Category Archives: Destinations

Gateway: San Jose, Costa Rica

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San Jose, Costa Rica is a pleasant enough city but it pales in comparison to the many delights to be found elsewhere in the country.  There are lots of hotel chains here so good opportunities to use your points but please don’t hang around the city just because there are some good Pointbreaks!  Get out there and see Costa Rica!

GETTING THERE

You will need a Central American award ticket and all the major alliances have flights to SJO.

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United Airlines has flights from Chicago, Houston, New York & Washington

US Airways (due to merge with AA in early 2014) has flights from Charlotte

Air Canada has flights from Toronto

Copa has flights from Guatemala City, Managua, Panama City, San Pedro Sula & Tegucigalpa.

Avianca-Taca (incl Lacsa) has flights from Bogota, Caracas, Guatemala City, Lima, Managua, Mexico City, Miami, Panama City, San Pedro Sula, San Salvador & Tegucigalpa.

ONE WORLD

American Airlines has flights from Dallas New York & Miami

Iberia has flights from Madrid

SKYTEAM

Delta has flights from Atlanta & Los Angeles

Aeromexico has flights from Mexico City

GETTING TO & FROM THE AIRPORT & AROUND TOWN

Of course taxis are always an option and once you are in town they are reasonably cheap, around $3-5 in Colones.  You can also use the Alajuela bus to get from the airport to the Alajuela terminal for around $1, then use a taxi to your final destination.  If you have arrived from elsewhere in Costa Rica, all bus lines will finish here.  You may need to change terminals to go elsewhere in Costa Rica.

IMG_1346 IMG_1347 IMG_1399When leaving Costa Rica, be sure to save enough cash to pay the departure tax.  You could use a credit card but it will post as a cash advance.  Be careful with the ATMs as some of them have low maximum withdrawals of $400 so if you need more than that you have to do multiple transactions.

IMG_1401 IMG_1402The duty free & shopping area in the airport as you depart have a nice variety of shops selling the usual duty free booze, cigarettes, perfumes and some nice handicrafts.  There were some sales on the jewelry, buy 2 get 1 free.  I was a good customer here!

IMG_1403 IMG_1405 IMG_1406 IMG_1407 IMG_1408 IMG_1409 IMG_1410WHERE TO STAY ON POINTS

As you may expect with a large capital city, San Jose is well supplied with chain hotels at reasonable prices.  Unless you get a really good deal on a city hotel, I would stay near the airport for convenience.

CLUB CARLSON

Park Inn – 38,000 points

Country Inn & Suites – 9000 points

HILTON

Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton San Jose-Airport – 30-40,000 points

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cariari San Jose – Costa Rica – 20-30,000 points

HYATT

Hyatt Place San Jose/Pinares – 8000 points

IHG

6 options including a Holiday Inn Express near the airport for 15,000 points and an Intercontinental for 30,000 points.

MARRIOTT

Courtyard San Jose Airport – 15,000 points

STARWOOD

Aloft San Jose – 7000 points

Sheraton San Jose – 7000 points

We only spend one night here at the Park Inn because there was a mistake rate posted on FlyerTalk for 5000 points.  Otherwise, we would have stayed at either the HIX or Hampton Inn near the airport.

WHAT TO DO IN SAN JOSE

(Emphasis on things of interest to birders)

Visit the Ara Project at Alajuela if they haven’t moved to Punta Islita yet.

Visit parks to see Crimson-fronted Conures frolicking in the trees.

Wet parrots near the Hampton Inn

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The next morning was nice and sunny so we saw dry Crimson-fronted Conures & a few pigeons near the Alajuela bus station.

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The Tambopata Macaw Project Talk

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Dr Donald Brightsmith, the manager of the Tambopata Macaw Project gives a lecture on the use of the clay lick by the various parrot species.  He also shows how the researchers study the growth of the baby parrots.

If you would like to see this amazing place for yourself, start with my article here and also learn how the use of frequent flier miles can get you all the way to Puerto Maldonado so all you have to pay is the taxes and the cost of the Tambopata Research Centre package!

Part 3: Birding At Savegre, Costa Rica – Hotel Grounds

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In this final chapter of my series about birding in Savegre, I would like to point out the delights of birding around the grounds of the Savegre Hotel.  In most places, there is a definite siesta time during which birds are inactive around mid-day and the best time to see them is in the early morning and late afternoon.  Hummingbirds, however need to feed every 15 minutes so you can spend many happy hours just watching them fly around the grounds and sipping nectar from the feeders.  There are also lots of flowers for them to feed on.  Not only can you see the Hummingbirds, there are also various Woodpeckers, Tanagers, Warblers and many other birds.  A complete bird list is here.  These photos were taken over 2 days just in the grounds of the Savegre Hotel.

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Part 2: Birding At Savegre, Costa Rica – Nature Reserve

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After our visit with the beautiful Resplendent Quetzals, we went back to the lodge where Marino returned the SUV and we headed off on our walk.

Hotel Savegre is proud to offer visitors the opportunity to visit our private nature reserve of almost 400 hectares (988 acres) through a network of trails of around 30 km. (18.6 miles) that start and end at the hotel. The reserve has a spectacularly high level biodiversity that attracts visitors from all over the world. It is also a scientific field research site, but for our guests it is mostly a place of great peace and tranquility.
Part of the reserve is secondary forest regrowth, once felled for cattle grazing but which we decided years ago to return to its natural state. Four of the six trails are interconnected and visitors are given a trail map to explore the forest in complete safety. However, we recommend you use a naturalist guide to better see and interpret everything this life-giving world can tell you, and so you don’t miss a single detail that might otherwise escape you.

We invite you to explore our reserve by walking the trails we have carefully designed to meet the interests and physical capabilities of our guests. They are graded according to their difficulty from 1 (very easy) to 5 (technically challenging) in terms of length and terrain. To help you choose which trail is best for you, we also give the distance and approximate time it takes from and returning to the hotel:

It’s a beautiful area with streams running through, lots of trees except for one open field and a small lake.  We saw quite a few birds, including the Sulphur-winged Conure.  I had been hoping for Barred Parakeets as well but they are rare that time of year (Aug-Sept).  These photos are of the birds we saw on the forest walk.  A complete bird list for Savegre/San Gerardo de Dota is found here.

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Marino Chacon

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Part 1: Birding At Savegre, Costa Rica – Resplendant Quetzals

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Yesterday, I reviewed the Savegre Hotel & Spa.  Today I will tell you about the birding experiences and the guide.  Our guide was Marino Chacon, a member of the founding family of Savegre Hotel.  You can read the history of his family here.  Marino knows the local birds well and has a scope to help you see them better.

As with most birding excursions, you start early in the morning.  You can either book a visit to the Resplendent Quetzal area or a 5 hour tour which includes a birding hike in the forest behind the lodge which is your best chance to see Sulphur-winged Conures.

By the time we got to the Quetzal area, another group of birders had beat us there so it was easy to find them.  We saw 6 in all which is not bad for the slow season.  There were 2 adult males, 2 adult females and 2 juvenile males.  Here are a  few pics of the Quetzals and some other birds in their habitat.

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Getting From Tarcoles To Savegre With Public Transport

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A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post on getting around Costa Rica.  This route is a perfect chance to show you how easy it is to get from one Costa Rican birding Mecca to another.  You do not need prior reservations, just hop on the next bus.  None of the buses we took were full, but we were traveling in the slow season.

A – Tarcoles
B – San Jose
C – Savegre

The bus stop nearest to our accommodation at Villas Lapas is on the main road and buses travel every hour to the capital city of San Jose.  There are no direct buses to Savegre, as in most cases you will need to change in San Jose.

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Across the street from the bus stop is a small shop.  I went over there to get some drinks and was surprised to hear the squawking of a parrot nearby close to the ground.  I played “dumb tourist” to investigate further.  I was dismayed and shocked to see a forlorn looking White-fronted Amazon and Orange-fronted Conure in tiny cages.  I really wanted to let them out but feared repercussions with the law so I snapped a couple pics quickly before the people in the house came out.

IMG_0973 IMG_0969 IMG_0968I knew at my next destination, Savegre; someone would know how to report this to the authorities and if they didn’t, Ara Project would.

IMG_0975The bus came and we bought tickets from the driver for around $8-ish.  The ride to San Jose is nothing special as it goes on the highway, but there were some interesting views.

IMG_0978 IMG_0980 IMG_0981Once in San Jose, we had to change from the Puntarenas bus station to the Musoc bus station.  We bought some sandwiches from Subway to bring with us for the 2nd leg of the trip, then used a taxi to get to the Musoc station which has moved from where it shows on the map below.  Unfortunately, there is no central bus station in San Jose so you have to use taxis to get from one to another.

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We bought tickets for a bus leaving in 15 minutes (service is roughly every 60-90 minutes) and had to scramble to find a payphone to call the Savegre Lodge so they could meet us at the drop off point.  We couldn’t find one so the ticket lady finally made the call for us.  The buses go to San Isidro de Perez Zeledon and you should buy a ticket for the “indirecto” or “colectivo” service.  Make sure the driver knows to drop you at Km 80 for San Gerardo de Dota.

IMG_0982 IMG_0984 IMG_0985 IMG_0986This journey was beautiful with the spectacular mountain scenery.  One stop was made at a small cafe for snacks and pit stops.  Half an hour later, the bus pulled over to KM 80 (we had asked him to let us know as we were tourists and unfamiliar with the area) and the truck from Savegre was waiting for us to begin our next adventure!

If you Google map this route, it looks like you are being dropped off in the middle of nowhere.  Actually, there is a small cafe at the junction.   The road leads to the small town of San Gerardo de Dota.

 

 

Mangrove Birding Tour, Tarcoles, Costa Rica

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Although there are several tour operators for these Tarcoles River cruises, only one caters to birders.  It’s called Mangrove Birding Tour but the hotels such as Villa Lapas will know it better if you tell them you want Luis Campos.  He is a specialist in birding cruises and knows all the local species quite well.  His boat is smaller than the main ones that cater to tourist groups so he can get into smaller inlets and closer to shore.  You will see the difference in the photos below.  If you don’t have a car, he will send someone to pick you up.  The driver took us down to the beach beforehand to see Scarlet Macaws and fishing boats (what fishing boats, LOL).  You will be picked up around 7am-ish and it’s about a 2 hour cruise.

I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story!

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Other Sights & Shopping In Tarcoles, Costa Rica

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Carara may be the major draw for eco-tourists to Tarcoles but there are other places to see as well.  See my post on how to get there if you haven’t already.

TARCOLES VILLAGE

Has restaurants, shops & tour operators.  You can book a Tarcoles River cruise here.

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Contrived & touristy but since it’s on the way to all the other attractions you might as well take a look.  If you do a Crocodile Man tour, you will see them jump for food.  I didn’t bother with this, not my cup of tea.  There are a couple small shops nearby.

IMG_5559 IMG_5557 IMG_5561 IMG_5562MOLAS & CAFE

Large souvenir shop with an attached cafe.  Molas actually come from Panama but you can get them here at reasonable prices (but more expensive than Panama) and the shop takes credit cards.  If you come with a guide, they will get a commission but if you are on a cruise ship stop, you won’t have time to avoid this.

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Carara National Park, Costa Rica

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Carara National Park in Costa Rica is one of the best places in the world to see Scarlet Macaws.  They flock to the palm trees to eat the nuts and their bright red feathers make them stand out.

GETTING THERE

First see how to get to Costa Rica using a Central America award.  Then you can either rent a car or take the bus or tourist shuttle bound for Jaco and get off at the park entrance.  You can also get a bus from Puntarenas which is a popular cruise ship port.  On a previous visit, we were on a Panama Canal cruise that stopped in Puntarenas and booked a private tour with Odyssey Tours which I highly recommend. Our guide, Alvaro from Odyssey Tours  showed up before 7am and handed us to his birding guide-Nestor who studies biology and knows birds very well. We headed off to Carara National Park to see the scarlet macaws, this is one of the rare places in the world where they are common and can be easily found. The trails were muddy because the first rain of the season had been the previous night and we were struggling to stay on our feet. My husband was the first to fall flat on his back-not hurt but got all muddy. I later fell on my side because I was protecting my camera.

Location of Carara National Park

If you are on a land based trip, I recommend you stay at Villa Lapas.  Yes, it is older and could use some renovations but if you are there for the birds, you can’t beat the location on the south side of Carara National Park and chance to see the macaws and other birds on the grounds.   You can walk to the main part of Carara from here as well if you don’t mind the heat.

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In the map above which I found on Go Visit Costa Rica, I have highlighted the path you need to follow to see the macaws.  You will need a ticket first which costs $10 at the ticket office.  Then walk or drive to where I indicated “Path to palm trees”.  Go as early in the morning as possible to see the macaws fly in and enjoy a breakfast of palm nuts.  We spent about an hour here watching a family of Scarlet Macaws fly back and forth bringing nuts to another apparently more comfortable tree to eat them.  Then we went back to the main office area and took the trail to the right (yellow highlights).  By this time it was getting closer to noon when birds tend to take a siesta so we didn’t see much, just some leaf cutter ants and a cool looking frog.

When we did the tour with Odyssey, they took us to a local Costa Rican diner for lunch, then in the afternoon we saw more birds including a Violaceous Trogon and Turquoise-browed Motmot (the one with the long racquet-tail).  A complete bird list can be found here.

PHOTOS

There’s a lot here as I just couldn’t get enough of the Scarlet Macaws!  Lighting was poor but I did my best!

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Traveling From Monteverde To Tarcoles Via Limonal

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Last week, I did a post about the various types of transport in Costa Rica.  In this post, I will show you in detail what the trip is like between Monteverde and Tarcoles (Carara National Park).

I really should have booked this online but I waited on purpose so that Cala Lodge could make the booking and get a small commission as it would have cost me the same in any case.  As it turns out, they don’t have that set up so I might as well have booked it online.  I chose Grayline because it had the latest possible departure from Monteverde and I wanted to have the early morning to visit Monteverde’s Cloud Forest Reserve.

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Although Jaco is the main tourist area in southern Costa Rica, birders would be heading to Carara National Park to see the magnificent Scarlet Macaws.  Carara doesn’t appear in the drop-down menu, nor does Villa Lapas Lodge or Tarcoles.  Just pick the closest drop-off point and explain to the driver where you really want to go.

The minibus was right on time picking us up at Cala Lodge.

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Not sure of the name of the place but we picked up some other tourists there and I loved the stained glass windows!

IMG_0754aI had been expecting that the same minibus would take us all the way to Tarcoles/Jaco and was somewhat annoyed when I found out we had to change buses in Limonal, a place I was not familiar with.

A – Monteverde
B – Limonal
Yellow circle – Palo Verde National Park

My annoyance quickly changed to excitement when we got to the restaurant at Limonal were we did the changeover.  It turned out to be a short distance from Palo Verde National Park and frequented by wild Scarlet Macaws!  Unlike the clipped-wing Yellow Naped Amazon from the other trip, these birds were free but chose to hang out here, probably to steal food left by passengers.

IMG_0769 IMG_0755 IMG_0763 IMG_0766 IMG_0767 IMG_0770I finally managed to tear myself away from them long enough to buy a couple sandwiches, chips & drinks to take on the next bus to Tarcoles.  This was a larger bus and had the free wifi which was good because the scenery wasn’t so interesting on this leg, at least not until Puntarenas.

A – Monteverde
B – Limonal
C – Tarcoles

You can see how twisty the road was from Montverde as we came down the mountain and I was really glad that I wasn’t driving.  The road from Limonal to Puntarenas was a typical highway which got narrower between Puntarenas and Tarcoles.  The driver dropped us off at Villa Lapas which is right next to Carara National Park.  I really liked the door-to-door convenience of these shuttles even if they were more expensive than public buses.  From Montverde, the public bus left way too early, around 6am so wasn’t an option.

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