We left the Bajo del Tigre trails around 11 and headed back down the mountain but this time on almost all paved road. Whew! what a difference. Once we hit the main highways the traffic was super slow with lots of construction as they are in the midst of making highways into 4 lanes. As in all travel in Costa Rica you aim on 50-60 kms an hour even for “highway” driving. We had 95 km to drive and it took almost 3 hours. We had a bird fly across in front of the car and we were easily able to ID it as a White-throated Magpie Jay. Not any birds that look close to it and I had been waiting to see one. Unfortunately, with lifers like that there are rarely photos. The temperature climbed as we hit the lowlands and was reading 32C outside the car. When we arrived at Cerro Lodge it was around 30C. And humid.

The beautiful lush gardens from the pictures online were crispy, dry and brown. But birds remained. This was the only lodge that made us wait until the actual checkin at 3pm. We had arrived at 1:15. All the other lodges got us into our rooms early but we always expected to have to wait for room cleaning. At Cerro Lodge there was no one cleaning the rooms so really no reason to not let us in early. But Pura Vida, so we birded from the raised restaurant and added 3 lifers while we waited. Scarlet Macaws flew past at a distance but we will see more of them over the next few days. They are the bird that people come to this lodge for. We also added a Cinnamon Hummingbird, Greenish Elaenia and had great views of a Rufous-backed Wren playing around the deck.

Once in the room, we turned on the air conditioner, something we rarely use but man was I hot. And we have an outdoor bathroom! What fun that will be in the dark! LOL.

We ended up with a few creatures in the bathroom but nothing too scary even in the middle of the night.

We birded the grounds and saw more Scarlet Macaws flying past to roost and a few birds came up on Merlin but we did not have the time to figure out calls so hopefully we will get on them in the morning. We did hear and see at a distance the Yellow-naped Amazon, which is a sensitive species here as well as a couple of other parrot species. We enjoyed the sunset from the restaurant and watched Swifts and Nighthawks take to the skies.

We met a family and started chatting and then their guide arrived and it turned out we had met him at the Quetzal tour and spoken to him for a bit and I had asked him for his card. We caught up with what they were seeing and what we had seen and then ordered our dinner. A Pizza, wood-fired! The chef has won awards for the pizzas so of course we had to try one. It was very tasty but I felt the dough in the middle was too thin and it had very few toppings and a wide round of dough. I had one piece of basil on a Margherita pizza? There was more basil on the Bruschetta, which was also delish! They would be shocked at how much I add to mine at home. The surface is covered but maybe basil is expensive here. Anyway, it was tasty, I could have eaten another one.

Next morning we stepped out of our room and had a Turquoise-browed Motmot singing away. Then we heard and saw the Rose-breasted Becard.

We did a quick checklist for 40 minutes and then for the first time we skipped breakfast, it wasn’t included so we opted for the granola bars that have been squished in the bottom of our bags for weeks and headed to Carara NP. There were guides at the gate and so one started chatting with us and eventually asked if we wanted a guide. We talked it over and figured why not, $70US for 3 hours. We had been told that this was an acceptable way to find local guides and Victor seemed knowledgable and had a business doing tours. We left our car in the secure Park parking and Victor drove us 2 km down the highway in his car to another trail still in the National Park that is supposed to be good for birding. There was a local man collecting money for watching cars at this spot, something that is common in Costa Rica and we were happy to pay him to watch Victors car LOL even though they were friends of course but hey it is all about giving back to the locals. We paid him a couple of dollars.

We birded the trail and Victor got us on Scarlet Macaws, also showing us a tree they had used for nesting. The Macaws are LOUD! You would never miss them as the squawking seems to continue while they are in the air.

A bit later Victor spotted a White-whiskered Puffbird.

Victor tried calling in Orange-collared Manakins but though we could hear them respond they did not come close for us to see them. We did finally see a Chestnut-headed Antbird and Jerry managed bad, blurry pictures LOL.

We are at the point that the birds left to find are the more difficult ones to see at the best of time, often easy to hear them calling but trying to find them amongst the foliage or off the trail is frustrating. It was hot 32-34C and humid. Our glasses would steam up when we lifted our bins to them, our hands were sweaty. The sweat was running down our backs and it was only 8am. We have tried in every situation to stay and try to see these birds but the reality is that we just have to accept lifers as heard only – we have done this in the past of course but for the most part it is restricted to really skulky or nocturnal species. Here just the normal little birds that spend their time in the top canopy are neck-breaking to see let alone get a decent picture. Jerry tries beyond what is expected in these circumstances. On the other hand, ants were everywhere, as they always are with some huge colonies and we had some nice views of monkeys.

We did manage views of some great birds but dipped on others. We chose not to add all the heard-only birds like Fiery Aracari. Victor said he heard it but this is one species we want to see and should see so we chose not to add it. Each time we have the discussion about whether to add or not, did we both hear it clear enough, did we try to see it and did we just see a bit of it and finally do you want to add it. It is like twenty questions every time we hear something new.

At 10am Victor took us back to the main entrance and we headed off on our own into the other trails. The forest was marginally cooler by a degree or two and near the river there was a whiff of a cool breeze but make no mistake we were still sweating and uncomfortable. The park was beautiful though.

The water is safe to drink everywhere in Costa Rica which is one less thing to worry about. The tap below is the National Parks “water fill up ” station. Used it and it was fine so appearances can be deceiving.

We found great birds on our own and Jerry finally got pictures of birds we have been hearing. He also found another Puffbird.

We had a very quick view of a Red-capped Manakin and despite our efforts walking back and forth we did not refind it. We heard the Velvety Manakins and spent 10-15 minutes trying in vain to see them. We saw a Crake or Wood Rail of some sort but could not ID it as it moved into deeper brush but that led us to 2 Ruddy Quail-Dove and then a minute later to seeing our first Great Tinamou! We were on fire! Jerry was already deciding we no longer needed a guide LOL.

We saw an Ochre-bellied Flycatcher and actually got pictures! We also had great looks at a Black-hooded Antshrike. And we heard the Riverside Wren numerous times. We also saw our first Poison-dart Frog! that I spotted just off the trail. We showed it to a tour group going past.

We met up with another guide that we had talked to back at Hotel Quelitales and he told us they had found Marbled Wood Quails back along the trail so we paid attention while walking that way. Jerry was walking ahead but I heard some leaves rustling and saw something just off the trail and there were 5 of the Quails, a fantastic bonus and another bird that can be tough to get.

We then headed down the Mangroves along the River Tarcoles. There was a trail that you could find specific Mangrove species on but again it was the hottest part of the day and so we were not successful with seeing or hearing the Mangrove Yellow Warbler or the Mangrove Vireo. We do have another chance at the next lodge so we did not spend a lot of time and we were more than happy to head back to the lodge with the continued heat.

When we finally returned back to the lodge at 3 my body was in rough shape. The heat has been hitting my skin hard for the last week. I had a severe rash above my ankle from sweaty synthetic socks that was itchy and sore. I had sores along my waist and edges of bra straps also from the heat and sweat. But the most concerning was a bite from 4-5 days ago on my thigh that was definitely infected, the red circle around it was expanding and it was hot to the touch. I won’t show you the picture of that, take my word it was ugly. I was using an antibiotic cream but it was not working. I will need to go to a pharmacy. I took pics so I will know if it expands anymore signalling a blood infection.

The Scarlet Macaws were hanging around the Lodge and while I cooled off Jerry took some beautiful pictures.

We cooled off by the pool but the water was so warm it really did not help and then headed into dinner.

The next morning we opted to walk down the road below the Lodge to chase one species. The Double-striped Thick-knee was a bird I had expected to get up at Cano Negro but we missed probably because we were watching for holes in the road instead of birds. Two had been reported yesterday minutes away and this would be my last attempt as we will move into an area they are not found. It was a beautiful morning and I changed from my normal pants and shirts to a shift dress to allow my skin a break. Maybe this will be my new birding ensemble?

We saw lots of species of birds and quickly added a lifer Blue-vented Hummingbird. We scanned the fields as this bird is a bird found in the grasses often around cattle. We scanned and walked, and scanned and walked. We finally got to a spot where the road split and a decision had to be made. I opted to go to the right since there was a farm right along the road as it split. Minutes later I spotted one right beside the fence near the road! Woohoo! I made the right choice. This was really the first “chase” we had done here and it paid off.

On the way back to the Lodge we added one more lifer, a Nuttings Flycatcher, identified by the call more than the looks as it is similar to our Great Crested Flycatcher or the Costa Rican Brown-crested Flycatcher.

Some extra pictures from Cerro Lodge and Carara National Park.

We were back at the lodge at 7am (see how much you can do with a 5:30 sunrise?) and opted to pay for breakfast before heading out for another longer drive to the Osa Peninsula.

We added 32 more species to the year list with 27 of them being lifers.