Viper:
Eyelash Pit Viper:
Hog-nosed Pit Viper:
Pura vida!