Cindy Southgate's Travels

Saturday, February 26

Today was our second last day. We planned a relaxing day with some time at the beach. This is our favourite resort so spending a day enjoying all it has to offer is mandatory.

After breakfast we made our way down to the beach. We were not in a hurry so we stopped several times to take pictures of the wildlife on the property.

We saw several Kiskadees during our trip. It is a fairly small bird at 23 centimetres in length and has a bright yellow front. We also found the bigger and more colourful Blue-crowned Motmot. It is 39 centimetres long and has very interesting tail feathers.

We had a good view of this Three-toed sloth with her baby. The Sloth Institute is on Tulemar’s property and there are several sloths living here. They have a tour most mornings but it is only available to hotel guests. We took part the first time we stayed here.

We found these Spider Monkeys on our way to the beach. Spider Monkeys’ arms are 25% longer than their legs. They also have the most dexterous and strong prehensile tail of all mammals. They need it for swinging through trees and helping to reach fruit which makes up the majority of their diet. They can even use the end of their tail to pluck fruit from trees or scoop up water since there is a pad of skin on the end.

We eventually made our way down to the beach. We chose two chairs under some almond trees for shade. We did a bit of reading and then borrowed one of the kayaks to explore and do some snorkelling.

The snorkelling wasn’t as good as it was 2 years ago when we were here but it wasn’t great then either. There seemed to be less fish this year and the water was cloudier, probably due to the red tide they were experiencing this year. This is caused by a combination of storms stirring up nutrients and the warming of the water creating algae blooms and phytoplankton.

We spent a few hours at the beach. I had a few yummy drinks and we had our lunch while enjoying the view. There are usually two people working down at the beach that help with the kayaks, boogie boards and food and drink. They don’t have access to power here since they aren’t allowed to have electricity or running water close to the beach: so no blender, but they came up with a drink similar to a Pina Colada for me to enjoy. It’s also a bit of a walk to the nearest restroom.

The pathways between the units have a lot of pretty vegetation surrounding them. This also adds some privacy. We quite often saw an Agouti when heading out. They are a fairly large rodent similar in size to a rabbit but they have tiny ears. Their young are very well developed when they are born and the mother takes them on a tour to choose their own den when they are one day old. It is only big enough for them so it protects them from predators. The Mom comes by to nurse them.

We stopped part way up the hill at one of the pools and had a short swim. We had the pool all to ourselves!

The following pictures show the view looking straight down from our balcony and the path leading off our balcony towards the restaurant. It is very beautiful and lush.

Once again we finished our day with dinner at TuleCafe. We found it interesting that they hide the potatoes and vegetables underneath the steak. We aren’t sure if that is a Costa Rican thing or just something the Tulemar chefs do.

We also enjoyed another beautiful sunset.