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Our trip last week was mainly spent at Rancho Naturalista, a birding lodge in Turrialba, Costa Rica.
After dinner each evening, our tour group gathered in the living room to record the bird sightings of the day. |
We stayed in a room on the upper floor of the main lodge, which was very lovely as it had a large glass door onto the balcony where the hummingbird feeders are located, and also with a great view of the garden with its feeders. As a result, each morning when I woke up, I could go out and watch the hummingbirds beginning to feed at first light and perch right next to the balcony.
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| Beside the door of our room: a nice place to drink my coffee. |
Dawn is very quick in the tropics. Sunrise at Rancho is at around 5:30, and within a very few minutes, it’s broad daylight, and the feeders are full of activity. Big colorful birds like oropendolas, chachalacas, and aracari toucans grab the bananas and other foods that the staff puts out before dawn. Squirrels, agoutis, and a coati named Stanley show up too.
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| A chachalaca with a banana. |
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| On the balcony. |
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| Our room with its door to the balcony. |
Good Food at the Rancho!
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Here’s breakfast: always some lovely tropical fruit, coffee, juice, eggs, rice & beans, and other good things.
Service is family style. The food is very tasty, but there’s no time wasted with fancy service rituals! |
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One slightly more elaborate meal: New Year’s Eve. Sangria for everyone!
But we finished eating by 7:30 because birding requires an early start. |
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The owner of Rancho Naturalista is an American, so some of the food is American style.
She especially tries to make a perfect turkey dinner, so she orders a Butterball turkey from the US. |
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New Year’s dinner was served as a buffet. You can see the stuffing, the salad,
and the sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping. |
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| My plate with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and salad (skipped the sweet potatoes). |
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| Everyone loves the special mint-chocolate mousse cake, served on Wednesday evening. |
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| My favorite meal: tortillas with meat, beans, pico de gallo, and guacamole. |
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Several types of hot sauce were always on the table: I especially liked this one.
I haven’t found a way to buy it here except at exorbitant prices. |
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| The dining area was adjacent to the lawn where the feeders are located. |
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We enjoyed meeting our fellow birders. This is Judy, who turned out to have attended
the same university where we were students years ago. |
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| The kitchen. |
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| In Costa Rica: location of Rancho Naturalista from the iPhone. |
Blog post © 2024 mae sander
17 comments:
Glad you had such a wonderful time. Thank you for bringing us along. Aloha!
That is an epic trip. Just amazing photos.
It definitely is nice to be able to observe the birds right from your balcony. The food you had looks very delicious, especially the fruit. I always find it interesting to eat the food of a foreign country.
What a beautiful place. The food looks amazing. My kind of food for sure. Your room looks so big and compfy. I love all of the photos. Thank you for sharing.
The food was most impressive. It certainly made me hungry. I love fruit, so every time you showed some, I was drooling. That must have been a marvelous trip. Being able to watch the birds and feeders while you ate, must have been doubly enjoyable. Thanks for sharing your trip to Costa Rico and your numerous drinks with us for T this week, dear Mae.
Your resort looks like a really lovely place to stay, and you had lots of yummy food. I love that in January you sit on the balcony too. And watch hummingbirds. I think I need to think about a trip back to Costa Rica in the winter. Smile. Have a great T day Mae. hugs-Erika
Big, BIG WOW!!!! That sounds like a wonderful and yummy trip!
I would love to see Humming Birds for real and all the food looks so healthy and ohhhh. Thank you for sharing all this, you made me smile big! It´s so cold here, this warmed my soul :-)
What an interesting place to stay. The food looks really yummy too. I spotted Mexican glasses ( I have a set too).
That chocolate/mint dessert looks delicious, and what is pico de Gallo? It means a cockerel ‘s beak, but I couldn’t think of anything that could be called that.
Happy T-Day,
Lisca
That looks like a fantastic place to spend New Year. How lovely with the birds just outside. The food looks good too, especially the tortillas and the fruit. Happy T Day! Elle xx
Hello,
Rancho Naturalista looks like a great place to stay and enjoy the birds.
The hummingbirds are amazing to see up close. The foods looks delicious.
Costa Rica is an great place to visit. Great post and photos. Take care, have a great day!
I have not stayed at Rancho Naturalista but I spent a day there and had lunch. Highlights for me were a Pacific Screech Owl and a pair of Jabirus nesting. A wonderful visit.
Wow, what a beautiful place to stay! I loved seeing all your photos and it looks like you had a wonderful time š. The little hummingbird is amazing, we don't get them here in the UK and your meal looks delicious, it looked the the perfect way to welcome the New Year! All the best for 2024 and wishing you a very Happy T Tuesday! Hugs, Jo x
Everything looked delicious!
I guess the sun rises faster farther south? We get a very slow sunrise here!
I'd like this trip for the hotel alone!
This looks like an ideal holiday! I would love the hotel, the food and especially the birds! Thanks so much for showing these photos! If you have any more it wouldn't be too much!! Belated Happy T Day, Chrisx
The room and tables look comfy. The balcony looks neat for viewing. The colors of the birds are fantastic.
Rancho Naturalista is probably my single favourite place in Costa Rica. The food, accommodations and surrounding area are all fabulous, as are the birds seen from the deck. I had my best experience with Snowcap there, and certainly the best picture.
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