Costa Rica in the dry season

February and March are great months to get away from the English weather! This year we’ve had one of the wettest winters on record in the UK, but by complete contrast, the province of Guanacaste in Costa Rica hadn’t seen one drop of rain since November.  C.R has two seasons – hot & dry which to a certain extent encompasses the months of November to March and hot & wet during the other months. By ‘hot’ I mean a low of around 24º and a high of up to 38º!  Both my partner and myself are regular runners, and I was setting an alarm for 05.30 to do most of our run before the sun hit us!   The landscape has been tinder dry and we saw regular wildfires which seem to be an annual occurrence. It seems that these fires mostly burn off the dry grasses though, and we didn’t really see many trees that had been burnt.

The only time we saw rain is when we went on a little road trip. Just three hours of driving and the landscape is completely different. We were away for three nights and it rained a lot of the time. This of course meant that everywhere was very green and lush.

We did a guided night walk and saw many different frogs.  The iconic Red-eyed Tree Frogs use their sticky toe pads for climbing and jumping.

I have recently discovered the Merlin Bird App which listens to bird song and identifies them.  Opening it up whilst eating breakfast outside each morning would often result in it identifying up to 8 or more different birds. The most common and noisiest in the area around the house and garden are Orange-fronted Parakeets, White-Throated Magpie-Jays, and Great Kiskadees. Most of them are more colourful than the ones seen in my garden in England.

It’s also nice to see a wide variety of flowers that we don’t have here.

One day we did a tour of an small family run organic farm to learn about cacao production.  We were also taught about the medicinal properties of various different plants they grow there which was fascinating.  Below are cacao pods ready for processing, and the bottom image is of the discarded outer layers.

Back ‘home’ and we’d driven up a track near the house just to explore, and on the way down our friend Cheryl suddenly said “stop, stop”. Her eagle eyes had spotted a couple of howler monkeys in the trees and we were able to photograph them.

Hearing the howlers is a regular occurrence as they are very loud and their calls can be heard from a long way away. One day we heard them very close to the house so were able to take some more photographs of this troop.

Below are little & large.  This beautiful dragonfly flew into the house and was resting on the edge of a picture frame.  Iguanas can also often be seen in C.R.

Some of you may remember from previous posts that I like trees. (Who doesn’t?) I especially love the first image below as the tree almost looks like a sculpture due to the way the light is catching its branches.

When there is very little light pollution it’s possible to see millions of stars and the milky way. Unfortunately it’s necessary to use a long exposure to capture them, and this has the detrimental effect of picking up any artificial lights from several miles away.

Shortly before I flew home we saw a few clouds appear as the rainy season is getting ready to start, whereas it had been completely cloudless for the previous 6 weeks.  They did make for a dramatic scene as the full moon was rising behind a hill though.

Below is previous full moon one evening, with its eclipse in the early hours of the following morning.

Early morning walks on the beach are very pleasant before the sun becomes too hot. The sand in Coco is volcanic and is impossible to walk on barefoot later in the day as it burns the feet.  (I speak from experience 😩)  Whilst Coco is now a bit of a tourist destination, it is still home for local fishermen.

At sunset it’s also beautiful and I love watching the sun drop into the ocean.

Sunset from the top of the mountain is also beautiful.

I’ve saved my favourite photo for last.  The image that I’ve always wanted to take has been the setting sun with a giraffe silhouetted in front of it. It’s still on my list, (even a lion would do) but this comes a very close second.

I flew out of sunny Costa Rica at lunchtime on April 1st.  By the time I landed in Houston for my connecting flight back to London it had absolutely poured down at my partner’s house.  Rainy season starts in April, and there is was, right on cue!