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In Search of a Quetzal in the Monteverde Cloud Forest

After witnessing six new hummingbirds in the course of just a few minutes, I would have normally been happy to call it a good birding day and gone home.  But I wasn't just anywhere; I was near the entrance to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve in Costa Rica, at a shop that hung several sugar water feeders on its patio.  Violet sabrewings, green-crowned brilliants, and lesser violetears were among the scintillating birds competing for dominance at the hanging stations.  The misty rain didn't deter any of us awed tourists from snapping photos and risking ruining our cameras.  However I was actually visiting this park in search of a completely different bird, the resplendent quetzal.  It wasn't surprising that the variety and sheer numbers of wildlife I was finding in Costa Rica after barely four days in the country was mind-blowing.  Over the two previous days in Arenal National Park, I had counted close to forty species of birds alone.  In ...
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My Costa Rica Trip in Numbers

Eight nights in Costa Rica didn't sound like a lot.  Neither did the five different hotels and many locations I'd be visiting.  The distances between these places didn't sound like much either: only one hundred kilometers from Arenal Volcano to the Monteverde Cloud Forest, two consecutive highlights.  Sixty miles wouldn't take long, right?  Well that's when the math started defying my North American logic.   The ride took over three hours, not counting a stop for lunch.  First I had to drive around Lake Arenal, the body of water whose hydroelectric dam provides Costa Rica with twelve percent of its electricity. (Passing below towering wind turbines reminded me that ninety-nine percent of the country's total electrical energy is generated by renewable sources.)  But then the pavement started disappearing from the roads along the last thirty-five kilometers or so.   Initially it looked like there was a resurfacing project underway, but the...
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The Three Best Snorkel Sites in Cabo San Lucas

I've written quite a bit about my snorkel adventures in Cabo San Lucas.  Even beating out whale watching and beachcombing, snorkeling is indeed my favorite activity in this resort city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.  As a cruise passenger, the easiest site to visit for underwater exploration may be Pelican Rock, a fast ride in a water taxi from the municipal dock.  I even wondered if it might be Cabo's best snorkeling spot when I wrote about it just over two years ago. (See  Pelican Rock .)  But I was recently reminded on a November cruise that there are two additional sites that are also both excellent for snorkeling and almost as easy to reach: Chileno Bay and Santa Maria Bay. I've actually visited those beaches before, on excursions while on other cruises.  Cruise lines sell tours that sail vacationers from Cabo's harbor to both bays in the Sea of Cortez.  Usually from a catamaran, I've snorkeled in the pristine water shelteri...
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Isla Coronado in Loreto National Marine Park

Forty-five minutes in a panga on choppy seas, breathing in gasoline fumes, was how I started my first visit to the marine preserve surrounding Loreto.  Jacques Cousteau had labeled the undersea environment the world's aquarium.  Above the sea, nausea prevented me from enjoying any marine life that might have been skimming the water's surface. I had arrived in this quiet corner of Baja California on a cruise ship, in mid-November, with only a short, eight-hour stop at the port.  Loreto was a lovely town, with charming streetscapes and an historic colonial-era plaza.  But on my mind was the vast surrounding Sea of Cortez seascape, designated as Bahia de Loreto National Park and protecting 800 square miles of ocean, coastline and five uninhabited islands.   We were six passengers on the small boat, a panga, that made its way from Loreto's tiny port to Isla Coronado, the closest of the preserve's five islands.  There were no fishing boats within view, a te...
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Snorkeling off Cemetery Beach on Grand Cayman Island

Almost no one visits the Cayman Islands without seeing Seven Mile Beach.  Crescent-shaped and renowned for its bright coral-sand and clear, calm water, it extends along most of the west coast of Grand Cayman Island, where I was visiting.  Cruise ship passengers like myself are especially lucky because their tender port is at George Town, lying close to the southern end of the beach.  However on my short stay, I headed almost to Seven Mile's very northern end, Cemetery Beach, where I snorkeled to an off-shore reef.   George Town is the capital and largest city in the Cayman Islands.  It's also an easy place to find a taxi van or a public bus traveling to anywhere on Grand Cayman Island.  I quickly learned that both services operated identical-looking vans that each held around a dozen passengers.  The taxi offered a specific ride to your location at a fixed price with the possibility of several different itineraries sharing your van.  Meanwhil...
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Birding on My Go Native Jamaica Tour

I hadn't visited Jamaica in more than thirteen years when I found myself there with a day to spend off of a cruise ship.  It was easy for me to decide what I was most interested in: birds.  The island is one of the largest, and perhaps the most verdant, that ships visit in the Caribbean so I imagined there should be some interesting avian discoveries in store.  However my cruise didn't offer a specific birding excursion and I hadn't researched enough to travel independently.  Fortunately my Montego Bay stop sold a tour entitled "Go Native Jamaica" that boasted a nature walk at a tropical plantation in the hilly outskirts of town.  I was convinced when I read, "Watch for different bird species." Of course most of the tour focused on the history and landmarks of Montego Bay, Jamaica's second largest city, and on the nation's culture as a whole.  As my bus struggled through rush-hour traffic on its way to a  seventeenth century fort, we passed by ca...
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