Costa Rica

Retirement gave Carol the opportunity to develop her skills as an artist, something she had long had an interest in but no time to explore while working full time. Noticing, and being a bit jealous of her innate skills, I picked up some books on nature and bird drawing to encourage her, including one by the artist Mindy Lighthipe.

Mindy offers internet classes and Carol became a regular student. Along the way, she learned that Mindy also hosts an annual workshop in Costa Rica. Costa Rica had long been on our list of places to visit so, in Feb. 2026, we joined Mindy and a select group of students for her tour.

Group Tours

Ordinarily, I’m not one for group tours and I was a bit uncertain about what I would do during a week of drawing classes, since I can’t even draw a decent stick figure. Not to worry. There were more than enough activities and locations to keep any photographer happy and I could not have been more pleased with the shots I was able to obtain.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that on her tours Mindy focuses largely on giving participants the opportunity to capture reference photos that can be used later as inspiration for artwork. While there are opportunities for tour participants to draw, her main focus is on providing students with the chance to capture images and experiences that will inspire their artwork when they return home.

Hotel Bougainvillea

We began our tour at the Hotel Bougainvillea in San José, which is best known for its extensive gardens that attract an impressive variety of birds. We were pleased to spot and photograph Lessons Motmots – tropical birds that instantly demonstrated that we were not in central Illinois anymore.

The hotel is known for its extensive gardens and, really, the word “extensive” doesn’t do it justice. The landscaping is beautiful and very well designed. The variety of plants attracts a wide range of birds and while the hotel attracts a lot of camera- and binocular-laden clients, it is laid out so that one can wander the property without feeling like you are tripping over other birdwatchers and photographers.

Selva Verde Lodge

The bulk of our trip, though, was spent at Selva Verde Lodge, which sits in the rainforest along the Sarapiquí River. Although we were there at the end of February, which is considered the dry season, daily rain showers were a regular feature. Not all-day or even most of the day, but certainly in the mornings and evenings and often at various points during the day.

Fortunately, the lodge has elevated and covered walkways that mean you can get from your room to the dining hall and its adjacent bird feeders without getting wet. And, since the rooms are arranged as clusters connected by the walkways, there are opportunities to looks for birds in the along the way.

In recent years I have become a strong advocate for hiring local guides. They know the area and the wildlife and often can provide access to areas and attractions that we would never find on our own. Pedro Bosques has a long history of guiding Mindy’s Costa Rican trips and was indispensable to the success of our trip. There were sloths, howler monkeys, birds, and even a Fer-de-lance, considered the most dangerous snake in Costa Rica, that we would never have seen, much less photographed, without him.

Some of the highlights were a visit to CopeArte, the home and studio of the artist José Pérez, who is better known by his pseudonym Cope. Cope has an excellent open-fronted blind which allows visitors photograph a wide variety of birds that come to his feeders. Despite a near constant rain, we were able to sit and stay dry in the blind as oropendolas, parakeets, toucans, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, tanagers and many others flew in.

Not being a big butterfly enthusiast, I was skeptical about a visit to the Pierella butterfly garden and even considered skipping it. But on the advice of Pedro Bosques, I decided to take a chance. Thank god I listened.

Shortly after arrival, the garden’s own guide spotted a Three-toed sloth. We came away with great shots of one of the iconic animals of Costa Rica. Later, while walking with Pedro, he spotted a troop of Howler monkeys in the canopy. Thanks to his sharp-eyed guidance I came away very pleased with shots of the aptly named howlers.

Monteverde Cloud Forest

We had scheduled a few extra days to visit the Monteverde cloud forest after the organized portion of the trip concluded, giving us a chance to experience another of Costa Rica’s micro climates.

It was a distinctly different experience. Slightly cooler (about 10 degrees, but still very pleasant). Instead of the rain of Selva Verde, the weather was more of a light and sometimes heavy mist, apparently caused by the wet air coming from the sea and over the mountains.

The only thing I had to compare it to was the cloud forest around Mindo in Ecuador. That is much further inland, and our experience there was one of clouds hanging over the mountains, but little rain at the time we were there.

In Monteverde, it wasn’t exactly rain falling, but rather sort of “blowing.” Definitely wet, but I’m not sure I could even call it rain. It tended to clear by afternoon and was seldom heavy, but it was something I had never experienced before.

We stayed at Senda Lodge which was very nice. (I am quite certain we were the poorest people there). For any fans of “The White Lotus,” it very much had that sort of feel to it, although no murders occurred while we were there (that we know of).

We saw lots of coatis, peccaries and agoutis on the hotel grounds. A pair of toucanets had a nest in a tree hole by the hotel swimming pool. We got a few acceptable photos of a Resplendent Quetzal at Monteverde reserve and saw, but were unable to photograph, a Three-wattled bellbird (way too far away).

We returned home amidst a patch of warm weather that gave us hope that spring would actually arrive in central Illinois. Within a week, those hopes were dashed by a stretch of below freezing temperatures, reminding us we were no longer in the tropics.