Only one of many spectacular skies I photographed this morning around breakfast time

Sixth day of the tour, Thursday, December 24

Photographically, a most unusual day. In the morning, before and after breakfast, I took lots of pictures, but during our fine walk, I took relatively few. The forest was a dry one—compared to the rain forests in the mountains, anyway—and I evidently found the scenery less Picturesque. It was sunny, too, with harsh shadows compared to the gentle lighting most of the time in the earlier walks. But here’s what I have:

When we arrived the previous night, we were plenty impressed with our lodgings, but did not take any pictures of the opulence. in the morning, however, I did. The bathroom turned out to have an ornately framed window onto the view (big image, small), as you see in the left picture to the left. I took several pictures of the Jacuzzi bathtub, too, but they weren’t so revealing. And in the two in the right column (upper: big image, small; lower: big, small), you see what the view out onto our balcony was. Walking out there, you could crane your neck a little and see the parking lot that the concierge was so worried would disturb us.

We got to breakfast early, because Leo had told us there might be good birdwatching, and it was from the breakfast patio that I took the picture of the toucan at the bottom of this page. But mostly the birds we saw were far too far away for any kind of adequate picture.

On the other hand, there were those beautiful skies! I suppose that the pictures to the right are rather much of a muchness, but I had to get snaps of them. In the left column, upper: big image, small; lower: big image, small. In the right column, top: big image, small; middle: big image, small; bottom: big image, small

As we walked back to the room from breakfast, I spotted some wonderful spider-webs, one of them presided over by Spider-Woman herself. You see her only in silhouette in the picture below

Along came a Spider… (big image, small)

Few interesting pictures from today’s walk, as I say above, for reasons that I don’t rightly recall. First to the left, you see Neal, Judy, and (with her back to us) Joan, with Leo a little behind pointing out something interesting to the group. (Big image, small.) Below that, a nice little hand of bananas that I spied hiding among the foliage. (Big image, small.)

An interesting flower over to the right: Mark tells me that it’s a “Parrot Heliconia” (big image, small). In the very last picture of the day, there’s the group making its way through the forest, Mark in the rear (except for me of course), and Joan just ahead of him. (Big image, small).

This walk was in the Carara National Park, a nice hike along an oxbow lake and along a river. We saw all sorts of unusual things (unusual for me, anywah!), such as an anhinga, a troop of white-faced capuchin monkeys, a boata-billed heron, and plenty more. I got no pictures, not sure why, maybe because I was feeling too lazy to pull out my long-focus lens (the one I used for the picture of the toucan below). It was the longest walk of the trip, about eight kilometers, and maybe I was just feeling pressed.

After the walk, we went to the home of Doña Míriam, a most unpretentious place, where the hospitality was everything that anyone could ask for. She served us tamales, which are after all special to this Christmas season, and loads of other dishes, fortunately including plátanos (plantain) which as apparently always in Costa Rica were rich, smooth, and moist. Dessert here was a very fine lemon tart.

Nearby, there were Costa Rican almond trees, and in them there was a pair of red macaws doing all sorts of things together, including reciprocal grooming. Mark got a number of terrific pictures of them through Leo’s birding telescope: you must check his page for this day to see them.

From there, back to the Villa Caletas, where we found our room filled with towels twisted into all sorts of fanciful shapes, mostly hearts. And hibiscus flowers everywhere. We didn’t get much of an idea that the other members of the group were so richly favored with the products of this marvelous skill. And I for one was a little reticent about telling everyone what palatial lodgings the luck of the draw had brought us. Did the towel art go with the opulence of the room, perhaps? We never found out.

The next day, Christmas, was the peak of the towel art in our room, where there were charming animals depicted in white, and I did take pictures of these. But for today’s hearts, you’ll have to depend on Mark’s photography.

I was exhausted after this walk, and wanted nothing but a nice nap in my luxurious bed. But Mark wanted the pool, and wanted my company there. So I pulled on a swim suit, and duly took a dip, then soon stretched out on a chaise longue, and fell asleep. For over an hour, they tell me.

We gathered our things, and went back to the room to dress, then to the bar, where we did not finish our drinks, in anticipation of having more alcohol at supper.

Supper: it was at a seafood restaurant called Juanita’s, on the beach somewhere, maybe even in Jacó, very busy and rather noisy. We started out with a big plate of fried seafood that would hve been quite enough for a meal by itself. The squid was again fairly tough, but as always so far in Costa Rica, the breading was very well done, and all the varieties of seafood were very good indeed. For my main course, I chose Dorado (mahi-mahi) instead of the tuna that most of the others had. I found it a bit dry or overcooked, but at least the portion was not oversized, as was the case with the tuna. For dessert, I had flan, which was just right.

From there, to bed.

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I wish I could have done better, but this is the best I could get of this morning’s Toucan.