Go to Quetzal from San Jose, Costa Rica
It is said to be the national tribe of Guatemala and an endangered bird.
Quetzal engraved on Guatemalan coins and banknotes.
The currency of Guatemala is also Quetzal.
I went with a Japanese friend Nao who met in Madrid last year (2019) to see Quetzal. I don't have any information on Quetzal on other blogs.
First of all, the site to book is as follows.
You can make a reservation here, or you can go directly to the site and make a reservation. We chose the latter.
When you enter the site, the guided tour to see Quetzal is 3:30am, 9:00am, and 2:00pm three hours, and it costs $30 every two hours.
If you have enough money, we recommend the 5am tour.
Quetzal eats avocado and says it is the best time to observe Quetzal because it is eaten in the morning.
However, in order to do the 5 o'clock tour, you have to stay at the lodge on the site (it doesn't matter if you have a rental car), but it was difficult, so we used public transportation. The location is:
I went to the restaurant myself, and there seemed to be everything, but I couldn't guarantee it because I didn't enter the room.
Anyway, to get to this place by 9pm by public transportation, we have to head to the next terminal in downtown San Jose.
We met here at 6 o'clock and bought a bus ticket at 6:30. It was 2225 colons one way. However, the ticket price of Indirecto and Directo seemed to be different. As will be explained later, when I came back, I took the Directo bus and paid a little more. The timetable is as follows.
It takes about 2 hours on the bus at 6:30, and our destination'Paraiso Quetzal Lodge' is not the final destination of the bus, so we have to get off in the middle. You can stop by the rest stop once 10km from there, which is the entrance to the Lodge. Be sure to tell the bus driver in advance that you are going here, and ask him to stop in the middle.
"Voy a visitar Quetzal's habitacion. Se puede decir llega aca?"
"I'm going to Quetzal's habitat. Could you tell me when you get here?"
(It's probably grammatically wrong in the Spanish language I've learned on a trip, but it's conveyed as much as it is.
Let's turn on MapSmi and Google Map to check the location of GPS and check the location to get off.
When you get off, you will see a sign to the Lodge on the right hand side. (I didn't take a picture, but anyone can go there. Sorry for the unkindness. I just wrote a blog...)
When you go, there are signs like this, and you can walk all the way along this road. It takes 5-10 minutes.
From here you should head to Lodge.
Now, we have arrived at Lodge. This was around 8:40. This place has a high elevation. The habitat of Quetzal is called the rainforest highlands. If you have suffered from altitude sickness, you can also take something like Tylenol in advance.
It is 2700m above sea level. Me and Nao suffered from altitude.
You can pay $30 here and make a payment, but the staff starts talking.
"You don't have a car, and you're 7-8 km from here to see Quetzal, but to get our car, we have to pay $10 plus $40 each."
Me and Nao were dumb and started picking.
"No, there is no such information on the Internet site (and it is not written anywhere that I would have to pay 10 more if there is no real car) and when I called yesterday (and Nao called, not my own), there is no hemisphere about the car, so why suddenly pay 10 more dollars? box?"
Eventually, we could win and join the 9 o'clock tour for $30 per person (both cash and credit card!)
Then, past the restaurant and go to the back of the lodge, you can see the following places, and some strange birds come and eat them.
Restaurant inside Lodge
A place to see when you go out behind the restaurant
After a brief visit to this place, I finally went on a Quetzal tour with other foreigners who applied for a tour around 9:10. We got in the guide's car. Foreigners have been following us because of their cars.
Arrive at the first spot.
Unfortunately, the observation failed here. There was no Quetzal caught in fishing (?) even if the guide flirted with a cell phone as shown below.
So in the first spot, he moved after a failure.
Second spot.
A guide just entering the forest through a mountain home. As I followed, the guide suddenly stopped. Then he asked to install a tripod and telescope. Wow, this is Quetzal! Everyone was admired for the good.
Male on the left, female on the right
The picture was taken with a cell phone camera in the telescope. The guide guides you kindly. I didn't take it, but other foreigners, including Nao, also took videos. Why didn't I do it?
Noble attitude
The male has a tail longer than his torso. This picture was taken with the phone close to the telescope lens, so the tail was only partially out. You have no choice but to see it with your own eyes (see Nao's high-quality photos and videos below!)
If you are looking at Quetzal with admiration like this, the tour will end soon. After the end, the guide will drop us off at the return terminal (a rest stop 10km from the Lodge mentioned above, which stood briefly when we came here). The staff said that taking them to the terminal is also included in the tour. In appreciation, Nao and I gave the guide a small tip.
When we arrived, there was a bus to the Musoc terminal so we could take it right away. However, I paid 2,225 colons per person as an indirecto bus, but this bus was a directo bus, and only 4,500 colons, which were prepared by our Shobu ability (?), were asked to pay more. That is, 25 more coins per person.
It takes another 2 hours to return to the San Jose Musoc terminal.
The photo below is a high quality Quetzal photo taken by Nao with permission.
Notice the male tail length!
