Costa Rica Sisters Trip, Full Day One

 What a day!  This place really is gorgeous, and pretty perfect for us.  I did not go to morning yoga, I was just too into exploring and finding those cute birds!  I started in the area across from our room, and eventually wandered all around the gardens across the little bridge, finding and then losing and then finding again the yoga site.  I saw so much!  Although the hummingbird feeders were not very active.  Oh well, I'm glad I found them!

I was feeling pretty ready for some breakfast when their class was over.  Except Deborah and I decided to take the long way, and got lost a time or two, before finding our way out of the gardens.  So coffee and breakfast sounded great!  I love a Costa Rican breakfast, and this one was a good one.  Fruit, gallo pinto, fried eggs, what a tired birder needs!

I did make it to afternoon yoga, by that time they had their tour schedules and spa schedules ironed out.  Afternoon yoga was pretty much all breath work, and I can't say I liked it.  I definitely had some resistance, and didn't feel able to do the holds like she wanted.  It wasn't great for me.  

After yoga I of course went back to birding the grounds until dinner, and I saw toucans at last!  It sounds silly since this was only day 2, but I was really missing them and wanting to see them again!  There were 4 aracari in a tree.  They are so cool! Also some parakeet drama.  A pair of larger parakeets came over, and the little ones did not like it one bit.  They were complaining loudly, but the bigger ones didn't care at all!  It was pretty funny.

Dinner and bed, looking forward to another day!  :-) 

Costa Rica Sisters Trip, Arrival Day

 Well the flights were as long as expected, and we got through them just fine.  We changed at the airport and got some snacks, and found the driver, and then headed onto the long rough road.  There were long stretches of gravel with brief interludes of pavement.  There were potholes of impressive proportion.  The roads I am used to seemed smooth and trouble-free in comparison.  At one point the car couldn't make it up the hill and we backed way down and tried again.  Eventually we made it, and it was all worth it!  What a beautiful hotel!  The rooms are basic but large, with AC, with every amenity that matters to me.  And my room was right across from a very nice garden area, so of course I headed right over!

I found a tody making a nest.  That hanging mess is its nest.  I know, it looks unlikely, but it seems to be true!  

There were woodpeckers nesting in this tree, I didn't see babies, but they were definitely using that hole as a home base, switching off, bringing things in.  So maybe they are on eggs?  Or they have little ones that can't stick their heads out yet?

There were plenty of oropendula, they were just all going through, there were more than the 4 I managed to get a group shot of!  And the video shows one of the few times I saw their call, with full dip.  So funny!

There were many parakeets.  Just so many.  Other places it's a struggle to find them, and it's not easy here either, they blend so well, but if you stick with it you will definitely find them
.  There were at least a dozen residents, and they were not particularly shy!

Walking around the rest of the grounds was also wonderful, and this was my first hummingbird of the trip :-) 

We saw the eclipse!!!!

 I had never seen a total solar eclipse before, and this was our best opportunity.  Probably we will not see another one in our lifetimes!  So I planned to drive about 5 hours to Ohio, stay a couple of nights to give us some good buffer time, and hopefully see the eclipse.

Well it turned out better than I could have planned!  The hotel I chose was accidentally absolutely perfect.  It was across from a college campus, and they were having a huge eclipse event, so the rest of the guests went there.  The hotel staff went up to the roof, leaving the sun patio, with chairs and tables and a perfect view, empty for just the two of us!  We had our eclipse glasses and eclipse binoculars.  And snacks and sodas.  And regular binoculars for during totality.  

The weather cooperated beautifully!  It was forecast to be super cloudy, and there were clouds, but just the high thin ones that didn't really get in the way.  We had a great view, and it was gorgeous!  Even though I had seen plenty of pictures and videos, it was still surprising how gorgeous it was during totality.  This picture is...... well, I took it on my phone with absolutely no skill, so there we go.  

It was definitely worth the trip!  Afterwards we ordered pizza from our room, and it was delicious.

Thank you Ohio!

This was the first long trip with the new car, and it was awesome!  The fancy new features make it so so so much easier and less draining to do a long drive.  Also the traffic wasn't bad at all, maybe because we had buffer days, but it was really much easier than I expected!  So that was wonderful.

I'm so glad we had a little getaway that was okay for Jack and something we both really wanted to do, and really enjoyed.  :-)