Destination Insights: Costa Rica

DESTINATION INSIGHTS

COSTA RICA San José, La Guácima, The Butterfly Farm, Amigos De Las Aves, An Essay: Stravinsky’s Gift, Drake / Peninsula de Osa, Aguila de Osa Inn, Sierpe River & Mangroves

Costa Rica On the Road Less Traveled

CONTENTS San José La Guácima Amigos de la Aves Stravinsky’s Gift—an Essay The Butterfly Farm By the Way Drake/Peninsula de Osa Aguila de Osa Inn Drake Environs Sierpe River & Mangroves

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PURA VIDA: these pages provide just a taste of pura vida, the good life that Costa Ricans, or “Ticans,” live every day.

You’ll see capital city San José, La Guácima’s Butterfly Farm, the Amigos de las Aves bird rescue and macaw breeding center, and the famous Tárcoles River crocodiles, along with a peek at the Osa Peninsula, known for its ecologically rich rainforest.

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SAN JOSÉ El Capital San JosÊ is a bustling, sprawling city of more than one million people (in the extended metropolitan area). The Pan American Highway (below, left) runs through the city.

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SAN JOSÉ El Capital

San José has many spectacular homes and estates.

Local squares, each with its own church and soccer field, belie the city’s size.

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SAN JOSÉ The Plaza

This was a small festival we saw by chance; local politicians were out drumming up support; they used a small band and these costumed children to help attract a crowd.

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SAN JOSÉ The Plaza

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SAN JOSÉ Around Town

Part of San José’s charm is that you never know what you’ll see: rustic pueblitos, colonial-style churches, or sleek modern architecture.

La Iglesia de San Miguel 8

SAN JOSÉ Around Town

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SAN JOSÉ Around Town

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SAN JOSÉ Around Town

This restaurant (above) comes highly recommended. The building below is a private residence.

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SAN JOSÉ Around Town

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SAN JOSÉ Around Town

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SAN JOSÉ Around Town

When we visited, $1 was worth about 500 colones. The toll charge (at right) was about 65¢.

Public art, churches, old buildings and modern architecture provide surprises around every corner.

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SAN JOSÉ Around Town — Old & New

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SAN JOSÉ Around Town

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SAN JOSÉ S t r e e t Ve n d o r This street vendor explained that she had built her cart and repairs it herself (hence the hammer).You can purchase sospiros (traditional meringue cookies) from her, or an icy fruit drink from the vendor a few feet away.

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LA GUÁCIMA Around Town

La Guáima, like much of Costa Rica, doesn’t rely on the formality of street numbers. Few houses have them.

It isn’t only the street numbers La Guácima considers extraneous: the streets themselves have no names. It’s a small town.

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LA GUĂ CIMA Around Town

Everything grows with vigor and beauty in Costa Rica—so much so that this tree grew right through the fence in just four years (left).

The backyard of a home with a large swimming pool and lush garden.

One of the three local greengrocers.

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LA GUÁCIMA Plaza Ferias — The Marketplace

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LA GUÁCIMA Plaza Ferias — The Marketplace

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LA GUà CIMA Plaza Ferias — The Marketplace

Friendly vendors at the market were selling pieces of deep-fried pork fat with small bits of meat attached. Not good for the heart.

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LA GUÁCIMA Plaza Ferias — The Marketplace

Fast food chicken eateries are popular all over Costa Rica.

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LUGARES A COMER Places to Eat

There are many ethnic restaurants in Costa Rica including Argentinean, Brazilian, Caribbean, Chinese, Cuban, French, German Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Peruvian, Salvadorian, Spanish, Thai—and even vegetarian.

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LUGARES A COMER Places to Eat

Lenny Karpman (above, with a local restaurateur) is the author of the comprehensive food guide: Feasting and Foraging in Costa Rica.(see following page.)

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LUGARES A COMER Places to Eat Feasting and Foraging in Costa Rica is available at http://www.lennykarpman.com/FeastingandForaging.html The book lists many eateries worth the visit, and includes detailed descriptions, addresses, and phone numbers.

Author Lenny Karmpan (see previous page) provides a glossary of ingredients, which is particularly helpful since Costa Rican cuisine has so many international influences.

There are also recipes and chapters on Costa Rican markets, ethnic restaurants, and “Restaurant Spanish.”

A chapter on common Costa Rican dishes includes: • Bocas: small plates, or bite-sized appetizers, like Spanish tapas or Chinese dim sum.

• Batidos: blended drinks, similar to smoothies, made from fresh fruit, ice, and milk or water.

• Patacones: delicious twice-fried chunks of plantain.

• Chorreadas: light, flavorful pancakes made of white corn.

• Cream of pejibaye soup: “among the world’s best cream soups,” with flavors of chestnut and Japanese pumpkin.

• Casado: from the Spanish adjective meaning “married,” is a mixed platter or dish of the day.

• Horchata: a blended drink of rice, peanuts, and milk flavored with cinnamon, vanilla and sugar.

• Gallo pinto: a colorful dish of black or brown beans, white rice, sweet red pepper, and cilantro or other green herbs.

• Tres leches: the national dessert, a white cake soaked in sauce made from whole milk, evaporated, milk, and condensed milk.

Another chapter describes the home-style, authentic cooking that lives in every little hamlet in eateries called “sodas,” which are luncheonette–greasy spoon–coffee and sandwich shop– dinner–cafés that serve breakfast, lunch, and occasionally early dinners.

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LUGARES A COMER Places to Eat

This Salvadorean restaurant served house-made pupusas— thick corn tortillas filled with meat or cheese and beans.

The food was delicious and the service was friendly; I’d love to return.

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A M I G O S D E L A S AV E S Bird Rescue Facility Amigos de las Aves specializes in the rescue and breeding of macaws.

It began as the Flor de Mayo botanical preserve, founded by Sir Charles Lancaster, renowned naturalist and botanist to Queen Victoria.

In 1992 Richard (pictured at right) and Margot founded Amigos de las Aves, which has become one of the most successful bird conservation and release programs in the world.

Anne Sigmon

Fast-forward to 1980, when Richard and Margot Frisius settled at Flor de Mayo with a collection of parrots they had acquired when Richard worked in Africa. In 1986 the two were credited as the first aviculturists to breed macaws in Costa Rica. Richard and Margot’s reputation as animal rescuers and rehabilitators grew, and soon their collection of rescued exotic birds was too large for two people to care for on a daily basis.

Alan Taylor, the British ornithologist who works at Amigos de las Aves, explained that the birds themselves are owned by the Costa Rican government.

The rescue facility is working to breed and release great green macaws and scarlet macaws, and also takes in assorted rescue animals.To date, they have released several hundred scarlet macaws, with an 85% survival rate after release. Their biggest challenge is finding appropriate release sites.

A 2006 magazine article helped publicize the work of Amigos de las Aves.

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A M I G O S D E L A S AV E S Bird Rescue Facility

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A M I G O S D E L A S AV E S Bird Rescue Facility Some rescued inhabatants include:

A Whistling Duck, which likes to nest in high places

A rescued turtle

Scarlet Macaws

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A M I G O S D E L A S AV E S Bird Rescue Facility

I went to visit Amigos de las Aves, an eight-acre avian rescue center. It began as the Flor de Mayo botanical preserve, founded by Sir Charles Lancaster, renowned naturalist and botanist to Queen Victoria. Sending exotic specimens home from the colonies was a noble scientific pursuit, and Lancaster procured thousands of plants from Central America for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, which now boasts the world’s largest collection of living plants.

Today Flor de Mayo’s history is commemorated by a single, modest wrought-iron sign that uses a few weak curlicues to decorate the rusting letters of the words “Flor de Mayo.” The dark, damp grounds are populated with tall palms, giant climbing philodendrons, and uncountable epiphytes—plants that depend on others for their physical support. Orchids hide their beauty in the dripping undergrowth.

Richard and Margot transformed the silent botanical preserve into a lively avian rescue center, Amigos de las Aves.

The couple had relocated to Costa Rica in 1980 with their own menagerie of exotic birds, some of which they acquired when Richard worked in Africa for Pan Am. Richard built special outdoor cages for the birds, using wire screening with squares of just the right size for the birds’ feet to grasp comfortably.

Today Amigos de las Aves is inhabited by hundreds of “donated” birds—former pets who turned out to be too noisy, too smelly, or too aggressive for their owners’ tastes. Parrots, macaws, and other colorful exotic birds who were confiscated from poachers—presumably destined for the

illegal pet trade—ended up here, too. Many of the birds at Amigos de las Aves can be re-released, if habitat is available.

Amigos de las Aves specializes in the rescue and breeding of macaws. I saw at least two hundred there. One of the species they shelter, the great green macaw, is the secondlargest parrot in the world; its wingspan is well over a meter. In the wild, great greens can live for more than 50 years. They usually fly in pairs or in small groups—unlike many birds, these have family values.

Millions of great green macaws once migrated between Honduras and Ecuador, their flight following the fruiting of the almendro, or wild almond tree. Today, ornithologists estimate there are at most 250 individuals left in the wild, and fewer than a third of those are breeding pairs. Amigos de las Aves is the only place that has been able to breed great greens in captivity. But successful captive breeding does not solve the problem. There is nowhere for the great green macaws to go.

Logging has destroyed most of their habitat. Seventy of Amigos de las Aves’s great greens are ready for release now, awaiting appropriate sites. They need an adequate natural food supply, nesting sites, and the guaranteed safety of a private lodge or protected reserve. In the meantime most live in small cages, too crowded to mate. Overcrowding makes them cranky. The longer the macaws are here, the more difficult it will be for them to find food in the wild, to build nests, reproduce, and avoid predation. The staff and volunteers at Amigos de las Aves are searching for release sites.

The great green macaw (Ara ambigua) is also called Buffon’s macaw. Learn more about Amigos de las Aves at www.hatchedtoflyfree.org.

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A M I G O S D E L A S AV E S Bird Rescue Facility

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S T R AV I N S K Y ’ S G I F T

Stravinsky stretched languidly, neck to toe, then fell onto his butt. With only one useful leg and no tail feathers to speak of, his balance is compromised. He cannot perch.

He is forced to live on the floor of his cage, hopping on one foot, tail feathers worn to nubs. The flight feathers on each glossy green wing—which should be long and elegant—are also shortened from constant rubbing against the floor.

They give this small toucan the sad, stunted look of a multiple amputee.

But it is Stravinsky, a fiery-billed aracari, who captivates me.

A riff of red across the small toucan’s golden breast conjures blood, as though he’d recently lost a fight. Stravinsky won a fight, though: a fierce one. Years ago, he was attacked as a nestling by a marauding rat, which gnawed all the toes off the tiny bird’s right foot after brutally devouring his sibling and nestmate in his entirety. Left alone, Stravinsky would have starved to death—if he had not been eaten first by a snake, a coati, or another rat.

Peering into Stravinsky’s cage, I was immediately drawn to him, although I cannot say why. I may have identified with his melancholy. Or perhaps I knew, somehow, that he had a gift for me. But Stravinsky would not make eye contact—his only acknowledgement of my presence was a nervous hop to the far side of his cage.

I wished the skittish creature would reciprocate my interest.

But Stravinsky was saved, and brought to Amigos de las Aves, a rambling avian rescue center founded by Richard and Margot Frisius on the slopes of the Costa Rican rainforest.

In the wild, small flocks of fiery-billed aracaris forage for fruit and insects in the humid forests. As many as five adults sleep together in old woodpecker holes—tails folded over their backs—and share parenting responsibilities.

At Amigos de las Aves, the parenting responsibilities fell to Richard and Margot. Their witty name for the bird— Stravinsky—was a nod to the great composer’s Firebird.

We had come together at Finca Fango de la Suerte, the sprawling central Costa Rican home of Joan Hall and Lenny Karpman, who have created a sanctuary here for more than forty injured and unwanted animals. The climate is nearly perfect, the air is clear, and the finca exudes a warm, amiable hospitality. Stravinsky has lived here for three years, recuperating from his wounds. I was visiting for two weeks, craving sanctuary myself.

I love the name of the place: A finca is a small ranch, and fango de la suerte translates roughly as lucky mud. It’s a reference to Cat’s Cradle, the Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. novel in which God created the earth and then woke up the mud so it could see what an excellent job he had done. “And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around. Lucky me, lucky mud … I loved everything I saw!”

Joan and Lenny love everything they see, too. They have brought homeless cats, dogs, and birds to Finca Fango de la Suerte. The place is a tropical madhouse. Roosters crow at midnight and kittens eat butter off the breakfast table.

Parrots laugh raucously and screech “Grandpa! Grandpa!” when Lenny walks by. Six dogs lick my feet and legs at every opportunity. Their tongues are long and soft.

Maybe it was more than a nod.

Stravinsky-the-composer was evolution in action: restless, curious, experimental, moving listeners through chaos to complexity. His intention for The Rite of Spring, for example, was to produce a “bloodcurdling” masterpiece evoking the unsentimental savagery of the natural world. Firebird is uncharacteristically melodic, a respite from Stravinsky’s dissonant style, just as Amigos de las Aves is a respite from the realities its inhabitants faced in the wild.

Underfunded, Amigos de las Aves could not provide the high level of ongoing care Stravinsky required. So he moved to Lenny and Joan’s finca. Lenny built a special cage with a high floor and an orthopedic perch. He situated it near the kitchen door, so the forlorn bird would have regular company and eye-level stimulation. Stravinsky eschewed his special perch, but gradually developed a relationship with Joan and Lenny.

Lenny introduced me to Stravinsky one morning at dawn, and I watched as the bird hopped on his one good foot and balanced on the stump that is his other leg. He didn’t screech like the larger birds, but chattered a quiet greeting. Lenny fed

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S T R AV I N S K Y ’ S G I F T

Stravinsky a few slices of banana and filled his bowl with diced watermelon, pineapple, and papaya. Stravinksy ate the banana first. It’s his favorite food.

The next day, Joan opened the cage door and showed me how she made a game with the first two fingers of her left hand, scissoring Stravinsky’s beak. He stuttered softly and nudged back, caressing her fingers with his beak. Then Stravinsky licked her fingers with his slim brown tongue.

Joan said he likes the salt from her skin. She tossed a single piece of kitty kibble towards Stravinsky and he caught it in mid-air. They play well together.

That evening when all the other birds perched, both feet locked in sleep, Stravinsky slid his long, elegant bill through the bars of his cage and leaned against it for support. That beak is a beauty: the upper mandible is vermillion, fading like a sunset to yellow-green, and then again to violet at the base.

A crisp daffodil-colored band marks the line where bill meets face on Stravinsky’s left side—his good side—but runs ragged and muddy on the right.

The next morning, Lenny fed Stravinsky his fruit. Stravinksy began eating the banana, but when Lenny moved on too quickly to feed the other birds, Stravinsky stopped eating and banged the bars of his cage with his beak in protest. Lenny returned and rubbed Stravinsky’s outstretched bill with one finger, petted the top of his tiny head with another. They had developed a sweet ritual.

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The days passed, and I continued to visit Stravinksy.

I learned to stand a few feet back from the cage, so as not to frighten him. I spoke quietly, told him where I lived, mused about the weather and upcoming elections. I admired the rhythmic pattern of shallow, saw-like serrations along the edge of his powerful bill; they would have been useful for feeding in the wild. In the evenings I stopped by to bid Stravinsky goodnight, but he was usually already asleep.

One warm afternoon Stravinsky bathed in front of me, balanced on one foot, his short dark wings beating like miniature outboard motors, wet belly feathers wilting in a bedraggled mess. He used his beak to splash water out of the shallow bowl in his cage. The spray was cool, and I felt as though we were bathing together, Stravinsky and I. Afterwards, I watched Stravinsky hobble over to his fruit bowl. He stumbled once, then continued. The little bird picked up a cube of watermelon with the very tip of his bill.

In one fluid motion, he opened his beak, tossed the fleshy fruit back into his mouth, and swallowed. Then he picked up a second watermelon chunk, hopped back over to where I stood watching and extended his bill out through the black cage bars towards me. He was still holding the watermelon.

Was Stravinsky offering me his food—food that he cannot catch for himself, that he is dependent on Joan and Lenny to provide? If so, I was humbled by such trust and generosity.

I was also perplexed: Lenny had asked me not to feed the

S T R AV I N S K Y ’ S

birds, but he hadn’t said what to do if a bird tried to feed me. Should I accept the soft, pink piece of fruit? I am not as trusting as Stravinsky is. I backed away from the gentle aracari and his powerful, serrated beak.

Stravinsky looked at me and waited, a large drop of liquid wobbling at the base of his bill. It looked like a teardrop.

He balanced on one leg with his good side facing me.

I looked back and reconsidered. The red band across Stravinsky’s belly reminded me of the belt on a swashbuckling pirate. His eyes shone clear and curious, with an inky pupil polka-dotting the center of each bright white iris. That droplet on Stravinsky’s beak was not a tear; it was juice from the watermelon. I stepped closer and smiled at the plucky bird. He had a rough start, but life is good here in the land of lucky mud.

Lenny walked over to the cage, stuck his finger in, and stroked the bird’s back. Contented, Stravinsky closed his eyes and purred. .........................................................................................

The fiery-billed aracari (Pteroglossus frantzii) breeds only on the Pacific slopes of southern Costa Rica and western Panama.

GIFT

Birds of Costa Rica Costa Rica is home to an estimated 50 species of raptors. These birds of prey include the common Black Hawk, Osprey and the extremely rare Harpy Eagle, which can mostly be found in the remote Talamanca ranges and in the Osa Peninsula region.

There are approximately 17 owl species, and also around 51 species of the hummingbirds, 100 species of sea and shorebirds, including a variety of gulls, and some 25 species of endemic neo-tropical and migratory birds in Costa Rica. The country also provides habitat for 16 species of parrots, including 6 species of parakeets and 2 species of macaws.

The most flamboyant birds of Costa Rica are the delightful Toucans. Also called the “flying bananas,” these endangered birds are a pleasure to watch.

The country is home to 6 of the Toucan species, including the Keel-Billed Toucan found in the lowlands, the loud Chestnut-Mandibled Toucan found in the Pacific southwest and in the dense forestation along the coastal zones. Also the Scarlet Macaws and the ‘Buffon’ or the Great Green Macaws, which are endangered and now in danger of disappearing completely.

—Eco Preservation Society www.ecointeractivevacations.com

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LA GUﾃ，IMA The Butterfly Murals

La Guﾃ｡cima is justly famous for its butterfly farm, and the supergraphics around town are a colorful reminder that these inspiring creatures are never far away.

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LA GUﾃ，IMA The Butterfly Murals

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T H E B U T T E R F L Y FA R M

At the Butterfly Farm you can see all phases of a butterfly’s life, from egg to caterpillar to larva to butterfly. See them crawling, pupating, munching, sipping, chasing each other, mating, fluttering, drinking, fighting the wind, resting, and just hanging around. The Butterfly Farm has been in business for 25 years, and is Costa Rica’s largest exporter of tropical butterflies.

For more information visit: http://www.butterflyfarm.co.cr/

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T H E B U T T E R F L Y FA R M

Beautiful Blue Morpho 39

T H E B U T T E R F L Y FA R M

How butterflies mate.

A parides swallowtail caterpillar.

A malachite butterfly feeds on banana.

A Blue Morpho with wings folded.

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T H E B U T T E R F L Y FA R M Owl Butterfly Danni shows the owl butterfly. Counterclockwise from left: • Unrolling the proboscis, the butterfly’s coiled feeding tube.

• Eggs laid recently on a banana leaf. Each butterfly species has a preferred host plant; the owl butterfly prefers bananas and plantains. The eggs will darken— but will not enlarge—before the caterpillars emerge.The caterpillar’s own eggshell is its first meal.

• Newly hatched caterpillars are preyed on by lizards, frogs, birds, monkeys, ants, and snakes. These are camoflauged with brown splotches that resemble damaged leaves.

• The caterpillars eat their host plant and grow quickly.

These are big and hairy, and don’t even look like the same animal as when they were little. Their camoflauge now makes them look like the rough bark of a tree.

• An adult owl butterfly.

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T H E B U T T E R F L Y FA R M A wide variety of species will delight adults as well as children. Well worth the trip.

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T H E B U T T E R F L Y FA R M

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T H E B U T T E R F L Y FA R M The Blue Morpho Butterfly

Blue morpho eggs

Blue Morphos mating. Females mate only once in their lifetime, and afterwards lay about 100 eggs. Males need a lot of sperm; mating takes about 4 hours.

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T H E B U T T E R F L Y FA R M

Blue Morpho caterpillar

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T H E B U T T E R F L Y FA R M

These butterflies just emerged this morning from their chrysalises.They won’t stay around long: The butterflies hatch quickly, dry their wings for about an hour, and then disperse in search of food.

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T H E B U T T E R F L Y FA R M

Malachite butterfly

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B Y T H E WAY Santa Ana This beautiful stone church in Santa Ana hosts the Baroque Music Festival every November.

Santa Ana is also home to Applebee’s, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Papa John’s, and Quizno’s outlets, as well as Multiplaza, the largest shopping mall in all of Central America.

Brightly painted antique wheels recall the days when oxcarts were a common means of transportation. If you visit in March, try to catch the Día de los Boyeros festival.

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B Y T H E WAY Rio Tárcoles

Great swarms of industrious leafcutter ants (above) travel more than a kilometer on a regular basis, carrying pieces of vegetation back to their nests. It’s a good thing, too, because they play a vital role in the rainforest ecosystem.

The loads are small, but the ants are proportionately smaller: If these guys were humans, they’d each be carrying a 4 x 8 foot sheet of plywood over their heads. After chewing the leaves into a gruel, they use it as a basis for growing mushrooms, which they “harvest” for food.

The iguana on the left popped up out of the rain gutter in a nice residential neighborhood.

He had his eye on the gal on the right, who was hanging out coquettishly (so it seemed) in the weeds across the street.

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B Y T H E WAY Punta Leona & Rio Tรกrcoles Below: The beautiful beach at Punta Leona

Above and right: Crocodiles in the murky Tรกrcoles River

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B Y T H E WAY Rio Tรกrcoles

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B Y T H E WAY Jac贸 Enjoy strolling through the little beach town of Jac贸, which is famous for its consistent waves and excellent surfing. The main drag is lined with ice cream shops, art and craft shops, souvenir shops, surf shops, head shops, clothing shops, restaurants, bars, nightclubs ... and lots of tourists.

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B Y T H E WAY C e r รก m i c a L a s Pa l o m a s

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B Y T H E WAY C e r รก m i c a L a s Pa l o m a s

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B Y T H E WAY

Treasures not found in tourist traps: This statuette was found in a backyard under brush and rocks and along with other artifacts. Costa Rican artists seem to like the female form.

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PENINSULA DE OSA

The Osa Peninsula is home to some of Costa Rica’s most endangered plant and animal species and is considered one of the most biologically intense places on earth.

Here rain forests merge with mountains and beaches, creating a complex system of freshwater and marine ecosystems and giving shelter to much of the country’s biodiversity.

The Osa Peninsula encompasses the southwest portion of Costa Rica and is bound on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the east by the Gulfo Dulce (Sweet Gulf).

It is one of the least developed areas of Costa Rica. More than 80% of the Peninsula is protected by Corcovado National Park and other reserves. The few small towns are reached by boat, plane, or roads that are often impossible to use during the wet season, and rough and dusty, during the dry.

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DRAKE Aerodromo Drake Drake Bay is so-named because Sir Francis Drake is said to have landed here in 1579. We flew in from San JosĂŠ in the cute little Nature Air plane in the photo.

The photo at bottom is the Drake airport terminal, complete with waiting area and gift shop.

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DRAKE TOWN Getting There

Transportation on the Osa Peninsula is basic, involving fording rivers and driving on bridges of questionable structural integrity.

DRAKE TOWN The Spheres

Thousands of stone spheres (“espheras”) have been found on the Osa Peninsua. The smallest are the size of marbles, and the largest are more than six feet in diameter.

The spheres are linked to the Boruca ethnic group, and were made over a period of thousands of years, beginning around 300 BCE. The spheres’ near-perfect geometry suggests that the people who created them had advanced technical abilities, and the arrangement of the spheres in orderly groups suggests that they had some symbolic importance. But beyond that, their significance remains a mystery.

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DRAKE TOWN Downtown

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DRAKE TOWN Wa t e r t a x i

Like taxis everywhere, this one requires an occasional push.

Drake town consists of a few places to stay, some vendor stands, a nice beach, a couple of dive shops, and a bar or two.

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AGUILA DE OSA INN Arrival

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AGUILA DE OSA INN The Greeters

The White-Faced Capuchin Monkey will greet you — just don’t hand it a banana.

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AGUILA DE OSA INN

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AGUILA DE OSA INN

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AGUILA DE OSA INN Beautiful rainforest accomodations at the Aquila de Osa Inn include tropical hardwoods, comfortable rooms, and plenty of places to relax while looking for monkeys, butterflies, and tropical birds.

The bar-lounge area with lush surroundings.

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AGUILA DE OSA INN A central open-air dining hall with plenty of fresh food daily, and a great chef who makes delighful dishes with something for everyone.

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AGUILA DE OSA INN

Carlos is a superb naturalist and guide.

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AGUILA DE OSA INN

Owner Bradd Johnson

Beautifully carved wooden doors enhance the inn’s rustic charm.

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AGUILA DE OSA INN The Gardens

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AGUILA DE OSA INN The Gardens

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AGUILA DE OSA INN The Beach

The local beach is a popular place for tourists and locals alike.

Once in a while, a cruise ship stops by and some passengers take the time for a little fly fishing with the Inn’s dog.

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AGUILA DE OSA INN The Beach

Locals use a more certain method of catching some dinner, for both themselves and the Inn.

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AGUILA DE OSA INN T he Nearby River

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AGUILA DE OSA INN T he Nearby River A river next to the Inn offers calm water fishing, kayaking, and hiking. One might come across a local fisherman who will sell a few fish.

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AGUILA DE OSA INN T h e N i g h t Wa l k

A night tour of the rainforest will yield views of the smoky jungle frog (below, right), tailless scorpion spiders, tarantulas, wolf spiders, centipedes, millipedes, white crickets (at right), large cockroaches, way too many moths, and lots of other creepy little critters. What fun!

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DRAKE ENV IRONS

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DRAKE ENV IRONS Best Beach in Costa Rica

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DRAKE ENV IRONS N a t u r e Wa l k o n t h e B e a c h

Mel Gibson owns this house behind the San Josecita Beach, which Carlos says is the most beautiful beach in all Costa Rica.

Gibson owns about 18 acres and employs 22 locals as gardeners, caretakers, and guards. Nationwide zoning laws prevent the construction of large buildings along beachfronts.

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SIERPE RIVER W h a l e s S i g h t e d O n T h e Wa y

This whale was in the open ocean between Drake Bay and Isla del Ca単o.

The photos are courtesy of traveler Elisabeth Bettan den Hollander.

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SIERPE RIVER On To T he Mangroves

Islas Violinitos (“Little Violins,� bottom) at the mouth of the Rio Sierpe (below). From here travelers will motor upriver to the great, dark mangrove forests.

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SIERPE RIVER T he Mangroves

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You will come across homesteads and small farms, sometimes hidden within the mangroves.

While on the boat, Carlos and crew (above right) are always spotting wildlife and will be happy to stop for photographs.

SIERPE RIVER T he Mangroves

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SIERPE RIVER T he Mangroves — Narrow Channels

Counter-clockwise from upper right: green-backed heron, mangrove crabs, purple gallinule, mangroves, more mangroves.

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SIERPE RIVER Animals in the Mangroves Clockwise from left: long-nosed bats, boat-billed heron, barn owl, mangrove tree boa, spectacled caiman, little blue heron.

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SIERPE RIVER The Locals There goes the neighborhood: boats are pretty much the only way to travel along the Rio Sierpe, but you need to keep your eye on the neighbors. Right across the river from the launch at right was the croc below.

Far right, bottom: Palms in this plantation are harvested for oil, which is refined for use as both edible and industrial products.

There are many inns and lodges along the river.

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SIERPE RIVER Common Transport

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SIERPE RIVER We l c o m e t o S i e r p e

The town of Sierpe is home to about 400 families.

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SIERPE RIVER Sierpe

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SIERPE RIVER TakoLand Lunch

TakoLand is the happening lunch spot in the town of Sierpe. The food is Mexican-Tican and the decor is a festive jumble of about a hundred computer-generated signs touting Mexican folk proverbs, such as “Stolen Love is Cursed Love.�

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SIERPE RIVER T he River’s End

The Sierpe River empties into the Pacific Ocean at a wonderful beach, perfect for a cooling swim without the worry of crocs.

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Photography by Laurie McAndish King and Jim Shubin, except as otherwise noted.

All photographers retain copyright to their own work. www.LaurieKing.com I www.LaurieMcAndishKing.com I www.shubindesign.com Š2010 Jim Shubin & Laurie McAndish King/Shubin Design Group Inc.

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