We just returned from Boca Tapada, leveraging Presidents Day to check off one more place on our Costa Rica map. We can't say this was our favorite of the many trips we've taken all over the country in the last two years, but that has little to do with Boca Tapada itself, which more than lived up to its reputation as a stellar destination for wildlife viewing. Rather, the trip came together very last-minute, leading to some sub-optimal decisions that did not set us up for complete success.
In part because we spent the first few weeks of the new year on the road and in part because we have been overwhelmed with work and pre-departure planning since our return to San Jose, we dithered on booking something for this holiday weekend. We debated heading to the beach or trying to go rafting on the Pacuare River, but those half-plans fell through. Other priorities sucked up our spare time, and we shelved the decision of where to go on Presidents Day — or even whether to go — until it was almost too late to book anything. We considered a few of our usual go-to locations: Arenal, Savegre Valley, Monteverde — but everything was booked.
Boca Tapada figured on a list of top birding destinations we had compiled at the start of our assignment to San Jose. It was a long list, and Boca Tapada is pretty far from the capital — all the way near the Nicaragua border. We never seemed to find the right time to visit. Neither Maquenque Lodge (which always seems full) nor Laguna Lagarta Lodge (the other top birding lodge in the area) could accommodate us on short notice, but another hotel in the area had a free cabana and was willing to let us bring our dog, so we decided to go for it. We only have a small handful of travel opportunities left before we have to bid adieu to Costa Rica, and we knew we'd regret wasting one and not traveling.
Staying at a non-birding lodge in an area where birding is the main attraction was the most prominent factor working against us. That there wasn't much of interest for the kids at this lodge also did not help. Our first morning, S took the kids on an underwhelming horseback ride while D joined a group boat tour up the San Carlos River, reaching the river junction with the San Juan River, which marks Costa Rica's northern boundary. The other participants on the tour were aggressively not interested in birds, which was also a letdown, especially since D ticked some 60 species during the boat ride. The guide didn't even try for birds other than pointing out the large obvious species, such as toucans and herons.
Just as we did during our recent trip to Ojochal, we decided to visit the places where we couldn't stay so as to get the most out of Boca Tapada. After the disappointing boat and horseback tours, we went to Maquenque for lunch and stayed there through dinner. S and the kids took advantage of the pool while D birded. The restaurant has a stellar feeder set-up right on a lake. The same is true of Laguna Lagarto, where we went for a couple of hours after breakfast the following morning, before driving back to San Jose. It poured — quite the stark contrast to the sere weather in the capital right now. While the rain impeded our ability to canoe the lakes or walk the trails, it did not seriously hamper D's bird photography.
D did not see any lifers — at this juncture, having seen more than 70 percent of all bird species ever recorded in Costa Rica, it's challenging to keep adding new finds. However, the photos he snapped were some of the best of the last two years. In this way, this trip brought us back full circle to our very first birding outing in Costa Rica. Barely a month after our arrival, we had driven to Sarapiqui, which was also incredibly wet at that time of year. Unable to hike, we wound up spending a lot of time at the restaurant observation deck, photographing the colorful birds that flocked to the feeders. At that point, ever the common species were all new for us. Though they have now become quite familiar, observing and photographing their splendid colors has lost none of its joy.
Birds pictured from top to bottom: brown-hooded parrot, orange-chinned parakeet, red-lored parrot, black-cheeked woodpeckers, mangrove swallow. Also a pic of the American croc that was all the rage for the half-dozen rowdy German tourists on the boat tour.
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