Costa Rica Susan

JIm Survives the Tapir Trail

This top pic is the view at the climax of their trip. Look at how clean everyone is at the start (bottom pic). The heliconia leaves were laid down, in place of a tarp, to keep the tent floor dry and clean. An Orange-kneed Tarantula blessed the trail.

post-wedding celebration

a fun time was had by all in fantasy land. A year later, they argue like an old married couple.

When we met Manolo's Family

It was love at first sight.

The prince and princess were wed, a ceremony officiated by Val.

Don't Bug Me

These metalic-gold colored beetles are easily found in April-May when their life cycle ends. They say some people used to wear them like jewelry.

Risky Roads

Blue-Crowned Motmots

Birds visiting our back yard. They especially like to capture the bugs that hop around after I turn the compost under the soil.

The look on the faces of the coffee tour guides was one of incredulous delight. One guide has been doing night tours and nature photography for ten years and this was the first time he saw an ocelot in-person in Costa Rica.

I was accompanying our friends on a tour of Don Juan's coffee finca with Brandon when a breathless guide came rushing in to tell Brandon about the cat he had seen resting in one of the trees. I called Jim at home to come with the camera and he was able to snap these pictures ten minutes later. The cat stayed for hours. I think he managed to get a little sleep.

Meanwhile a mother motmot was a bit annoyed because we were blocking the way to her tunnel nest. I put my ear to the hole in the cut-side of a small hill and could hear the babies' unearthly cry. A guide spotted the Blue-Crowned Motmot parent nearby with a cricket visible in it's mouth. The guide said the motmots can build a nest as deep as two meters into the side of a cliff-edge.

After the babies grow and leave the nest, she said, it is common for a tarantula to move into the miniature cave, as it is just the right size.