bird photography

Beside the Lens #4 /  by Stephanie White

Monteverde - The Cloud Forest

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If there was one thing Rob and I had really wanted to do in Costa Rica, it was zip line. Last year in Alaska, we passed up the zip lining excursion in the rainforest for financial reasons. We were not going to pass up the opportunity again. Visiting Costa Rica, you'll quickly learn you can zip line just about anywhere.  In researching the country, I'd read so much about this beautiful, majestic, must-visit place called Monteverde -- the cloud forest. So what is a cloud forest? Basically, clouds blow in from the ocean to the mountains, and get caught in the trees. The the water droplets (like the one pictured below) collect on the leaves of the trees in a process called lateral cloud filtering. Believe it or not, lateral cloud filtering accounts for more than half of the annual precipitation in the forest! Interesting huh? 

In reading numerous Trip Advisor reviews about our hotel, I heard about this local tour guide, Herson. He offered private tours to Monteverde, and guaranteed he'd take us to an awesome zip lining tour. Excited and well rested, we were up and at 'em by 6 AM!

Rob in the hotel, up before 6 AM, and smiling!! 

Rob in the hotel, up before 6 AM, and smiling!! 

We met Herson in the lobby, and got in his car to start our 3+ hour drive to Monteverde. About a half hour into our drive, we stopped for Casado, traditional Costa Rican breakfast, at a Soda outside Liberia. This was probably my favorite breakfast Casado I tasted while in the country. The plaintains were so ripe, so delicious. And Rob said they had the best bacon he'd tasted in the country. Which is a big deal, Rob's a bacon connoisseur!

Soda outside Libera

Soda outside Libera

Following our tasty breakfast, we experienced Tico driving, firsthand. There are pretty much no rules when it comes to driving in Costa Rica. Even through construction zones! I'd never seen cars go around the orange barriers to pass a car in a construction zone. I'm pretty sure I saw a police car do it too. Herson was zipping past cars, we were practically in their back seat. What the heck did I get myself into now!! Why did I trust this stranger with my life?

The Costa Rican Massage kicked in once we got off the main highway, Route 1. The majority of their roads are un-paved, and make for a rocky ride. About a 2 hour bumpy ride. I should have taken my dramamine!

The drive was beautiful though. Not quite half way, we stopped at a local town, where many Macaw birds have been living for years. Evidently they are well-fed from tourists, though you're instructed not to feed the birds. It was difficult to photograph the birds, as the early morning light, and canopy shaded their magnificent color. Here's what we saw.

Blue and Gold Macaw

Blue and Gold Macaw

Scarlet Macaws

Scarlet Macaws

I somehow missed the Toucans, which was really disappointing. If you don't already know, I love cereal. Fruit Loops was one of my childhood favs, I wanted to see Toucan Sam!

Keel-billed Toucan, one of 42 Toucan species in Latin America.

Keel-billed Toucan, one of 42 Toucan species in Latin America.

The three of us got back in the car and drove. We rarely saw other vehicles on our drive through the small town roads. When we reached Monteverde, our first stop was for a hummingbird and butterfly exhibit. 

Blue Morpho

Blue Morpho

The Owl Butterfly is the largest butterfly in Costa Rica. These two will mate for 24 hours, then the male will die. 

Owl Butterflies Mating

Owl Butterflies Mating

Hummingbirds need to eat on average 7 times per hour for about 30-60 seconds.

Green-crowned Brilliant

Green-crowned Brilliant

A hummingbird's brilliant color is not caused by feather pigmentation, but by iridescence in the arrangement of the feathers and the influence of light level, moisture and other factors. 

Violet Sabrewing

Violet Sabrewing

We stopped in Monteverde to walk around a bit, and have Casado again. We couldn't get enough of it!

Casado con bistek

Casado con bistek

Tummy's full, it was time to zip line! We arrived at Monteverde Extremo Canopy Tour. We were greeted by about a dozen tourists, stoked about zip lining or bungee jumping. http://monteverdeextremo.com/ We also met this fellow.

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Strapped in and ready to go, we headed out with about 10 other participants. Luckily, we all spoke English. So instructions weren't too difficult to follow. We had 13 zip lines ahead of us, a Tarzan Swing, and The Superman! Oh yeah!!!

Ready to Zip Line!

Ready to Zip Line!

The most ridiculous-awesome-terrifying part of this adventure (besides the thunder and lightening on the last 3 zip lines) was the Tarzan Swing. I didn't realize we had signed up for this, but when in Costa Rica, I gotta do it. They basically push you off this platform and you freefall until the rope swing catches you and swings like a pendullum. Well, after doing this, I don't ever have the desire to bungee jump! I'll take the sky diving instead! Waiting for that rope to catch... even though it was for a few split seconds -- was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I've ever experienced. Rob too I bet - you be the judge - watch this video!

The last zip line was a Superman, where you lay across your stomach. At this point, the rain was pouring down, thunder was booming and lighting in the distance. Every bit of common sense was telling me, not to climb this metal staircase, and fly around on these metal poles. But there was only 1 way back to the car. And we had quite a distance to cover on this last zip line. Not sure how the Go Pro footage looks with the rain and such, but here's what we didn't see because our eyes were closed!

This day was pretty rad. I wasn't sure how it could possibly get any better. When low and behold, a sloth was crossing the street! A SLOTH! Only in Costa Rica! We didn't get any great photos of the darn animal, even though they move so slow. But it was pretty darn cool to see if you ask me!

And after another 3 hour Costa Rican massage, in the freezing cold air conditioning of Herson's car, we made it back to Condovac safe and sound. 

Beside the Lens #3 /  by Stephanie White

"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.