2022 is a big year for us. Hali is a having a significant birthday this year, and we are also having our 25th anniversary. Big year. So we decided that we could splurge and take a trip to Costa Rica with one of our favorite guides - Greg Basco of Foto Verde Tours. Greg leads photographic tours in Costa Rica (and other places). The tour we joined this year had the same outline as the first tour we took with Greg 10 years prior. The places that we visited during this trip were different from our trip 10 years ago, but the overall theme is similar. Two noticeable differences were (1) the size of the group was a bit larger this time around, and (2) the co-leader for this tour was Greg's partner in Foto Verde Tours, Paulo Valerio-Murphy. Paulo, like Greg, has an often humorous personality that we enjoyed very much. The last (but not least) staff person on this trip was our friendly driver, Enrique.
For us, the total trip length was about 2 weeks long. The proper tour was only 10 days and began when all the participants met at a wonderful little resort on the outskirts of San Jose -- The Hotel Bougainvillea. We then traveled to the lowlands rain forest and spent a few days there. Next we moved on to the Arenal Volcano and spend a few days there. Then we traveled to the cloud forest and spend a few days there. Lastly we traveled back to the Hotel Bougainvillea and spent one final night there before our departure. The outline of the tour was designed so that the destinations begin at the lowest altitude and move upward as the trip progresses. We took so many pictures at each of the main destinations that we have decided to break up the web pages into one page per major destination (3 web pages for this trip). This is the first page. We were lucky to photograph many bird species that we've never photographed before! We hope you enjoy viewing these images as much as we enjoyed taking them.
We arrived a couple of days before the tour actually begins. We do this for a couple of reasons. Most importantly, it gives us some wiggle room if flights (or luggage) are delayed. It also gives us a little time to settle into the travel mode and take some practice shots around the beautiful grounds a the resort.
Hotel Bougainvillea
*** Click on grouped images to see the full size image ***
Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center (CRARC)
Simon, one of the people in the workshop with us, has a friend whose relative runs the Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center, just outside of San Jose. He was able to set up a private tour for those of us who came in early and wanted to go. 8 of us went and got to see some orphaned baby sloths, a mother and baby sloth, several other sloths, and other wild animals that were being cared for.
Mike shot the video below with his phone...
Back at the Hotel
Catarata San Fernando
We stopped for coffee at Soda Cinchona on our way to our first destination. In addition to the coffee, there is a beautiful waterfall (catarata San Fernando) and a great deck from which to photograph the many birds that visit the feeders. This was also a good way to break up the longest drive of the tour.
We were most of the way towards the lodge when our guide spotted a spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus) in a small pond. They pulled over the bus so that we could all pile out and take some shots. No worries about blocking traffic out here -- there is none.
Laguna del Lagarto
We didn't spend much time settling into the rooms. They have a large covered deck area which is great for shooting the birds. We did a little hand-held shooting before lunch. After lunch we pulled out the big lenses and started shooting with those.
Vulture Shoot
Macro Session at Adolfo's home
Adolfo and his family have done a lot of work to his home (near the lodge) to make it a great location for photography. As part of that work, they have modified their patio into a covered macro 'studio'. Adolfo and his son would grab some of the cool local critters, they would help us take pictures of them, and then they release them back into the wild. As a bonus, they brought out cappuccino and tasty pastries that Adolfo's wife made -- delicious! What a super-nice family! And we had some great photo opportunities there...
Bat Shoot
What do you get when you combine a dark night in the jungle with 10 photographers, 2 guides, and 100 pounds of photographic equipment?
Back at the Lodge
Even though the previous day was very full, we were still up super early the next morning to get out and shoot on the deck before sunrise. I think we woke at around 4:45 so that we could shower and get out to the observation deck before 6. We would get out as early as 5:30 some mornings, but the darkness made shooting difficult. Shots were taken at 5:30, but better shots were taken a little later.
We spent most of the morning shooting from the observation deck, and then we went back to Adolfo's home for a hummingbird shoot.
Orange-Chinned Parakeet (Brotogeris jugularis) posing nicely for a moment on a piece of branch. Canon R5 and the EF500mm lens.
Back to Adolfo's home...
Adolfo and his family have also set up feeders to attract some of the beautiful local birds. They also modified the patio set up so that we could do some hummingbird photography there (using Greg's awesome flash set up). Plus more cappuccino and pastries?
Half of our group went in the morning and the other half (including us) went in the afternoon. While one person was doing the hummingbird shoot, the rest of us were shooting the other birds...
The hummingbird shots at this location all used the same plant: a spiral ginger flower (Costus pulverulentus). All of these shots used the amazing lighting set up designed by our guides.
Back at the Lodge
On our final morning at Laguna del Lagarto it was pouring rain. We still got in a few pre-breakfast shots, but then it was time to finish packing and head off to our next destination for the trip.
Next destination: Arenal Volcano! Coming soon: the web page with images from the second leg of our photo safari in Costa Rica...
Credits:
© JM Sowle, © Hali J. Sowle