Costa Rica days 9, 10, 11.

We had organised some accommodation which was very different to the way it was advertised, our first and only disappointment of the trip. We therefore had to change plans at the last moment, and moved into a large resort hotel, before moving though, we were close to the amazing Uvita national park and spent several hours exploring.

The Scarlet Macaw was critically endangered in the past, but with several initiatives, and legal protection, they have become locally quite common. Macaws are actually terrible pets, they are noisy and resist training and do not live long in captivity. In the wild they are a remarkable sight, often noisily flying in pairs to roost in the evening.

At the Uvita national park they often eat in the Beach Almond trees, discarding the coating of the nuts.

Scarlet Macaw.

The Red-lored Amazons also fly, noisily, in large numbers in the evening to their roosting spots.

This adult Black Hawk brought his youngster a crab to eat

Juvenile Black Hawk eating crab

Adult Crested Caracara

The White Ibis was fairly common here, this one has the Gular Sack that develops in breeding season.

We ended up moving to a resort called “Si como no”, which is a phrase which means, sort of, “Yes, why not?”. Apparently the Spanish invaders said this so frequently in the first years of the colonisation, that the locals called them SiComoNo. The resort and the location of this site is great, and we had many feathered visitors, including these Orange-chinned Parakeets.

Orange-chinned Parakeets

Yellow-headed Caracara

Mantled Howler Monkey. I think probably a male?

White-faced Capuchin eating a mango.

Three-toed Sloth

Common Basilisk, a lizard

A moment of tenderness. Two Crimson-fronted Parakeets.
We loved this place, Si Como No, which was constructed to be close to the Manuel Antonio National Park. Unfortunately that park is so crowded with visitors that it has become really limited. Although it was the only place we saw an Anteater, that was because there are hundreds of guides, looking for wildlife, and many thousands of visitors. It is indeed beautiful, but many other national parks are better places to visit with a good guide.

It was also the only place I saw Squirrel Monkeys, like this one.