Costa Rica: Pavones - Surfing with Macaws

After leaving Rise we were on our way to Pavones, a small surfing town that has the world's longest lasting waves. But we decided that since we were close to the Quetzal National Park and we weren't planning to be back to central Costa Rica again we would go there first. The park is named after Costa Rica's rarest and most exotic bird, the Quetzal. With an emerald body, head and crest, a bright red belly and long peacock-like tail feathers it is quite a sight.

We pulled into our lodge in the middle of the rainforest. Right after we got out of the car we saw some small spotted quail walking right next to our cabin.

We checked out the property a bit before having a buffet dinner at the lodge restaurant and heading into our cabin for the night. 

Dawn is the best time to see Quetzals so we woke up early and immediately left our cabin to try and spot one. We saw a green bird fly right into the tree in front of our cabin. We rushed over to see it but it was an Emerald Green Toucanet not a Quetzal. (Toucanets are a smaller species of toucans and not actually the name for young toucans). We couldn't get a straight shot through the trees so the only picture we got was through a maze of tree branches.

We also saw two Yellow Eared Toucanets flying from tree branch to tree branch.

 

We looked around and hiked into the jungle on some beaten up overgrown trails but didn't have much luck. After quite a while we were going to go have some breakfast when Kaden ran out of the rainforest and showed us the picture he got of a Quetzal he had seen near the trail. It had flown off right after he took the picture. We all went the way he had been and searched, listening for it but couldn't find anything. At breakfast we talked to some people about the Quetzal and two photographers asked to see the picture.

  

Unfortunately it turned out that it had been a trogon, not a quetzal. Everyone there were serious birders and they really knew their stuff. Trogons look very similar but Trogons are much more common than Quetzals and don't have a crest or as long tail feathers. We finished breakfast and didn't have enough time to go looking again before we had to start driving.

We left the lodge and drove a long way south to Pavones at the border with Panama. We had to make sure we had groceries and gas before we got there because it is so small it didn't have a gas station or grocery store and it was far from anywhere else. There really weren't any paved roads near it either so it was a bumpy ride. 

Once we got to the house it was already dark. The sun goes down at around 6 o'clock so that doesn't really help. We took all of our stuff out of the van and unpacked into the new house. The house was a nice but a little odd for us. The doors and windows had no glass just bars like in a prison and curtains so there were a lot of bugs and lizards in the house. We had to make sure all the food was put into the fridge or cupboards to keep it safe. Then in the night there was this super loud noise and we had no idea what it was. It almost sounded like a lion roar. When sunrise came around we heard it again and eventually we figured out that it was howler monkeys. The noise was so loud it was hard to believe that it could be a monkey. We followed the noise down the street and found a troop of howler monkeys way up in the tree tops. Our house was way down the road and yet they sounded so loud. Right next to the howlers a Chestnut Mandible Toucan was feeding high up in the canopy.

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Once we got back to the house we decided to go check out the beach which was right down the road. It was nice and very rocky.

There were a lot of rocks in the waves but we found a nice clear area to body surf. You could surf a wave all the way to shore and the water was super shallow so you could walk far out to surf them again. We surfed for four hours or so before we went back to the house. On the way back we saw Scarlet Macaws flying way overheard but they flew over the jungle so we couldn't follow them.

We had sunscreen on but forgot to reapply it so Kaden and I got super burnt. Zaddek on the other hand was lucky because he never burns so he was fine and actually had a tan instead. The sun burn was so bad that when I moved at all my skin would peel even with all the lotion on it. After a day and a half where we felt like we were on fire Mom walked down the road and got some coconut oil from someone who sold it on their yard. It helped with the burn. By the end of the next day we could walk around so we went to the beach and saw a super orange sunset.

After the sun went down we went for dinner at an outdoor restaurant near the beach and then home to go to sleep to the howler monkeys.

The next morning Dad and I went for a walk by the beach looking for the macaws. The beach had a bunch of their favourite food - beach almonds which are green fig-like fruits with almond-like seeds. We found a lot of half eaten ones but no macaws until we heard a bunch of squawking up in the trees. We ran over to the tree and saw a bunch of macaws eating beach almonds. We watched them eat and took some photos before they flew off to a different tree. We started to walk back and heard more squawking up the path. This time it was two macaws fighting each other. They clawed and bit each other and stretched out there wings to keep balance on the branch.

It seemed like they were trying to knock the other one off the branch but it was hard to tell. At one point in the fight they were hanging upside down on the branch until one got knocked off and the winner chased him into the horizon. Once we got back to the house we started getting ready for our surfing lesson.

We drove to a better surfing beach and met the surfing instructor there. He showed us how to stand up right and how to catch the best waves. Kaden was the first to stand up without falling and I was able to keep my balance on my second try and Zaddek did ok. 

The waves weren't huge but you could surf them a long time and it was really fun. Towards the end of the lesson we were all doing pretty good. We thanked the surfing instructor before driving back to the house after a few hours of surfing. Once we were almost back to the house our neighbours pointed out a troop of Squirrel Monkeys that were swinging through the trees towards our house. We parked the car and grabbed the camera and got some great up close pictures of Costa Rica's smallest species of monkey.

After the monkeys left we took the AirBnB's surfboard to our beach so we could go surfing on our own. The surfboard wasn't as nice so it was a little trickier but it was still fun. After some surfing and boogie boarding we walked back and had some dinner before heading in for the night.

 

 Kaden, Zaddek and I spent most of the next day at the beach while the parents planned for our upcoming trip to Corcavado. Most of the time was spent bodyboarding the waves and being tossed about by the sea. When we weren't swimming though we were watching the Scarlet Macaws eating beach almonds up in the  trees tops.  Since it was our last day in Pavones everyone else came down to the beach for one last swim later on. In the morning we packed our things up and started on our next adventure!