Carara National Park, Costa Rica

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Tara

Carara National Park in Costa Rica is one of the best places in the world to see Scarlet Macaws. They flock to the palm trees to eat the nuts and their bright red feathers make them stand out.

GETTING THERE

First see how to get to Costa Rica using a Central America award. Then you can either rent a car or take the bus or tourist shuttle bound for Jaco and get off at the park entrance. You can also get a bus from Puntarenas which is a popular cruise ship port. On a previous visit, we were on a Panama Canal cruise that stopped in Puntarenas and booked a private tour with Odyssey Tours which I highly recommend. Our guide, Alvaro from Odyssey Tours showed up before 7am and handed us to his birding guide-Nestor who studies biology and knows birds very well. We headed off to Carara National Park to see the scarlet macaws, this is one of the rare places in the world where they are common and can be easily found. The trails were muddy because the first rain of the season had been the previous night and we were struggling to stay on our feet. My husband was the first to fall flat on his back-not hurt but got all muddy. I later fell on my side because I was protecting my camera.

Location of Carara National Park

If you are on a land based trip, I recommend you stay at Villa Lapas. Yes, it is older and could use some renovations but if you are there for the birds, you can’t beat the location on the south side of Carara National Park and chance to see the macaws and other birds on the grounds. You can walk to the main part of Carara from here as well if you don’t mind the heat.

In the map above which I found on Go Visit Costa Rica, I have highlighted the path you need to follow to see the macaws. You will need a ticket first which costs $10 at the ticket office. Then walk or drive to where I indicated “Path to palm trees”. Go as early in the morning as possible to see the macaws fly in and enjoy a breakfast of palm nuts. We spent about an hour here watching a family of Scarlet Macaws fly back and forth bringing nuts to another apparently more comfortable tree to eat them. Then we went back to the main office area and took the trail to the right (yellow highlights). By this time it was getting closer to noon when birds tend to take a siesta so we didn’t see much, just some leaf cutter ants and a cool looking frog.

When we did the tour with Odyssey, they took us to a local Costa Rican diner for lunch, then in the afternoon we saw more birds including a Violaceous Trogon and Turquoise-browed Motmot (the one with the long racquet-tail). A complete bird list can be found here.

PHOTOS

There’s a lot here as I just couldn’t get enough of the Scarlet Macaws! Lighting was poor but I did my best!

Lodge Review: Villa Lapas, Carara, Costa Rica

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Tara

Villa Lapas is adjacent to the Carara National Park. From their website:

We are a rainforest-resort, located in the pacific coast of Costa Rica. We have become one of the Costa Rica’s top tourist choices, becoming a favorite of birdwatchers and nature lovers.

Our Hotel features 58 rooms surrounded by lush tropical gardens sitting in the midst of a private 500 acre rainforest reserve, with a beautiful river flowing alongside the resort complex.

A replica Of Costa Rica’s historical past, the Santa Lucia Town in Villa Lapas adds a quaint, charming touch to it’s natural surroundings. Santa Lucía includes a church, a local cantina, a lake, restaurant, two souvenir shops and other points of interest, perfect for weddings and private events too. And the Villa Lapas Canopy tour, where your adrenaline flows while you zip through the jungle.

We arrived in the early afternoon from Monteverde after being dropped off by the bus. The grounds are beautiful as one would expect from being next to Carara.

The reception, bar & restaurant are in a breezy open air area with views of the garden.

The rooms are on the small side which was fine as we spent most of our time outdoors watching the birds. The buildings have a Spanish colonial style.

You won’t have to go far to start birding. You will find the same species here as you do in Carara but they can be easier to see with the wide open spaces. We watched Scarlet Macaws flying to and from Carara & their roosting grounds.

The swimming pool was small and full of leaves so we didn’t go swimming though we did dangle our feet in the water to cool off. We were amused by the iguanas running around, sometimes upright!

We walked across the bridge to the Santa Lucia Village just in time for an afternoon shower. It’s a beautiful scenic walk past a small stream.

On the opposite end of the property were some buildings that looked like staff quarters and an unused massage hut that would actually be better used as a bird hide.

Dinner & breakfast are served as buffets and there was a decent variety of dishes-meat pasta, some local dishes that I found a bit spicy, soup & salad. I forgot to bring my camera to dinner so no pics, sorry! It started raining as we walked back so had to borrow an umbrella.

Although some hotel booking sites will show a link to Villa Lapas, they never seem to have availability so it could be the property isn’t using them anymore so no airline miles or Ultimate Rewards points. They have an onsite secure booking form which gets the job done.

The staff are very friendly and helpful. Although it’s a beautiful property, it does need renovations. If you are a dedicated birder, you won’t care because the birdlife is amazing but if you are used to Sheratons & Intercontinentals you will probably be disappointed. The reviews on Trip Advisor are pretty mixed. Birders love it, normal tourists didn’t.

Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao)

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Tara

The Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) is a large, red, yellow and blue South American parrot, a member of a large group of Neotropical parrots called macaws.

Two subspecies present differing widths in their yellow wing band:

A. macao macao South American Scarlet Macaw, the nominate subspecies
A. macao cyanoptera (Wiedenfeld 1995) North Central American Scarlet Macaw

The Central American scarlet macaw is larger and has blue on its wings instead of green.

Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao)

It is native to humid evergreen forests of tropical South America. Range extends from extreme south-eastern Mexico to Amazonian Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela and Brazil in lowlands up to 500 m (1,640 ft) (at least formerly) up to 1,000 m (3,281 ft). It has suffered from local extinction through habitat destruction and capture for the parrot trade, but locally it remains fairly common. Formerly it ranged north to southern Tamaulipas. It can still be found on the island of Coiba. It is the national bird of Honduras.

Red – Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Purple – Tambopata, Peru
Blue – Alta Floresta/Cristalino, Brazil

Because the Scarlet Macaw has such a large range, it makes it easier to plan a trip to see them in the wild. I have personally seen them at Carara National Park in Costa Rica (use a Central American award), Tambopata in Peru (use a nothern South American award) and Alta Floresta & Cristalino in Brazil (use a southern South American award). Carara can also be accessed by cruise ship passengers, a great way to get your feet wet if you are new to bird watching! Book a Panama Canal cruise that stops in Puntarenas.