Return From Paradise

This was our first experience of being here at the treehouse in Guanacaste Costa Rica for the transition from Dry Season to Green Season. As we prepare to leave to return to Toronto in a couple of days, everything is becoming much greener as the leaves are coming out everywhere around us. Some good heavy rains and a few brief days of humidity that we have not experienced here before. We took many photos.

Jeanne and I saw our first Anteater near the treehouse one dark, rainy evening while returning up the mountain from dinner. And of course we saw the Squirrel Cuckoos, the Motmots, the Trogons, the Magpie-Jays, the Rufous- naped Wrens, the Toucanets, the Puff bird, the Nightjars, the Parakeets, the Roadside Hawk, the Tinamou, the Flycatchers, the Gnatcatchers, the Kiskadees, the Hummingbirds, the Hoffmann Woodpeckers, the Thick-Knees, the Vultures, the Doves, the Pelicans, the Frigate Birds, and the Egrets. Every couple of days the always fascinating Howler Monkeys came to the trees by the treehouse to say hello.

This time of year the beaches are almost totally deserted; there is virtually no road traffic, and few tourists in evidence. After Semana Santa (Easter week) everything here slows down dramatically.

We had a good overnight trip and stay at the small and quaint Rinconcita Lodge which is in the Rincon de la Vieja National Park – just a couple of hours from here. We go to the Rincon the back way where the road is cut through the dazzling white tuff (a soft deposit comprised of lava, ash, and mud) countryside of Liberia and hike near the Santa Maria ranger station (photo taken heading towards storm at base of a volcano in the Rincon de la Vieja National Park).

We met some new people, had a great fish dinner at Villa Deevena in Playa Negra – Patrick and Tasia (from France) www.villadeevena.com We also dined at Café Playa Negra (Carlos), the Iguanazul, Guacamaya Lodge and La Iguana (Mary’s Place). We enjoyed one evening having cocktails at The Marriott in Hacienda Pinilla. Hacienda Pinilla, and their golf course is now only an easy twenty minutes away directly over the back mountain northeast from La Pura Jungla.

Saw a couple of new (at least to us) birds - Puff Birds, Toucanets, and a Green-backed Heron (by our pond). Also we saw two little male Norops Lizards (conspicuous feature is their colourful dewlap on their throat that the males display, and retract, as a territorial display)

The new improved and paved highway in to the nearby village of Paraiso is a godsend along with its night-time reflective red cat’s eyes and a thoughtful, safe bicycle\pedestrian\ oxcart lane. This now makes the drive to Santa Cruz a comfortable twenty five minutes and an hour to the Liberia Airport. A new air conditioned well-stocked grocery store and deli recently opened over at Tierra Pacifica.

Interestingly, one of our Canadian house guests aptly once said in their comments: “If you do not enjoy it at the treehouse and in Costa Rica, then the problem is with you!” We love it here.

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