Dear Willie and Tweeters,
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My wife and I spent two?or three weeks in Costa Rica in June and July, 2004. We travelled mainly by regular busses that the locals use, once in a while using microbusses, I forget what they are called, sort of an semi-upscale "colectivo" where they take you on a set route in relative comfort. We read up? on where to stay using the "Lonely Planet" book, and stayed in some very cheap places, also a few nicer ones. One of the cheaper places on the Pacific Coast was Cabinas Paradise in a tiny place called La Pita. This lodging?was described in the book as being the one with the oddly out-of-place Swiss-chalet design. We saw lots of birds in the area. We also had a swim?at a tiny beach there, with absolutely no one around. That was?the only place we saw Ruddy Turnstones there!
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At Monteverde, we stayed at Nidia Lodge. Actually, this was the start of our trip, not counting a day in San Jose getting our bearings. This?was quite a basic place. The owner had a relative, Freddy I think was his name, who took us on our?first Neotropical birding walk. We saw toucans, sloths, and all sorts of birds.
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Costa Rica is very easy to bird. Nobody gave us a hard time. There are a few spots where one must be careful. Just have to ask around. It would be even easier to do it on an still-cheaper basis than we did, by staying at the places where American and European backpackers stay, but we wanted to have a measure of comfort, and not have to worry about optics being stolen, etc.
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In San Jose, we stayed at the start and finish of the trip in the upscale suburb of San?Rafael de Escazu. I highly recommend the B&B called Casa de las Tias. The proprietor is American-born, New Mexican if I remember right, a caballero of ancient conquistador lineage, speaking very proper Spanish and of course English, and extraordinarily helpful. It was great to have a soft landing before we began semi-roughing it in C.R. There were a few good birds right there in the garden, too, including Hoffmann's Woodpecker and Zonotrichia capensis.
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Yours truly,
?
Gary Bletsch


Gary Bletsch
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Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA
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garybletsch at yahoo.com
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"Nun," sagte ich, "wenn ich ein Taugenichts bin, so ist's gut, so will ich in die Welt gehen, und mein Glueck machen." Und eigentlich war mir das recht lieb, denn es war mir kurz vorher selber eingefallen, auf Reisen zu gehen, da ich die Goldammer, welche im Herbst und Winter immer betruebt an unserm Fenster sang: "Bauer, miet' mich, Bauer, miet' mich!" nun in der schoenen Fruehlingszeit wieder ganz stolz und lustig vom Baume rufen hoerte: "Bauer, behalt' deinen Dienst!"

--- On Thu, 12/22/11, willie peters <willielad at yahoo.com> wrote:


From: willie peters <willielad at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] costa rica
To: "tweeters at u.washington.edu" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, December 22, 2011, 12:47 PM





I was wondering if there is such a thing as bargain bird watching in Costa Rica, especially the Pacific coast. I would be traveling in early February and any tips,advise would be greatly appreciated.

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