Around 2:30 am on Tuesday, August 12, I was woken by the noise of a tropical thunderstorm – the rain was hitting our roof, and the thunders rumbled like bombs. I watched the storm, which also woke Lilach and Daniel up at some point, until suddenly, within a minute, the rain stopped and everything was quiet again. At 7:50 in the morning I got a message from Payless Rent a Car that the two truck driver is on the road where we left our car with our replacement vehicle! I rushed to meet him, and within 15 minutes I was already driving a newer model Mitsubishi ASX – truly remarkable customer service. The driver told me that he left San Jose at 1am and drove 7 hours straight to get to us in time. Now he was planning to eat a light breakfast then drive all the way back! I couldn’t thank him enough for this feat of tireless driving.
A tropical thunderstorm
We drove back through the now-familiar steep dirt roads, then connected to the Pan-American Highway (Route #2). After stopping for lunch at Buenos Aires (yes, Costa Rica has one too!), we continued to San Gerardo de Dota, our final destination in this trip. The valley of San Gerardo de Dota is nestled within the peaks of Costa Rica’s high cloud forests, at an altitude of 2,200 meters above sea level. The peaks in the area reach 3,400 meters and the highest pass we drove through was above 3,000 meters. At that altitude, the temperatures were chilly and nice, justifying long-sleeved shirts for the first time on our trip.
Leaf-Cutter ants in action, at a coffee stop on the way
The winding road to San Gerardo de Dota
We reached Hotel Savegre in the afternoon. The name of the hotel is taken from the local stream, Rio Savegre, which means “the waterway” in the local native language, as we later learned. Indeed, the gates of the hotel grounds are located on a narrow bridge crossing the stream. We chose it because it has sits on a private reserve on the mountainside, which is supposed to be quite beautiful and good for birding. The first thing we did when reaching the reception, before going to see our rooms, was book a birding tour for the next morning, despite the shock of learning that the tour leaves at 5am. We were told this tour focuses on seeing the Resplendent Quetzal – the bird who gave the local national park its name and for which the area is famous – but that we can expect to see other birds too. Dinner in the hotel restaurant was very pleasant, and they managed to cater to our varied and somewhat complex dietary restrictions.
At 4:30 those among us who were ready to wake up at ungodly hours to see birds (i.e., not Tamar) headed to the reception to meet our guide for the morning tour – Marino Chacón. Born locally, Marino is very experienced, knows the area and its birds like the back of his palm, enjoys immense respect from all the other birding guides, and was a charming person to spend time with. The destination of this specific tour was a bend on the main road from which there’s good view of some trees bearing grape-sized wild avocados that the quetzals like to frequent in the morning. By 5:30 there were already about a dozen guides with spotting scopes, and perhaps 50 tourists, looking for the birds. We managed to locate several male and female quetzals, and admire their beauty from afar. The males already started growing back their famous long tail feathers, which they molt at the end of each breeding season. Most of them had a pair of feathers that extended only a few centimeters beyond the tail, but one male already had a pair growing 15-20 cm beyond the tail. Unfortunately, the light was very poor and the birds were far away, so I couldn’t get any decent pictures of the beautiful birds.
After breakfast, the kids decided they wanted to stay in the hotel and rest (Daniel to make up for the lost sleep and Tamar to enjoy the calm), and Lilach and I went to the Batsù Gardens a few hundred meters across the road, where Marino said we could get really good photo opportunities of hummingbirds, tanagers and other birds. Halfway up the hill he passed us, by chance, gave us a lift and helped us set up to watch and photograph the birds under optimal conditions. We spent several hours there, at the end of which my back literally hurt from continuously holding the heavy lens at a photo-ready positions, but we got some worthy shots.
Red-tailed Squirrel (Sciurus granatensis)
Part of the setup at Batsù Gardens
On Thursday, we went out again with Marino in the early morning — this time just Lilach and I, while the kids were sleeping. Our goal was to see some other birds, and we indeed had a nice haul of 20 different species in a very short while. Marino thought it was a bit on the low side, and would have gone much longer, and so would we, but we wanted to get back for breakfast within two hours before the kids woke up.
A surprise was waiting for us at the hotel: Marino had searched and found two quetzals on a tree near the front lawn. He had told us the day before that we should look there, as they come to eat wild avocados from a small tree right next to the lawn, on the banks of the stream. They didn’t show up that day, but they did now, giving us an excellent close-range sighting!
In the afternoon, we hiked on our own in the hotel’s private reserve, at an altitude of about 2,400 meters. Here, too, we identified 16 species of birds. It was a most satisfying day to end the trip, concluded with a fine meal at a nearby restaurant.
Family Trips 