If you want luxury, La Carolina Lodge which is up in the Costa Rican Rain Forest, is the wrong place for you. Molly and I arrived last night in time for supper, and then the evening song as the forest creatures sung out as dark took over the area. Our room has very few modern conveniences … no TV … no air conditioning (mosquito nets and fans) … and very limited lighting. We do have a very private deck overlooking a mountain river. The lodge does have yoga and horseback riding, which we will not utilize.

This working farm which has both pastures and rain forest is a nature lover’s dream. All three meals come with our room with most food sourced from this farm. We will spend $900 for three nights. I don’t normally include prices, but I want folks to know what it costs to visit a real nice Eco Lodge.

Before breakfast I was in place near some bananas, and for two hours I enjoyed the morning bird feed. Quite often I was sitting in the rain, but I did not mind or care. At one point, this Yellow-Throated Toucan visited. It tarried within 10 to 30 yards of me for over 10 minutes. I saw lots of other cool birds this morning, but the Toucan was the real treat of the morning. Enjoy! (video links one and two for email subscribers)

Molly and I leave early tomorrow for a little over two weeks in Costa Rica, with our first 3 nights at an off the grid eco lodge up in the rain forest. We follow that up by spending time on the Pacific at Las Catalinas. For the first time in my life I have hired local guides … twice for 1/2 day each time. Learn more about where we will be. I have a free PDF guide book I authored and photographed about the area.

Collared Aracari (Toucan)

Version 2 of my book, The Birds of Las Catalinas, is finished! Even if you have no plans to visit Las Catalinas in Costa Rica, the book will be useful for anyone who plans a trip to the Guanacaste and / or the Highlands Rainforest Area. The birds will be similar, and you definitely would want to utilize the birding tools I review.

• Get your free PDF download of the book

The new version of the book is greatly expanded and now has over 100 pages, organized into these sections:

1. Introduction Maps and Birding Tools
2. The Birds of Las Catalinas (link to town)
3. Playa Potrero (link to beach)
4. El Viejo Wetlands (link to Hacienda El Veijo)
5. Rainforest Highlands (link to La Carolina Lodge)
6. Alphabetical Index (birds by name)

The PDF version of the book includes many active web links. However, I have zero financial interest and have received no money from any of the organizations listed or linked in the book.

I have no plans to sell printed copies of the book. There will be a very limited hard copy version run for family and friends of the book, The Birds of Las Catalinas. If you want a physical copy of the book, you would need to pay me up front and contact me ASAP. Given the extremely limited number of copies being printed the book will NOT be cheap. I expect the cost to be a bit less than $100 per  copy.

The free PDF download will always be available, and there is no time constraint to get your download. You will find a screenshot of the book’s index page at the bottom of this post.

Black-Headed Trogon (images from the book)

Screenshot of the Birds of Las Catalinas book’s index page