COSTA RICA 2008

Its easy to see why eco-tourism is Costa Rica's number one industry.  There is tremendous diversity of animal and plant life, most of it being relatively easy to observe.  The people of Costa Rica are friendly, the weather is good and the U.S. dollar is accepted everywhere.  The photos below are a small sample of what we saw in our nine days in the country.

MAMMALS

The wild mammals in Costa Rica stay mainly in the trees.  We saw two-toed and three-toed sloths, as well as white-faced Capuchin monkeys and howler monkeys.  One of the howlers was transporting a new-born (second picture from right).

BIRDS

I am not a real birder, but I think these identifications are correct.  Top row, left to right: Roseate Spoonbills, a Green Heron, a Cormorant,  a Northern Jacana, a Little Blue Heron, and an Amazon Kingfisher.  Bottom row, left to right: an Anhinga, Mangrove Swallows, a Great Egret, a Collared Aracari, a Chestnut-mandibled Toucan,  Hummingbirds, and a Ringed Kingfisher,

CREEPY CRAWLIES

Even the insects and amphibians are colorful in Costa Rica.  In this collection you can see a Walking Stick (second from left), a lizard that can literally walk on water (fourth from left), and a rhinoceros beetle (third from right).

FLOWERS

Not surprisingly Costa Rica has a wide range of colorful plant life.  Many of the flowers and leaves found here are also common in Hawaii.  Orchids are plentiful especially in the cloud forest that we visited.  Coffee beans, as seen here in the middle of the bottom row, contain beans of varying maturity according to their color.  Green beans are immature, red are ready to be picked, and black are beyond the use by date.

SCENERY

Costa Rica has it all - sandy beaches, rain forests, cloud forests, jungles, rolling hills and everything in between.  The pictures above contain a cold water lake in an extinct volcano cone, and a woman flying over a rain forest canopy.