On we go…. Part 2

So after a white-knuckle trip down the side of the mountain, we arrive safely at Savegre Mountain Hotel. I promptly attempt to register at the garage. A patient campasino informs me that guests normally register in the hotel lobby, and directs me to that location approximately 40 feet behind me. I try to come up with something clever to explain why I am trying to register in the garage, but I am suffering from some sort of stress thing, so I just get back in the car and drive the 40 feet. I have no idea why I did this, except it seemed important at the time to make a showing that I was not a total idiot.

Getting out of the car, the first thing that hits you as you step out of the car is the hummingbirds. It is not that the hummingbirds are rare here… they are not. But never are you going to see maybe 300 of them within 10 feet of you. Now I know why there are so few in my back yard. They are all here, and that 300 number pales when you learn there are 4-5 more locations where they are congregating around feeders in equal numbers. I took a bunch of crummy pictures, but if you want to see them, click here.

We check in without further delay and are directed to our cabin, a spacious thing with a ceiling about 50 feet above the floor. The reason for this becomes clear when I build a fire in the fireplace only to discover that Ticos may not fully grasp the concept of a vent or of drafting. Our cabin fills with smoke, so we decide to take walk.

There are numerous trails where you can see an enormous amount of wildlife. Wildlife here means birds as the other wildlife, like the monkeys, have all died years ago… most from falling out of trees laughing at gringos building fires in the cabins.

One of the trails (senderos) is about 25 KM long (about 16 miles). We give that one a pass. Anything that long requires a motor vehicle or a thinner person.

On the way, I am told that there exists a tree where the Quetzals come to chow down on avocados. I am also told I must arise early in the morning at first like in order to catch them on film. I decide this would be cool, so I make plans for the next morning if I have not passes on due to smoke inhalation.

The smoke has cleared from the cabin, so ML and I return to await arrival of friends Ray and wife Patricia. Ray is the one who discovered this place and I must admit… he hit gold. The Rio Savegre area and h0tel simply sucks the stress right out of you. Normally, it takes me 2-3 days to relax, but for some reason, this is happening in minutes.

R and P show up with a supply of munchies and various beverages all of which contain alcohol. As it is now raining, we spend time in front of the cabin allowing nature and the Seagrams to do their thing.

Dinnertime!

There is only one meal plan here… all meals included. This is, of course, because there are no restaurants withing 200 vertical miles. We head over to the restaurant coincidentally located 45 feet in front of the garage, and are treated to a large buffet containing the usual Tico fare of rice, beans, fish, chicken, funny meat, and tiramasu. While this restaurant will never win any awards for fine cuisine, it is certainly quite acceptable… acceptable enough that I make 2-3 return visits.

There is no nightlife here. You are expected to commune with nature then go to bed. We decide this is OK so we all head off to our cabins. A small surprise is that it is now cold! I mean REALLY cold… like 40 something. Blankets are not going to be enough so I decide to build another fire. We open all the windows and I do my thing.

So after deciding to sleep on the floor…

The Quetzal!

OK, morning arrives and I am off camera in hand to capture a photo of the evasive, reclusive and ever resplendent Quetzal.

I clump my way up a short trail to the Quetzal tree. Now I have no idea why I would think there was not already Quetzal IN that tree, but I do know I have no future whatever as a wildlife photographer. As I draw near, a brilliant flurry of blue, red, and green blasts out of the Quetzal tree and disappears into the forest.

Nuts!

Now I have no idea why I would think there was not already ANOTHER Quetzal in that tree, but now I am SURE have no future whatever as a wildlife photographer. As I draw closer, another brilliant flurry of blue, red, and green blasts out of the Quetzal tree and disappears into the forest.

(Bad word.. much worse than “Nuts!”)

Ok… perhaps the pros find a semi secluded place from which to watch the damned tree and try to remain silent? I do this, and after maybe 15 minutes that feels like 15 hours, a Quetzal flies back to the tree and promptly hides on the opposite side of the trunk. I am patient however, and after another five minutes, the little devil pops his furry head around the side of the trunk. Their heads look like a green fuzzball… about the size of a walnut. Odd since their body is much larger and their tails are about 2-3 feet long!

I snap about 342 photos hoping to get 1-2 that are decent. I am pretty sure the pros get their shot the first time. Above right and left are a couple that at least do not totally suck. Click any to enlarge.

Saving wildlife.

After breakfast, we hear our neighbors yelling. It seems a wild parakeet has flown into their (close) window and has died.

“Not so”, says my wifey.

As regular readers here and in my personal BLOG know, ML is a country gurl and loves all living things regardless of how many legs they have. She races to get to the dead bird.

“Aha! Not dead”, says she. “All we need to do is blow air up its butt!”. I am translating this rather loosely from the Spanish!

If this were any other person than my wife, I would advise treatment of some sort, but for now, I keep quiet and watch her as she blows air up its butt.
She does this far maybe 2-3 minutes (not actually touching here lips to that area I might add). The bird begins to move a bit and in another moment, spreads it wings and takes off!

I am fairly sure this technique is not taught at the leading veterinary schools in the USA, but to watch this is pretty amazing. It also beggars the question as to who was the first person to try this technique and how on earth that thought came into their mind in the first place.

Ok…. that’s it. Another fun weekend coming up soon. This place costs $200.00 per night including all meals… less if you elect to rent a cabin without the fireplace.

This was submitted to me complete with a great photo by Ronna von Knorring, a transplant from Kansas who blogs here.

As a fair number of my readers seem to be very curious about the creepie crawlies who live here (no, I am NOT talking about those guys hanging around the bars in Jaco), I thought I’d publish her submission! Enjoy!

I don’t know much about these beautiful caterpillars other than that the have a nasty sting. They were out in FORCE on our southern Pacific coastline property in Costa Rica in October 2005. They seemed to really enjoy eating the leaves from our balsa tree as well as crawl into our home. We would find them making their cocoons in the strangest places like a fold in a hammock, in a dark corner near our ceiling and in tarps hanging here and there.

I had seen enough shows on the Discovery Channel to know that the “flashier” and “brighter” some animals and insects are, the more harm they can cause. Having encountered another fancy caterpillar previously that I got too close to, I knew to leave these well enough alone.

One day I was at our outdoor sink when I saw one that had fallen from the tree overhead. Not wanting for it to be in a place where it couldn’t get out, I picked up a nearby leaf and scooted the beauty on to it. As I attempted to toss the leaf and caterpillar over our hedge, I got struck by one of the barbs. OUCH!

They really pack a punch. I instantly felt the pain that is similar to a wasp sting. The intensity lasted about 10 minutes.
I’ve seen pictures of the Morpho Butterfly (the blue one) in its caterpillar stage, and it is even more extravagant looking than this one. As beautiful as they both are, and as “soft” as their spikes might seem to the touch, stay away from these, and other, character filled creatures.

For readers who want to learn more about the various bugs, snakes and other critters, check out The Real Costa Rica.

When the E10 came out, it was REALLY expensive… like $4,000.00… and built for serious camera buffs. I paid a fraction of that from a good friend who wanted fast cash, but in my mind, it was ALWAYS expensive. It took incredible photos, and I had no desire to ever make a change.

Sadly, on or about Thanksgiving last,the E-10, instead of displaying the normal set of options in its little screen, instead displayed an error number. NOT a good sign. Nothing worked.

At the time, I was not too worried. I called Olympus in the US (there are no Olympus repair depots in CR), gave them the error number, and in about 1 minute, they told me the problem. The cost would be about $200.00 and I thought that was just fine. A $200 repair for a 5 years old camera seemed reasonable. I figured I’d just send it back to the USA by Fed Ex or DHL, pay my money and have my baby back home in a thrice. Oh little did I know!

It seems that sending a camera, and by extension probably any electronic device, back to the USA is not quite that easy… nor cheap. First, I did not declare this item when I moved here. Who does? No reason to (I thought). Well here is the little catch-22 courtesy of my buddy Charlie Zeller of ABC Mudanzas (movers). You can SEND the item back to the USA for repair or replacement, but to get it BACK means you must import it unless you declared it coming in! Duties then must be paid in addition to the freight (both ways).

So I say to myself, “Self? Let’s just do it! This should be easy.”.

Well as anyone who lives here can verify, nothing is “easy” in Costa Rica. I get out the calculator.

Fed-Ex wants about $100.00 to ship it.

Olympus wants $212.00 to fix it.

There is another $100.00 to get it back to CR, but it goes not to ME, it goes to aduana, (the collection location for duties). They will want another $100.00 or more, to import it. I cannot get anyone to tell me how much is that figure, but clearly we are now up to over $400.00 and the figure could get as high as $500.00 or more. Hmmm.

So I hop onto eBay for a quick looksy. Wowser! My $4,000 camera can NOW be had for about $200.00. What’s more, there are maybe 30 for sale! I love my E-10, but this does not seem to be good economics.

So now, my mind starts thinking maybe a NEW digital camera might be fun, so I begin looking at every digital camera review I can find. So much for my loyalty. That search turns out to be about 1,000 web pages of info. After maybe 2 weeks of reading, I narrow the search to 2-3 cameras, and I figure I’ll just buy it here in Costa Rica in case anything goes wrong. Also, I want to touch it, see it, smell it, whatever, before I buy.

Now you would think that someone who has lived here as long as I would know how things work. I’ll tell you, no matter how many years you live here, Costa Rica can always surprise.

Surprise one. There are no “real” camera stores in San Jose, and by extension, probably not in the country. I go to maybe 8 of those that advertise themselves as camera shops. They are not. Almost all sell the cheap little point and shoot stuff not even of the quality of my Sony.

In two of the stores though, I was able to find Nikon cameras and two of the models I wanted to see, the D-100 and the D-70s. After searching everywhere, I could not find a Canon or Olympus dealer. However, as the two Nikons were 1-2 on my list, I was sort of happy. Happy until the P word came up. P of course, is PRICE.

Now I expected to pay more to buy the camera here. Costa Rica import duties are famous (and unfathomable). I spent about an hour playing with the two cameras, reading the box, the usual stuff. I decided on the Nikon D70s. That, of course. meant we needed to discuss PRICE! Well after all those hours of research, I knew what the camera would cost me in the USA. I saw many offers for about $1,000.00 including the 8-70mm AF-S DX and 55-200mm AF-S DX Lenses. In colones, that comes out to be a bit over 500,000 colones. I expected to pay maybe 15% – 20% over.
Thus, you might imagine my reaction when the sales clerk tells me I must pony up 2,300,460.00 colones. Yes folks, that IS 2.3 million colones or in todays dollars, Forty freaking five hundred bucks! $4,500.00. Four times the cost in the USA.
After adjusting my pacemaker, I suggested that perhaps the clerk was making an error and pricing the more expensive D100 Nikon (or maybe had been smoking something back in his darkroom). No, I didn’t really mention the darkroom. He assured my that the price IS correct and that the D100 is closer to 4 MILLION colones. Gee!
I thank him politely and go to the other Nikon reseller in downtown San Jose. He quotes me his heavily discounted price of… oh… $20.00 less.

About the time I am leaving the store, my son Bill calls me to say his is traveling back to the USA for 4-5 days for a training seminar. I get his hotel info, surf the net for best prices on a D70s, find it at Beach Camera, order it (no sales tax) have it overnighted to his hotel in Mountainview ($48.00), he brings it back in 4 days for a TOTAL price of $1,100.00 including a TON of goodies, 4 lenses, memory, the works. He carries it through customs sin problemas. Oddly, there was no place at the airport to ask about how he could show it as imported to avoid the Olympus fiasco, but I’ll figure it out.

I now have my new camera, and I am a happy camper. At left is the very first photo taken with the D70. The subject is our bi-lingual, bi-polar Amazon Green parrot.

I’ll get better as I learn about this camera.
Lessons to learn.

If you are moving here, this may be a subject you may wish to discuss with your mover. Unless you KNOW that your camera, PC, laptop, DVD, TV whatever has local service AND will honor a US warranty (most do not), you should consider being proactive and getting this stuff nailed down in advance of the big day.