An Englishman in a baseball cap – Costa Rica 2006
There are fewer more distressing sights than that of an Englishman in a baseball cap,
according to rocknroll animal Pete Doherty. Seeing as said piece of apparel doesn’t have quite the same chav cachet in central American as in Great Yarmouth and is actually almost de riguer over there I thought one might help me blend in and avoid the oft reported muggings and robberies. So, after an uneventful flight sitting next a nice, young and very nervous German girl (caused by flying, not my presence… I think) I strode along the tarmac of the refreshingly balmy Juansantamaria airport, clutching my copy of Graham Speight’s cracking 1990 trip reort, mentally rehearsing my Spanish – Hola, soy un amigo de Paulo Wanchope. Si Manchester United muy bueno… and other necessary horrors.
Oh, why Costa Rica? I dunno. It’s got a lot of ‘restricted range’ birds, is cheap (!) and I quite fancied seeing Bare-necked Umbrellabird, Three-wattled Bellbird, Quetzal, Snowcap and a few new antbirds, hummers and woodcreepers. Plus I’d always wanted to go since getting that trip report as a kid lister from Whitehouse’s FBRIS.
First hurdle is always negotiating the dodgy taxi drivers and getting a good deal. I singled out the one with the least air of malevolence about him and a whiff of aftershave rather than sweat. The capital was small, not always a good thing as I means you’re never far away from the less salubrious parts. Found my hotel eventually and managed to get a room by telling them the whopper that I’d reserved one on the internet. The check in desk area was full of young couples in various states of undress and amouressness…. Mmmm.
The very nice bloke found me a spare room and I flopped down on the bed, turned on the TV only to be greeted by porn of the hardcore variety. Resultado! I decided not to complain, about that or the fact that everyone in the hotel seemed to be getting some apart from me...,had a beer and tried to keep my mind on planning the morning’s quick trip to Cerro de la Muerte. Took an early cab to the bus station in glorious sunshine, discovering only a couple of people there. It’s a nice low rise city with little traffic and lots of greenery. Bought a ticket in half decent Spanish and had a quick breakfast of some slightly spicy pastry things. Oh yeah, there were some Clay-coloured Robins and Great-tailed Grackles knocking around.
Being such a small country all bus journeys are under six hours and it was only two up to the Cerro. Rest stop about halfway produced Mountain Robins and a gorgeous if a little gaudy Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher. Game on. Piled on to La Georgina – the famous place for cheapskate birders like me. No $100 lodges in the Savegre valley for this boy. If only I had the cash…. La Georgina at Km95 is much better placed. The little $15 cabin is very nice with an amazing view over the cloud forest. I started off about 10:00 am with a cup of the local coffee and a piece of Banana cake while sitting at their hummingbird feeders. The sedate start was not an omen of the birding to come in the next few days… Volcano Hummer was the first regional endem to fall, a beautiful little thing, Magnificent hummer and the stunning Fiery-throated followed quickly. And more cake was consumed. And more coffee. After two cups I started feeling a bit strange, having a sudden desire to run around for a few hours. They could dye it white, wrap it in paper and make a fortune with it back in Chavland. Boy, is it good coffee…
but back to the birds…. A walk down the trails into beautiful elfin forest behind my cabina produced several new birds including Sooty and Mountain Robins, Collared Redstart Ruddy Treerunner, Yellow-thighed Finches and fantastically yellow Wilson’s Warblers. Both Zeledonia and Silvery-fronted Tapaculo were calling tantaisingly nearby but I couldn’t tempt either out…yet. The rest of the day was spent walking the numerous trails, trying not to get lost and finding time to appreciate some of the real stunners like Black-throated Green Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler and Flame-throated Warbler. The last hour was spent sitting at the head of a valley soaking up the awesome views and looking out to the Pacific Ocean in the distance while wrens and flycatchers and tangers buzzed around. I was just ready for packing up when my Nikons focussing suddenly froze. Nightmare. There was no shifting it. It wasn’t just stiff due to the altitude it was well *******. Thanks Nikon. Don’t think I’ll be buying any more of your stuff. After cursing myself for not bringing my faithful 7 x 42 dialyts I had to quickly come up with a plan to rescue the situation. The guy at the resaurant lent me his tools and I set about the bins, aided by a cold beer. After a few minutes fiddling it became obvious I had to rip out the focussing wheel and mechanism. This was hard as it was so stuck the threads wouldn’t move and I had to ‘snap’ it off. This resulted in the eyepiece being able to be focussed, but independently. Meaning I had to use just the right eyepiece for the rest of the holiday… not the nightmare it sounds really. After 10 minutes you stop noticing altogether and it actually seemed to focus my mind more on the bird and important features. And LGRE has done fine using half a pair of bins for years…
more to follow as and when i can be arsed and workload/sobriety allows
Hey Tim, sounds like a good start! Look forward to hearing the rest of it!
Cheers,
ANDY
Nice one, Tim. Look forward to more adventures of TA.
John.