Mark & Teri's Travels: Costa Rica July 2021

July 8, 2021

(Teri) Our day started out a little later. After breakfast at the hotel, Giovanni and Victor picked us up at 7:30 for a short drive to Curi Cancha reserve.

We had to wash our hands before entering the reserve. Our tickets were $20.

The reserve is 205 acres.

There are about 4 miles of trails.

Most of the trails we were on were bordered with Porterweed, which we have found to be a butterfly magnet!

We spent about 5 1/2 hours in the reserve. There were beautiful flowers.

Datura

Bananas

Many orchids.

Lots of bromeliads

And some very nice views.

You can see why this trail is called the “windbreak trail.”

After our morning in the reserve we headed for lunch.

7/8/2021 (Mark) – Went to Curi Cancha reserve, again with Geovanni Bello. Curi Cancha is located near the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, and is a couple of hundred meters lower elevation. It is a private reserved that is reclaiming and reforesting a farm/ranch, so it has a good mix of open grassland, gardens, second-growth forest, and just a little primary forest. It was easier to bird and more productive than the Cloud Forest Reserve, probably because of the mixed habitats and better sight lines.

White-eared Ground-Sparrow

Gray-crowned Yellowthroat

Most of the trails were lined with Blue Porterweed which is an amazing plant for hummingbirds and butterflies. We saw plenty of both along the trails, with most being Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds and Stripe-tailed Hummingbirds, but we did see a few Coppery-headed Emeralds, which are a species of hummingbird found only in the mountains of Costa Rica.

Coppery-headed Emerald

Lesser Violetear

We did quite a bit of walking on hilly trails, and Teri’s knee was starting to give her more problems, especially on steep downhill trails, or steps. But she soldiered on and had a little help from me on the steeper and rougher downhill sections.

We had a couple of White-nosed Coati (aka coatimundi) scamper by as we hiked, sometimes passing very close.

We had been hearing Three-wattled Bellbirds pretty much the entire time we were in the Reserve, but we never seemed particularly close to any. Towards the end of the trip we did hike up to a viewpoint and scanned, but nothing. We were beginning to think that we wouldn’t see this target bird, but one began calling from lower in the reserve and we backtracked toward it. It got louder and louder until we were right below it, and finally we spotted it. It flew pretty quickly, but Teri announced that it was right over our heads, and sure enough it had landed in a better place for viewing.

It was soon joined by a second male, and they spent several minutes going through some sort of a display. One of the males had amazingly long wattles that it would flip around, while the other bird’s wattles were smaller.

The bigger bird would move right over next to the second bird, take a big breath, and then BONK directly into its ear. Often the second bird would “fall” from the perch, only to fly right back up.

They would change locations on the perch, moving over the other bird, but always the dominant bird would BONK the other one away. It was fascinating the watch. We got great pictures and video.

Giovanni asked if we wanted to go back to the same place for lunch, or if we wanted a “Typical” Costa-Rican meal. We chose the typical meal and went to another tiny restaurant owned by someone that he knew, and enjoyed a typical chicken, beans, rice, vegetable meal. I got Limonada to drink, and it was incredibly sour and cold and great.

(Teri) Lunch was very good.

Through the window we could see outside seating but couldn’t see a way to get there.

Now you don’t see it:

Now you do:

We both got the “typical” dish.

Mark ordered a wonderful drink. It was very limey and refreshing.

(Mark) As we were parting ways with Giovanni and Victor, Victor presented us with tiny paracord bracelets with wooden beads that his wife had made, as a token of their appreciation for us coming to Costa Rica and visiting. Very nice touch.

We did a little afternoon birding around the grounds, and found a pair of Masked Tityra that seemed to have a nest on/in the hotel roof. Both the male and female were bringing food, but we never figured out exactly where they were taking it.

That evening, we asked if the hotel restaurant was serving dinner, and they were, at a $22 per person fixed price. That seemed expensive and way too much food, so we just wandered back down to the little grocery store (with our ponchos!) and bought some snacky stuff, as well as goldfish crackers and coconut cookies for the remainder of the trip.