Costa Rica- Bijagua to Taracoles

After our cloudy, but mostly rain free walk in the rainforest of Bijagua, we headed down the country to Taracoles, about 160km away.  

There is something about the Bijagua area that we really liked, so I shot a few ‘parting photos’ as we drove out of town.  It’s a pretty typical little village.  Just about one of everything that one might need.

One sight that caught our eye the night we arrived in Costa Rica, was a Taco Bell restaurant!

We have seen a couple, and have laughingly joked about it.  However, after eating out a few times, we realize that tacos aren’t a big part of the diet here.   It’s more of a Caribbean diet of rice and beans and plenty of plantains. They do, however, have tortillas made with love- (lard) and they taste great!    

You can get a ‘blessed’ burger or hot dog , at least when they’re open.

A variegated squirrel

And it seems like it’s always laundry day here! Actually, it’s always drying day.  Clothes just don’t dry, there is so much humidity in the air!

We arrived at our next Airbnb, about 3pm.  This one is a house – all to ourselves.  It is way too big for us, but we’ll make do for a couple of nights.

Everything in this house is tall.... I can barely reach over the counter to brush my sink!  Even the stove has been raised up.  Bacon at boob level... hmm, what's wrong with this?

The grounds around the house are nicely done with several small garden area.  Perfect for an early morning photo walk.   We’ve seen lots of ginger and it seems to be taking over lots of Costa Rica.

An unusual spider
The manager was kind enough to stop by and tell us where the resident Howler monkey’s were literally hanging out.

We spent the next morning searching for birding sights.  

Heading up a promising looking hill, we found a black mandible toucan right out of our window.

At what we thought was the top of the hill, we found the Pura Vida Gardens and Waterfall – perfect for a stroll. We later learned that the road continued for several mountains way up into many little villages. We'll put that on our return list of things to do!

The view was spectacular off to the west along the coastline. The high humidity makes long distance shots very hazy.

The gardens are on the ridgeline of the hill, and the path follows the contours – up and down, and up and down…. 73 steps in one small area, only to go down 80+ on the other side. It was hot, hot, hot!

A stop by the pond to view this beautiful water lily blossom was in the very slight breeze and a bit refreshing.

 Once back in the car, we drove in and out of the rain back to the house, for a bit of dinner and a late-night swim.  Ahhh finally cool!