"Costa Rica's For The Birds!"
Sunday, September 7
I've never been a fan of birds. Except for Puffins, they're one of my favorite animals. You see, there was an incident nearly 25 years ago at a pet store in Pittsburgh. A certain large, white cockatoo (like the one pictured below from google) was openly flying around the store and decided my head looked like a pleasant place to land. Screaming and crying, I dropped to the floor in the fetal position. Intimidating looking bird, right?
But my attitude toward birds has since changed after our Costa Rican adventure. It may be, in part, because of the numerous and diverse bird species. They were stunningly beautiful. I was in awe of their vibrant coloring and unique sounds. The complexity of their songs, chip notes and call notes somehow wasn't annoying, like every morning dove outside my window in high school. I think this is one way you can tell you're getting older. When birds quit annoying you, and instead, you start waking up to see the birds, not caring if they wake you up in the morning. Yup, I'm old.
Rob had heard from other guests at the hotel there was a hiking trail on site. Eventually, we located said trail on the hotel's property, but it wasn't exactly used for hiking. It was a zip lining trail. But it got us eye-level with many tree-tops.
We heard a lot of birds, but realized the true difficulty in photographing these swift animals. For one, they're constantly on the move. Secondly, many are very small, and third, the canopy of trees provides tough lighting to shoot. We had hoped to see other animals besides birds, But this particular morning brought only birds and bugs. Here are a few moments Rob was able to capture from that morning.
The rain came early, just after noon. We were are the pool, and took shelter at the pool bar. The hotel had arranged for a Marimba Band to perform, so it worked out well to be entertained while it poured outside. I had the opportunity to play in the band. I thought my training in piano would come in handy, but it didn't. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity though.
The night ended with dinner at another beautiful restaurant on the coast, called Roberto's. Again, we were one of only two tables, but this time we were accompanied by a dog. She had just birthed puppies a few weeks earlier, and was pretty hungry for food. The portions at Roberto's were nothing less of American-size portions, so this dog ate well.
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