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Tomorrow I leave early for a short flight to Golfito in the south of Costa Rica for a week at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge in the Piedras Blancas National Park, one of Costa Rica‘s birding hot-spots. And note that they only have Wifi in their main building, so my posts could be limited or certainly my correspondence will be. Part of being in the jungle! 🙂
AND ZOOMING IN ON THE AREA:
Above photos all copied from Esquinas Lodge website.
Check it out!
¡Pura Vida!
Will Costa Rica become the only source of chocolate by 2050?
The above link is a really interesting article in one of our online English newspapers. Chocolate comes from the cacao tree which will only grow 20 ° north or south of the equator and in the correct amount of humidity. Central America and particularly Costa Rica are perfect for that. West Africa has been good for cocoa, but global warming, higher temperatures and the desertification of West Africa along with some plant diseases there may someday, possibly by 2050, eliminate all cocoa farming in West Africa. They are experimenting with hybrid plants there says this month’s National Geographic magazine, but already people are saying the resulting chocolate is not as good.
Cacao is grown all over Costa Rica as small family farm businesses and by some of the indigenous peoples as I described in my recent visit to the Bribri Watsi village and earlier from my visit to Bribri Yorkin as we watched their children suck the sweet white stuff from around the cacao beans and we tried it ourselves.
If you ever visit Costa Rica there are many chocolate tours you can take to learn the complicated process for making one of the world’s favorite sweets.
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
― Charles M. Schulz
¡Pura Vida!
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| Red-eyed Tree Frog Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Long-billed Hermit Hummingbird Sleeping Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Baby Basilisk Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Tropical Rainforest Frog Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Katydid Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Fleur-de-lis Spider Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Fleur-de-lis Spider hiding in curled dead leaf Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Blue Morpho Butterfly Sleeping They are bright blue on top with underside like an owl butterfly Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Red-eyed Tree Frog Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
I got a new guide for this hike who specializes in night hikes, a more mature man than the 18 year-old David. He was really good and helped make some of the photos. His name is Jairo, but the way everyone pronounced it, sounded something like “Hydel,” I almost backed out of the hike because of the light rain and sure glad I did not. Today’s hike in the park was postponed until tomorrow (Friday) because I was the only one going today and they need a minimum of two to afford it. There’s 5 of us for tomorrow. But they do the night hike solo and I was glad as the only one because I got more attention and probably saw/photographed more creatures!
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| Flying over Corcovado National Park near Drake Bay Probably one winding river but whatever, a lot of water for one forest! The Richness of a Rainforest! Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
Sometimes I go back and look through photos from a trip and see something new to share. 🙂
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| My Front Porch Hammock & Bay View Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| My Front Door & Outside Chairs Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| My Room, All those windows have only screens. High ceiling with Fan! Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| One of 3 Flights of Stairs UP to Rooms on Top of Hill Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| One of 3 Flights of Stairs DOWN from Rooms on Top of Hill Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| Exit Sign from Drake Bay Community Trail to Hotel Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| 3 Meals a Day Overlooking the Bay Though some trips included a box lunch on the day trip Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| Gourmet Meals Served Three Times a Day! Plus Happy Hour with Appetizers! Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| Hotel’s Fleet of Boats is Important to Guest Transportation! Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| As Are the Boat Captains! Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| A Familiar Scene Coming and Going from the Hotel Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| And the Hotel Pier is Really the “Front Door” to Hotel You get here by boat or by walking a trail. No road for cars. Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
I loved it here! Being gone the bulk of the daytime on adventures kept me from missing air-conditioning, which in the hot and humid coastal rainforest would have been better for resting inside during the day. But who does that with all the things to do during the day? At night the ceiling fan was more than adequate and I actually turned it off two nights and used the blanket.
Though not made yet, I will soon have a “Trip Gallery” on this trip in a new area of my Costa Rica galleries simply called TRIPS. And of course as always I use every trip to increase my collection of bird photos and other categories of photos in my big gallery called Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA. If interested in Costa Rica you might enjoy exploring my galleries.
And this concludes the Blog reports on my recent Corcovado-Drake Bay trip, though more photos may pop up here in the future. A 6-day trip is the longest I have made since my move here and I like longer visits in the same location! A friend has scheduled a week-long trip here soon for birding and will be in a different hotel every night. He may see more birds but will be physically exhausted by the end of the week! I’m too old for that now! 🙂 Pura Vida!
My TRIPS Photo Gallery on this Drake Bay Trip
And my Lodges & Hotels of Costa Rica photo gallery
Costa Rica to soon unveil its first hydrogen-powered bus!
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| A short street in the village of Drake Bay called “Hibiscus Way” Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| Red Hibiscus Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
About Corcovado National Park (Wikipedia) and About Drake Bay (Wikipedia)
Just a tiny sample of the lush forests around Drake Bay & in the Park:
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| This massive root structure is on property of Hotel Aguila de Osa Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| Hotel Aguila de Osa Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| Mangoes on the ground for animals to eat or to rot Common all over Costa Rica this time of year – We can’t eat them all! Here on public trail through Aguila de Osa Hotel, Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| Mango Tree Along public trail Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| Public Trail Near Hotel Aguila de Osa Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
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| Park Trail, near Pedrillo Ranger Station Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Bamboo at Aguila de Osa Lodge Drake Bay, Costa Rica |
See also my Photo Gallery called Flora & Forests
My TRIPS Photo Gallery on this Drake Bay Trip
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| Rainforest Meets Pacific Ocean Corcovdo National Park, Costa Rica |
A big gourmet breakfast and off by 6:30 by boat to San Pedrillo Ranger Station by boat in the rain through some pretty big swells along the Pacific coast – about 30 minutes and another wet landing in the surf and knee-deep wading to shore. We hiked three trails including part of the beach above seeing an unbelievable number of tree species and other cool plants, many animals and two new birds for me. We also saw a beautiful waterfall that I will show later. Then another rough boat ride back after our sandwich lunch, but no more rain! But it is cloudy and I do expect rain tonight.
About Corcovado National Park (Wikipedia) and About Drake Bay (Wikipedia)
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| Rainforest Trail Seen from Lodge Dining Room Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Tree Fern
Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| One of Many Old Growth Trees Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Flower at Entrance to Trail Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Fern Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Unknown Berries Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Tree Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Tree Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Plant Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Much Grows on the Trees Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Air Plant Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Footbridge Over Stream Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Trail Welcome & Rules in Spanish, English & French Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
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| Bus window view of Chiquita Banana Plantation, Costa Rica |
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| Modern buses like this is how many tourists get around inside Costa Rica. |
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| All the dozen or so lodges have boats making the 1.5 hours trip into park. |
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| Our group on one of the Laguna Lodge boats enroute to lodge. |
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| Robert Umaña, our guide, listening for a bird or other animal. |
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| Robert using sand drawings to tell us about the life cycles of the green sea turtles that lay their eggs on this beach and each baby that makes it goes to ocean and returns years later to lay their own eggs. |
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| One of the many river channels and canals we traveled looking for wildlife. |
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| Another lodge’s guide pointing out a bird, monkey or other animal. |
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| Unidentified butterflies/moths in our Laguna Lodge garden. Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
