Day 10

It went fast, but we’re out of here this morning and on to Savegre in the Talamanca Mountains 3 hours south of San Jose.  So we leave the brilliant southern cross, easily visible each night from our deck, the pure unpolluted skies and the crabs, iguanas, flowers and all those favorite Ginna subjects.

http://www.lookout-inn.com/

Day 9

Scarlet macaw day

This morning was a fabulous Scarlet Macaw day, and Lookout Inn may be one the best places on earth to photograph these colorful, intelligent birds.  Lookout Inn sits high in the canopy so flight shots can be taken into the green jungle background.  The birds above were in mating flight, and we were lucky to catch the amazing ‘flight dance’ as if it were suspended in air, which it wasn’t.  In fact, the roll occurred without the slightest hesitation in flight.  After this  pirouette the macaws settled into a tree for a another courtship display, and what can we say, the shot was taken from our ‘bathroom’ in the swing-in-spa.  And all of this after a swim in the warm waters of the ocean and before breakfast, which was delicious.  It seems to just keep getting better!

http://www.lookout-inn.com/

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Day 8

We’ll back up to yesterday and our trip to Corcovado National Park, but for now here’s the news:  One of the world’s most poisonous pit vipers, in the wild, the Fer-de-Lance.  What a thrill!  And a little more camouflage, also from this morning with more coming later from Ginna.  Terry has excellent guides.  Dinner was terrific.

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Day 7

Corcovado National Park

According to Eric, an excellent guide, Corvocado National Park is 45,000 hectares of wild hot humid jungle.  Lookout Inn is almost the closet jump-off, a 40 minute walk down the beach to the la Leona park ranger entrance.  We followed the trails and with Eric’s help spotted ant-eaters, a tayra, coatis, capuchins, spiker monkeys, a great curassow among other birds, snakes, amphibians and animals.  It’s a long hot day to do it, but 6 pints of water, , 2 packets of energizer, 10 hours, 4 potassium tablets, two peanut butter sandwiches and numerous cookies later, we were talking about all we’d seen.  It was our second hike into Corcovado, and in our opinion it’s a don’t miss opportunity.

Day 6

Ginna’s Mexican Parrot Snake:

It’s still hot!  But lot’s to see and do, including Ginna’s Mexican Parrot snake above.  It’s hard to keep her away from that macro lens.  The sunrise was beautiful.  Tomorrow we hike into Corcovado National Park, expansive, wild and remote.  Here’s the link to Lookout Inn: http://www.lookout-inn.com/

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We are here with Nick and Pam Fucci, and this is a sunrise photo of Nick with his big lens.  Nick has been very helpful finding a few a the world’s very camouflaged subjects.   Nick is a friend and excellent photographer with lot’s of fabulous images on his site.  You can check them out at: http://nickfucciphoto.com/gallery.htm

Sunrise, Lookout Inn

DAYS FOUR & FIVE

It’s hot, but so what!  The sunrises at Lookout Inn are perpendicular to the south facing beach; it makes for spectacular backlighting.  And how lucky to find that solitary person walking these completely deserted beaches, miles and miles of them.

Polly Macaw

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We liked the patterns on this dead leaf:

DAY THREE

We made it:  Lookout Inn, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica!  End of the road, but look out and hurry!  The bumpy dirt road is being improved and the grass runway expanded and paved; I wonder if tour buses are next.  Hopefully not because this is a virgin paradise teeming with wildlife, an expansive beach and relatively few visitors.  Lookout Inn has 9 rooms and approximately 25 guests, including those from Canada, Switzerland, California, Montana, Costa Rica.  Imagine that it all started 15 years ago when Terry built a ‘shack’ on the ocean and started construction on the main house [lodge].  Water comes from a pure artesian well, supplied by only 202 inches this year, down from an average of 300 inches per year.  Power is solar, waste is septic and Terry’s utility bill is exactly zero, if like the U.S. of A. the capital cost is ignored. So, the leaf cutter ant above is very hard to get, a low percentage shot that turned out well this morning.  What can we say?  Macaws stealing the soap, monkeys looking at in the room, and coatis eating bananas.

Keel Billed Toucans

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DAY TWO

Tomorrow is Lookout Inn [can't wait!], so let’s call today a ‘Short Stop’ as compared to a short cut, corto camino here in San Jose, which we took on our way to La Paz Water Gardens near Volcan Poas.  The park was closed our last trip due to a 6.3 earthquake, so this was our first visit.  We became so engrossed in frogs, butterflies and toucans that we didn’t even see the rest.  We’ll have to return.

From La Paz Water Gardens:

Poison Dart Frog:

Blue Morph exiting chrysalis:

Blue Jeans Frog [We've been after this!]

Fire Ants:

Reticulated Glass Frog [How's that for camouflage]:

View La Paz Waterfall Garden Album

DAY ONE

Back to the Lookout Inn:

We know the earth is round; we’ve seen the photos.  We might otherwise imagine that Lookout Inn Lodge were a few lonely strides from the edge, just beyond the rainforest.  It is literally the end of the road where Terry Conroy and his beautiful wife, Katya, share their home overlooking the Pacific Ocean and canopies of Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula.  We are 35,000 feet above the earth and dreaming once again of virgin beaches, lagoons, monkeys, amphibians, exotic birds and 360 degrees of 24/7 photographic opportunities.  On our last visit, which wasn’t our first, we only half-jokingly asked Terry to give us the yearly rate.  Here’s the link: http://www.lookout-inn.com/

We think rustic comfort describes the ‘swinging bed’ that awaits on the platform nestled into the canopy, stars above, ocean below, ‘skeeter net’ as Terry calls it, and a zillion subjects to photograph without leaving the ‘room’, not the least of which are the colorful Scarlet Macaws, which could be the Lookout Inn mascot if it had one.  View Album

It’s stimulating [remember this word!] to awaken to a cacophony of jungle sounds, leap out of bed and begin shooting whatever awaits, and there is always a lot.  So much in fact that it’s easy to get distracted.  Last year I returned a couple hours after sunrise, having gone to the lagoon in the pre-dawn dark, to find Ginna still in the buff, that’s 100%, blasting away with her tripod and long lens.  So how does this go: the birds, lizards, monkeys, butterflies, frogs and spiders were looking at her, she was photographing them, and the workers were watching her.  Oh well, what happens in the jungle stays in the jungle.

We’ll post this in reverse with the latest photos or comments at the top in a running format, starting with a few photographs from last year to introduce the Lookout Inn album.  Stay tuned….

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