Costa Rica Report – Arenal & Tirimbina

We spent about 9 days in Costa Rica this past March.  It was our 5th trip so we didn’t see many new mammals (but we did see lots of new birds and herps).

The mammal highlights included 3 Northern Tamandua in one afternoon at Arenal with good prolonged looks at two of them.  Plus, we had great sloth encounters at Tirimbina including seeing one come down for it’s weekly “constitutional”.  Bird and frog highlights were plentiful at both locations.

Overall, Arenal Observatory Lodge and Tirimbina Lodge were great for trails, wildlife, and staff.  But, they were really bad for food and room comfort.  So, it was a dual edged sword for us.  We are glad we went but likely won’t return to either in the future.

We did spend our first morning at the Toucan Rescue Ranch and had close viewing of Grissom, Tayra, Neotropical River Otter, and best of all an Oncilla.  Unfortunately, all were brought in from the pet trade and will not be able to be released back into the wild.

You can read the reports here.

The photo gallery is here.

Alan