Day 23. 25.4.16. San Jose – Toucan Rescue Ranch.

Up at 5.11 to do some more hummingbird hunting, to no avail. Sorted some pictures, then showered and dressed and out into the gardens again, plenty of flora, no fauna.

Sunrise around the corner from my balcony.

Looking over San Jose to the mountains from my balcony.

There's a hummingbird in there, taken from the balcony...

see it?

Went and sat in front garden where I had seen a Hummingbird from my balcony a few times, again no luck.

Flowers of the Bougainvillea garden.

Flowers of the Bougainvillea garden.

Flowers of the Bougainvillea garden.

Fruit? of the Bougainvillea garden.

Humungous giant bromeliad?

Rotunda right up the the back of the gardens.

The cactus section.

Cactus flower.

Not quite in full bloom.

Love these little capsule things.

The razor wire. Doesn't give a great impression.

Purple and orange.

Huge "aussie" green and gold bamboo.

The bamboo and I.

When the wind blew they made the most amazing sound, as they knocked together.

Purple and yellow.

Looking over the Japanese Garden.

Bougainvillea garden.

Me with Aunty Sue's mate.

The crane sculpture, plus the big dry tree. We weren't sure if it was dead or not.

The crane sculpture.

Went and sat in front garden where I had seen a Hummingbird from my balcony a few times, again no luck.

Hibiscus.

A red flower with green fruit.

Soft white/green flower. 

Ox cart.

Breaky at 8.00, then we made plans for the day. Our Toucan Rescue Ranch tour is not till 2pm, so we headed into San Jose to visit the Contemporary Museum/Cultural Arts centre but it was closed. 

We walked around Barrio Amon, saw some of the neighbourhood living and found a small shop selling goods made by local people using a Fair Trade approach.

Barrio Amon, the yellow place was one of Mr Lonely (Planet's) lunch recommendations, but we were too early.

An interesting house in Barrio Amon.

Just to prove we were there.

Reasonably steep little street.

Bins near the zoo were stencilled with animals.

There was plenty of beautiful stuff and good quality, but what I’d have liked would never have packed in my ever growing luggage.

Some of the amazingly detailed wooden masks. We really liked these, but there is no way they would pack in.

They are made by local indigenous people.

Walked to check out the Central Mercado (market), a real mish mash of groceries, haberdashery, small food stalls, flowers, meats, spices, vegies, fruit, meat and cheeses. Lots to look at.

City street.

The market.

The market.

No idea what was in these little packages.

Bottles hanging everywhere.

A range of interesting goods in this stall.

Flowers.

Weird fruit that looked like animals.

These guys were taking up half the street selling their melons.

Spices by the bucket full.

Fruit shop.

Beans and pastas.

A cat just lazing around on the maize.

Beans.

This is uchuva, had a long list of amazing healing properties. I was reading the sign and the stallholder came over and gave us each several to try, the dry brittle 'shell' contained a small yellow fruit, that was quite nice. He was very generious.

Central Market building.

Berries by the scoop/

Guanabana. We had this as a juice, and had it everywhere in Ecuador as well, it was interesting to see what it actually looked like, both in full fruit and cut form.

Then it was time to head for our 2pm activity – a visit to The Toucan Rescue Ranch, the brochure had lots of information, but no address. In order to enlist a taxi to get us there, we thought a good hotel might be able to assist. So we headed for our original hotel, Hotel Presidente to ask them to assist. I had to pretend I was staying, made up a room number and took the name of whoever was staying in room 417 – thankfully the person Jennifer ????, was a female. 

We got a whole 16 seater van for us out the place for only $25USD. It was about a 40 minute trip. We arrived slightly early at 1.50. The bus driver wanted to come back for us, we said no thanks, but had to ask some of the staff at the Ranch to make this clear.

How to look slimmer, find a fat friend. 

We hadn't actually seen this view of our hotel when we stayed here, as we drove in and drove out, without venturing outside.

An ox cart wheel, painted with Oxen at Hotel Presidente.

We were met by Carol, a Canadian expat and were allowed to look around a few cages while awaiting others arrival for the 2pm start.

The Toucan Rescue Ranch was really quite amazing, they basically began in 2002, rescuing injured, orphaned, surrendered or confiscated Toucans. They worked in conjunction with a Government department – MINAE – Ministry of Environment and Energy.

That yellow bird again.

A Costa Rican women, Lesley, founded the organisation, after living in the states and getting into birds. She returned to CR to begin the Toucan Rescue Ranch which grew beyond Toucans to wildlife more broadly, when MINAE saw how well they were doing, they asked them to take in an orphaned sloth and so it grew. MINAE regulates wildlife conservation and protection and is very particular about who they licence to care for animals.

TRR releases all they can back to the wild and have a breeding program also. Obviously some animals who have been housed in homes as pets and have never learnt to fend for themselves can’t be released to the wild, these along with injured animals/birds are used wherever possible in the breeding programs. The TRR has a release site up in Sarapiqui, and is expanding as they can afford.

One of the sloths, sleeping in its cage, in its tub, under its blanket. She stuck her head up when we were looking at the sloth in a neighbouring cage. Such cute little faces.

She was captivating.

This one Carol coaxed awake with a treat - evidently they love hibiscus flowers.

Cute.

This was another one, obviously a two-toed sloth, pretty mean looking claws.

Another one coming further out for its hibiscus flower.

Ahhh, taking time to smell the 'roses'

Cute.

Manipulating the flower with those claws is a bit tricky.

Spectacled Owl I think.

All the wildlife is housed behind wire, so pics not good. It was still an awesome experience to get close and hear the many and varied stories of the animals resident there. Carol knew them all by name and had been involved in hand rearing many of them. There were many sad stories of cruelty and abuse which resulted in the animals being confiscated by MINAE and delivered to TRR for care. Others arrived due to car accidents, falling from trees, electrocution. Others were surrendered as the owners no longer wanted or could no longer manage the pets they had obtained usually illegally.

Porcupine.

Porcupine, hanging around, Carol had some nuts for her.

Quite cute too, when you can get a look at them.

An oropendula, this one had been hand reared by Carol, and is always seeking her attention.

We saw:

• Two and Three Toed Sloths
• Owls – Pygmy, Spectacled, Striped, Barn, Black and White, Mottled.
• Oncilla – a small wild cat
• Porcupine
• Toucans – Fiery Billed Arcari, Chestnut Mandibled Toucan, Emerald Toucanet, Keel Billed Toucan, and others
• Neotropical River Otters
• Greater Grison
• Macaws – Scarlet, Blue,
• Parrots – Orange headed, Meally, Blue Headed, Orange fronted
• Timar
• Squirrel Monkeys
• Some sort of Oropendula
• Caracin – Bush Turkey

We then returned to the verandah and Carol showed us Bella – a sloth she brought out to hang for a while, followed by a tiny baby Squirrel Monkey and a bucket of 3 tiny sloths named Latte, Coco and Toffee, they were a small tub of fur and noses.

Bella.

Bella hanging in the tree.

Someone was burning off and there was a fair bit of smoke in the air (it is illegal to burn off) and sloths have very delicate lungs, so Bella needed to go back into the house.

This little monkey had been playing in a portable baby cot, the whole time we were on the verandah. Such a gorgeous little thing.

Check out the size of that hand.

She was tiny, I can't recall how she came to be at TRR,

Look at those big black eyes.

Here's a tub of sloths, there are three in there.

All snuggled in.

One...

Two...

Three...

a big yawn too.

The TRR is a US Not for Profit organisation and do an amazing job protecting, saving and breeding these birds and animals. They have a second ‘release’ property at Sarapiqui and are beginning to trial the use of GPS trackers and collars to ensure they can monitor and therefore increase the chances of survival in the wild. It will allow them to track and monitor whether an animal is behaving as it should in the wild otherwise, the animal can be recaptured and returned for ongoing housing or further training.

Well worth a visit if you ever in San Jose. Check them out at: www.toucanrescueranch.org They are also on facebook.

Again with no address, this was the instructions that the Hotel wrote out for the van driver. No actual address involved.

All in all a good day. Suzie’s friend Katherine here in San Jose is too ill to see us. So tonight we are heading back to the city for dinner at one of Katharine’s local recommendations before packing up to fly out to the States tomorrow.

Our cab driver ESUS, was a lovely young fella, he was keen to practice his English and to show off his interest in ‘our’ music too. He was so good, we called him to take us home too.

Dinner was amazing at Almada Amon, a modern twist on Costa Rican cuisine. We shared some plates:

• Chorizo tostada with peanut sauce
• Plaintain bashed and fried crispy with chicken, cheese and tomato.
• Green mango salad
• Finished off with Churros and Guava Jam filled pastry with icecream.

The decor was pretty groovy. The wallpaper characters were also used on the backs of the chairs.

The bar. Candles and lamps.

Found a new setting on my camera. B&W version.

Here we are at Almada Amon.

Out for dinner.

I had a quite delicious cocktail – which was ‘smoked’ on arrival at the table – it was Passionfruit, lime and chilli.

My cocktail came 'smoked' here is the waiter torching some sort of seed that was 'pegged' to the side of my glass.

There it is burning away.

Suzie and Glenda have their cocktail. It is deconstructed, with two shots of vodka...Suzie poured hers into a glass.

Glenda was way braver and did the suck, shot and did something with the spices that were on the plate. Good job Glenda!