We decided to visit Carara National Park today. Established in 1998 as a national park, Carara National Park (which means "river of lizards" in the Huetar indigenous language) is a favorite destination for bird watchers due to its immense amount of primary rain forest. It is also home to one of the largest population of Scarlet Macaws in Costa Rica. Surprisingly, we didn’t see any in the park!!!
It is in the transition zone between the tropical dry rain forest and tropical rain forest. This mesh of two habitats means flora and fauna from both live in one area, making it an extremely biologically rich zone. Due to the humidity and abundance of trees, there are a lot of insects in this area and in turn, many birds since there is so much food.
There are two sections of this park and we took the northern trail.
As we approached the main entrance to the park, a guide met our car and we negotiated a price for a tour – 42,000 Colones (about $70 USD) for the four of us. The entrance fee is $10 plus service fee per person.
Our guide, Franklin Sanchez, did a great job. Again, I don’t know how anyone can spot near the amount of birds that we saw without a guide. Well worth the price! Today you get pictures – lots of pictures – most of them taken with my phone through the spotting scope!
Rainforest - Carara National ParkBat Northern Ghost
Female Blue throated golden tailed hummingbird
Turquoise browed motmot
Crested guan
White whisker puffbird
Capuchin Monkey
Black throated trogan - female
Male Black throated trogon
Howler Monkey
Our Guide, Franklin
Tobey by the buttress roots of a fig tree
Rufous tailed jacamar flycatcher
We arrived back at the parking lot and still had not seen any toucans or macaws! We hopped in the car with Franklin in tow and drove to an area outside the park where he spotted a couple nesting areas for the Scarlet Macaws.
Scarlet MacawWe didn’t get to see any toucans today, but I am confident we will before the trip is over!
Franklin had lunch with us at Steven Lisa’s Restaurant in Tarcoles then we were on our way back to Jaco. It was cloudy, but we all put on our swimsuits and headed out to the beach to cool off. We spotted something washed up on the beach and couldn’t decide what it was from a distance. Then the lifeguards called the police. A huge sea turtle had washed ashore and was dead. It looked like a fishing line had gotten wrapped around its neck. They dug a big hole in the sand and buried it. It was pretty sad. Tonight we picked up pizza and played some cards. Pura Vida!
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