Day 1 (Continued) - 2017 Costa Rica Journal

For the first 3 days of our trip we stayed at the beautiful Arenal Observatory Lodge. 

The Arenal Volcano, thought to be a mountain, suddenly erupted in 1968, destroying the small town of Tabacon. There were several more eruptions through 1998, but the volcano has been considered dormant since 2010. In the early 1970s, scientists from the Smithsonian Institution began monitoring seismic activity at Arenal Volcano.

The lodge was built in 1987 to accommodate researchers from the Smithsonian Institute. The grounds include 870 acres within what is now designated as Arenal Volcano National Park. The 29,692 acre Arenal National Park was founded in 1991. The lodge is located between Arenal Volcano, Cerro Chato Volcano, and Lake Arenal.  There are 7 miles of trails surrounding the lodge.

We arrived at our hotel with only a couple hours of day light left.  We had reserved the Smithsonian room as it has a glass wall that looks out over the Arenal Volcano and has a private patio.

Wall of glass

Private Patio

Arenal Volcano from our patio

Lake Arenal view from our patio.

The hotel grounds are beautifully landscaped with flowering trees, shrubs and water features.

Even our maid was into flowers!

She was also very creative with towels and linens!

Elephant created from towels.

Even with only a couple of hours of day light to bird we still saw some beautiful birds and mammals.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Montezuma Oropendula

Yellow-throated Toucan

White-nosed Coati

Next time:  Day 2 - Birds, Monkeys, Caimans and more!

Day 1 bird list: 34 birds

Gray-headed Chachalaca

Crested Guan

Great Curassow

Cattle Egret

Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Ruddy Ground Dove

White-winged Dove

Violet Sabrewing

Coppery-headed Emerald

Rufus-tailed Hummingbird

Red-headed Barbet

Prong-billed Barbet

Emerald Toucanet

Yellow-throated Toucan

Great Kiskadee

Tropical Kingbird

Clay-colored Thrush

Tennessee Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Passerini’s Tanager

Blue-Gray Tanager

Palm Tanager

Silver-throated Tanager

Green Honeycreeper

Thick-billed Seed Finch

Bananaquit

Buff-throated Saltator

Grayish Saltator

Common Chlorospingus

Summer Tanager

Great-tailed Grackle

Baltimore Oriole

Montezuma Oropendola

Mammals: White-nosed Coati