Costa Rica Sketch Journal ~ July 10, 2008

We went birding with Gerardo today. Gerardo is superb with the scope and always knows where to find the birds. We had excellent viewing since he took us to an anticline (a place where various habitats meet and blend) of forest, beach, meadow, and stream. Do remember to click on the thumbnail photos here for a larger view!

There was a Tico on a horse, herding the cattle, which appear to be a Brahma crossed with some other breed. Many are white, but there are some gorgeous spotted ones. Having been raised on a farm, I am attracted to cattle, which I think amuses Dan'l

We saw more than 23 new bird species, one of which was a rare Pearl Kite, not even listed as being in this part of Costa Rica. I gave Gerardo my Costa Rica birdbook when I left because a previous guest had walked off with his copy, so I can't look it up and confirm it, but I think that's correct.

I got a photo of the kites through the spotting scope, and also a pair of nuzzling macaws. I'd like to get a lot better at photographing through the scope. The problem with trying to do it on a birding trip is that everyone else either wants to look or take a photo, too, so there's no possibility of hogging the scope while waiting around for a good pose.

The scarlet macaws are a bit blurry, but their character, at least, shows in the photo. I was keeping a birding list from the time we landed in San José till the time we left, and although I had seen a couple of the birds from the birding trip previously on our vacation, the main list we saw is in the right-hand column of the journal page.

After our return and breakfast, I meandered around El Remanso's beautiful grounds for awhile, snapping photos of some of the amazing heliconia flowers, then sketching the rare, solitary Ghost Bat that hangs in the rafters of the Yoga Pavillion, and finally just sitting on our terraza watching the birds flit in and out of the shrubbery with the binoculars and writing in my journal.

Later I got a massage because I was feeling a bit bedraggled. I thought that maybe I was having too much fun, but I was actually coming down with a case of Montezuma's Revenge, which was taking its toll on Daniel, too. So the wonderful massage was the second high point of my day.

Watching dusk descend is a regular evening delight with the insect and frog choruses striking up and pulsing in the warm air. Night temperatures hovered around 65° to 70°, just perfect for sleeping, so sitting out to watch the forest and the fireflies by moonlight (half a moon so far) was one of my favorite things. Tonight it rained, so there was that added attraction as well, watching lightning and counting the seconds to determine how far away the strikes were .

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The Southern Swamp Explorer Update: My printer rep just called to ask how things were going on preparation of The Southern Swamp Explorer, and when I told him the cover painting was only half done he mentioned that their queue is now about four weeks, so if I get everything to them by, say, next Monday -- all the book files and the cover, ready to print, it would still be the first part of September before I get my books. Yikes. So I'm going to be jamming on that cover painting for the rest of the day. I'll try to put up a scan tomorrow on my progress.

Costa Rica Nature Journal/Sketching Workshop ~ 3

Plane rides can be deadly dull as well as leg cramping and other assorted evils. I always request a window seat so at least sometimes there is something interesting to see. Going south out of Medford takes one close to Mt. Shasta, but from the west side of the plane I could only see Lake Shasta, so I drew that. Sketching through a plane window requires speed ~ the dang pilot won't circle back around if you miss details the first time.

That occupied me quite some time, and we arrived in LA just in time to sink the sun. After finding my next terminal and getting some dinner, I began "profiling" the women around Gate 45. Adriana, who makes all arrangements at El Remanso, had told me that two of my students would be taking the same flight to San José as I, and I had a fine time watching for them, discarding some easily, wondering about others, checking a few out by peering at luggage tags and even striking up a few conversations. But to no avail. In the end, my students, Marilyn and Jocelyn, found me, having looked up my picture online. Out maneuvered! They seemed exceptionally nice. I started to relax.

This was the red-eye flight to Costa Rica, and we arrived at SJO quite early, to be picked up by Carlos, holding up a sign saying "El Remanso, Irene, Madelin and Vaselyn." From then on, Marilyn answered to Madelin and Jocelyn to Vaselyn ~ "Madelin" does sound like a Spanish version of Marilyn, but we never did quite figure out "Vaselyn."

Carlos was a charming Tico (what Costa Ricans call themselves), and he spirited us away downtown for breakfast since it was quite some time till our flights down to the Osa Peninsula. Traffic was hair-raising, but Carlos is obviously an old hand at driving his turismo van, and scarcely blinked as he threaded his way through downtown San José to take us to a special restaurant, one with some atmosphere, when we told him Denny's wasn't our first choice for our first Costa Rican breakfast.

We started to inhale the essence of Costa Rica as the waiter made us coffee Costa Rica style, pouring steaming water through ground beans in a bag, into a tin pitcher. It was absolutely delicious, as were the gallos pinto (rice and beans) served on a banana leaf, which the others had, and my fried platanos (a large, starchy type of banana). We treated Carlos to breakfast as well, and got acquainted with each other over breakfast.

Then, much sooner than we wished, Carlos hustled us back into the van and we returned to the airports ~ I to Sansa, the others to NatureAir, for the trip to El Remanso.

A little crowd gathered when I started sketching in the Sansa terminal. First I drew the parking lot, practicing the modified contour technique on the cars ~ you just run your pen around the outline without lifting it from the paper. It makes a nice, fresh drawing, and gives an interesting tilt to inanimate things.

As it warmed up, I went inside, drawing the people and practicing my titling font ~ it's a fun font, very vacation-y and with the freedom to make any given letter look different every time you draw it. I don't mind if people watch when I draw. It amuses them, and it's such a crowd pleaser.....I don't think I'm a show-off, but when you can give people pleasure just by doing something you enjoy, why not?

The trip down the southern half of Costa Rica takes almost an hour, and passes over coffee, pineapple and banana plantations, plus a lot of forested mountains and along the coast, mangrove swamps. It's a fairly low flight, so the scenery is very visible and fascinating.

Adriana and Elyer were there to pick me up at the airport for the eleven mile drive to El Remanso. We were delighted to see howler monkeys in the trees along the way, but I was even more delighted to arrive and settle in a little.

I packed up my sketchbook, binoculars and camera and headed up the road, sketching and photographing tropical marvels to my heart's content. By the time the sun sank into the sea at 5:39, I was lounging by the pool sipping a margarita.

Ah, the life.......the good life.

Howler Wakeup

April 20

5:24 am, El Remanso Wildlife Lodge, Osa Peninsula

The howler monkeys started roaring at 4:55am and are still going strong half an hour later. In addition to the “oooooaru, arooooo, rooooah!” are some “woof-woof-woof” calls, then more moaning roars. It is an extraordinary way to wake up.

I’m sitting in a basket chair on the tiled patio in front of our room in the increasing dawn light. The sun comes up every day about now, and sets around sixish pm, so we’ll have to get up with the monkeys to get the full benefit of the day. People go to bed around nine here, so we’ll still get our sleep!

A Tico (a friendly name for the Costa Rican people) is singing a Spanish song down in the kitchen, so I went down and fetched back a cup of delicious coffee. Ahhhh……. Birds are chattering in the tall trees overhead, and for a few minutes at about 5am the cicadas pulsed with a sound like those bamboo rain tubes, a high-pitched rattle of short bursts – breathtakingly lovely.

Yesterday we went down to the beach and tested our trail legs. The lodge is on a high ridge, with heavily forested ravines on each side and a steep trail down to a lovely, wild Pacific beach. Just out of the restaurant, we were met by a 30” iguana snoozing on the trail, then down near the beach we spooked a mama coati mundi, called pizote (pee-so’-tay) by Ticos, with four kittens. She galloped away with one in her mouth while the other kittens bumbled, clueless, after her.

We didn’t stay long on the beach – it was a very high tide, with the water almost up to the edge of the forest, and it was late in the afternoon, so after a short ramble in the sand and an inspection of hermit crabs taking shelter up the buttressed trunk of a forest giant, we headed back up to the lodge.

Going down took a bit more than fifteen minutes. Coming back took me closer to forty-five (Dan’s in better shape. He made it back up in less than half an hour). I didn’t mind returning slowly, though, because I got to see a lot of cool things: the trail overarched with blooming scarlet hibiscus flowers with frilly petals and fuzzy hanging tongues, brilliant blue and purple hummingbirds guarding them fiercely; a slim vine snake (harmless) crossing the trail then twining up a shrub to safety, and the leafcutter ants. I'm having trouble taking sharp photos in this dim light!

On the way back up the hill I collected a leathery tubular canopy flower to sketch, dropped from high above. I'm eager to start sketching -- I've turned my journal on its side and I'm writing on the left half and leaving the right half of each page empty for drawings. Since a page looks really bare without any pictures, that encourages me to keep sketching. I've also collected a little hatched bird's egg, and now I see a bug on a plant. Time to draw!