Trip Home

Day 8--Tuesday February 18
TRIP HOME

Our Daytrip driver, Lindell (left), picked us up in his immaculate BMW at 7:00 am. Poor guy had to get up at 3:00 am to do so. Since I had ridden from the airport to the Lodge in the front seat, Rebecca got the front seat on the way back. When I could not find my charging cord, Lindell loaned me one of his so that I could plug in to the center console and use my cell. 

The early morning drive down the mountains was beautiful but eventful. We passed two motorcycle/car accidents, one cyclist appeared to have a broken leg and the other, from the looks of the two vehicles, may have been a fatality accident. Then, crossing a high bridge we came upon a suicide rescue. All traffic was stopped and a red car was stopped on the opposite side of the bridge, doors open. A man and a woman were restraining a man who was trying to jump. We could not determine whether they were rescue personnel or simply two Good Samaritans who had come upon the man. We also passed a man on a motorcycle putt putting along the road holding a horse by its halter that was trotting along beside him. The horse’s gait was very odd, its lower front feet and legs swinging out almost at right angles. Rebecca had seen this earlier and had tried to describe it to me.

We had paid extra to stop on the way to San Jose and the airport at NATUWA,  a Macaw Sanctuary and Costa Rican wildlife conservation charity working to breed macaws and to rehabilitate birds and other animals so that they could be released back into the wild. But, when we arrived at 8:10, we found the sanctuary gates closed and padlocked. Lindell got on his phone and learned that the first tour of the facility began at 8:00, so he pulled up to the gate and honked. Eventually a man came and unlocked the gate. We entered and parked, the only vehicle there. I walked to the restroom which was in a separate building. The guy who had let us in ran up to the ladies' room door yelling something in Spanish--maybe one was not supposed to use the restroom until paying admission fee? When I returned to the car, I  joined Lindell and Rebecca in applying liberal amounts of insect repellant that Lindell had stored in his trunk. He told us that there were lots of mosquitoes in the area.

The guy who had opened the gate—seemingly the only person in the sanctuary—eventually sat down at a small table at the sanctuary entrance. Here he told us that the tour cost $31.00 each, that the 8:00 tour was already underway, and that we’d have to wait until 9:30 for the next one. That would see us leaving the sanctuary at 11:00 with too little time to feel comfortable about getting to San Jose and making our flight. I glimpsed a sign listing all of the things we should not do on the sanctuary tour. They were necessary rules but harshly presented, I thought:

We were disappointed. I was particularly disappointed as I had looked foreward to visiting the guacamayos, having helped with a study of them in Peru on a 2008 Earthwatch Expedition. Lindell could see our disappointment so said, “Okay. I am taking you to the beach.” I am not sure what town he stopped in. I don't think it was large enough to be Puntarenas but I’m pretty sure we were on the Gulf of Nicoya.

We walked on the dark sand beach a bit where I took a photo of an iguana and tried to take a photo of a blue-tailed skink. I was dressed in black and the sun was hot now that we were at sea level and out of the cloud forest, so we left the beach to sit outdoors at a small restaurant and enjoy a cold drink. Here we added Brown Pelican, Cormorant, Magnificant Frigatebird, and Rock Pigeon to our bird lists. There were many gulls, also but they and the cormorants were too distant to determine species.

Magnificent Frigatebird

Brown Pelicans

Cormorant

Photo  that Suzi sent of an iguana in a tree
 

Lindell dropped us off at the airport in plenty of time for our flight. The airport was jam packed again but we each checked our roller bags, and thus "somewhat" unencumbered made our way through the toll- free shops (where I bought a handmade, wooden Costa Rican mug to add to my country mug collection) and through security to our gate. 

The flight home was uneventful. We arrived in Tulsa at 9:30 pm. Rebecca’s daughter, Carrie, picked us up at the airport. She had invited me to stay overnight at her home in Sand Springs outside of Tulsa so that Jeff would not have to drive after dark. Jeff picked me up the next morning at about 8:30 . . . and that’s all she wrote.

Well, not really. Just want to add that it was a wonderful trip and I was happy to have shared it with Rebecca, a keen birder.

Another P.S. After getting home my cousin Hansi wrote: "You mentioned Denis and Suzi, I think from Beamsville.  Can you tell me their last names? You said she was a veterinarian. Interestingly enough, my aunt Jackie in Laramie Wyoming has a caregiver named Steve Ropp who is the brother-in-law of a veterinarian in Beamsville. Talk about 6° of separation." 

Turned out that veterinarian Suzi was not related to Hansi's Aunt's caregiver, but another vet she worked with in Beamsville was.

Suzi sent me some other bird pics from hers and Denis' Costa Rica vacation: See below.

Wood Stork

Cattle Egrets with white Brahman cattle

Great Blue Heron