Wanstead Birder: Costa Rica

With the Beast from the East in full swing, Bob and I left London the night before and headed through the snow to Gatwick. Although the train companies had been saying to complete your journey before 3pm this was rather incompatible with work, but in the event it was a slow trip but one not complicated by any of the extreme weather. We settled nervously into the Marriot in preparation for possible excitement on Saturday. Gatwick would, I hoped, show its customary resilience in the face of crap weather.

Which is exactly what happened. Snow, what snow? The plane took off more or less on time, leaving a white Sussex behind. With an entire field guide to learn and a ready supply of G&Ts the flight passed really quickly and a few minutes later we arrived into a warm San José. No snow here - what a difference a few thousand miles makes! First bird a Black Vulture out of the window as we taxied in. The airport was relatively efficient and barring a cursory and pointless x-ray of our suitcases we got through very painlessly. It took a while to find our pick-up, but we were soon on the road, heading west away from the city centre to our hotel.

This was the Hotel Robledal which had very welcoming staff and nice rooms. And, from my point of view, spectacular gardens. God I love the tropics - heliconia and gingers everywhere, bougainvilleas draped in colour, palms and a profusion of large-leaved vines.

We had a few hours to kill before dinner and devoted these to birding the hotel gardens. Whilst it wasn't as tropically birdy as I hoped we added a whopping 13 species before settling into deck chairs by the pool for our first beer - Imperial. We also learned from reception that a man called Leonardo was to be our guide and that he was arriving on Sunday morning at 6am. To say we were excited does not adequately describe the state of affairs. The first of many chicken and rice dishes for dinner and we hit the hay.