I had a vision of wrapping up our Costa Rica adventure with a few lazy days at the beach. We would read our books, banter about our favorite moments of the trip, and take turns cooling off in the waves while alternately guarding our bags from thieving monkeys. Alas, the one drawback of traveling to the rainforest during rainy season is, well, rain.
We’ve been pretty lucky, really. We like to get our days started early, and fortunately for us, the rain tends to hold off till after lunch. Nevertheless, we’re not having the “beach weather” I envisioned. Instead of lounging at the beach, we’re lounging at the pool, in our room, and on our terrace here at Cristal Ballena Boutique Hotel & Spa.
When I booked this place, I didn’t realize it was named one of nine “Costa Rica Birding Hotspots.” The hotel has recorded 200 bird species on site, and I am surprisingly obsessed by this.
Do you know the collective noun for a group of toucans? It’s a “durante.”
Do you know why I know that? Because a durante of yellow-throated toucans hung out in the tree next to me at breakfast on Tuesday! I counted seven. They were fascinating to watch with their top-heavy bodies. They hop like a wind-up toy up the tree branches and then soar to other trees. Two smacked beaks together repeatedly; not sure if that was aggressive behavior or if they were just playing.
We tackled the hotel’s rainforest trail, which was a mess of slippery mud after all the recent rainfall. The only real excitement was finding this track. We figured it could only have been a snake, so we tentatively poked around the area in hopes of finding a boa, but no luck. The trail ended at this huge stand of bamboo. When you see how tall it grows, it’s hard to believe it’s not indigenous.
After reading on the terrace and napping, we decided to check out Uvita Beach for lunch. We thought google maps was messing with our heads or that we just never really found the right place, but later I read that the beach essentially disappears at high tide, and there were no beachfront shops or restaurants because there was literally no beachfront.
I had heard of the restaurant at La Cusinga Lodge, so we decided to check it out. Holy moly, what an incredible place! We were greeted at the parking area and led to the Aracari Restaurant, high on the hill looking out over the jungle and the ocean. That would have been fabulous enough, but then a howler monkey put on a little show for us. He climbed from tree to tree, plucking off flowers and shoving them in his mouth. His prehensile tail wrapped around a branch while he dangled to grab a snack or reached precariously far to grab the next limb in his path. Finally, he found a good spot in the canopy to curl up for a snooze. A couple other howler monkeys came along and woke him up, and they all wandered off after a while.
This was our view, and our monkey friend is right smack in the middle, climbing down the tree.
As we prepared to leave, we noticed a delivery truck blocking our car. At the same time, I saw a sign pointing to the beach. “Let’s check out the beach while we wait for that guy to move,” I said. We took off down the path. It turned out to be a long, steep, muddy path. But it was SO worth it! We finally emerged from the jungle at this little pristine stretch of sand. Not another soul in sight. I was elated. Of course, I immediately kicked off my shoes and waded into the warm water. Rain or no rain, I will be returning to this beach for a proper swim.
Decomposers, important components in the food chain (as we learned in third grade last year).
We did not expect this to be so hard.
Almost there!
The rest of the day was filled with birdwatching from our terrace: more toucans, some white-crowned parrots, tropical kingbirds (little brown songbirds with yellow tummies), and big brown birds with the coolest name ever, gray-headed chacalacas. Not the best photos, but I blame the birds who refused to stand still.
