Costa Rican Palm Pics

[Jeff in Tampa]

I just returned from a trip to Costa Rica to make arrangements for my move there in Oct.  Needless to say, I came home with hundreds of palm pictures.  What an amazing place.  We saw 3 different species of monkeys, a sloth, parrots, and lots of other birds and mammals that I have never seen in the wild before.  

This small clumping palm was growing all through the rainforest.  I'm not sure what this is.

A couple Cyrtostachys renda on my friend's property.

Coconut palms on the beach.  

A large clump of Dypsis lutescens

Cocount palms along the beach

3 Large Royals

Driveway to the house I will be living in.  

Not sure what this is?  An Attalea maybe?

The outlying areas were filled with field after field of African Oil Palms.

New Africa Oil Palms planted among the old dead ones.

Looking down into a valley of Africa Oil Palms

Not sure what this is?

[Dave-Vero]

Lovely piece of coast, even if the English-language sign is a bit alarming.

[Kathy]

Jeff, what palm paradise!  That gorgeous lush driveway only gives more curiosity for what is beyond....any more garden shots?

And you must have work you can move anywhere?  I love to hear how people have managed to make their dreams come true.

[bgl]

Jeff,

Looks like a great place! Really looking forward to going there in April 2008 with the IPS Biennial.

Bo-Göran

[Zac in NC]

The first pic is a Carludovica, the Panama Hat  "Palm". It actually isn't a palm at all, but a Cyclanthaceae. It is an interesting plant nonetheless.  Great pics and hope the move goes well.

Zac

[el-blanco]

Nice photos!

What rae you going to be doing down there?  Would love to hear your plans.  

I hope to travel there next year.  I have never heard anything bad about Costa Rica with exceptio to San Jose.

Gracias!

Jeff

[amazondk]

Jeff,

Great pictures.  The last time I was in Costa Rica was 1986 and unfortunately I did not get to see much of the country.  We now have a daily flight from Manaus to Panama on Copa airlines with a good connection to San Jose, so maybe I will be able to get back soon.  And, hopefully go to the beach.

dk

[Jeff Searle]

Jeff,

   Your last piture looks like a group of Attalea butyracea. And the single palm before that one looks like a Bactris. Was there spines on the trunk and or leaves? Nice pictures, where were these taken? I have been there several times and was just curious.

[JakeK]

Nice pictures. It looks like you were in the Manuel Antonio region, not 100% positive so excuse me if my guess is wrong. I have been there before and although quite expensive for a hiker it was very nice.

I am still very much thinking about purchasing land down on the Osa peninsula. In fact I will be in Costa Rica this November for some hiking in Corcovado National Park and up the summit of Chirripo and surfing on the Caribbean coast.

[Jeff in Tampa]

Kathy, you can view most of the pics from my trip here Costa Rica pictures although I haven't labeled them yet or put them in any kind of order.  To answer your question about work, I am very lucky to have a friend that owns some properties in Costa Rica and offered me a job to work for him and live there.

Bo, I didn't know the bienniel will be in Costa Rica in 2008.  I plan on still being there so I hope to attend.

Zac, thanks for identifying the plant.  I wondered why it had strange blooms sticking out from the ground inside the clump.  

El Blanco. I spent one day and night in San Jose and that was enough for me.  The rest of the trip was spent in Manuel Antonio and Quepos.  

Jeff, Thanks for identifying the palms.  I saw tons of these all over the place and wasn't sure what they were.  I wasn't paying attention to see if there were spines, sorry!  The single palm was taken on my friend's property where I will be living and the last photo was taken on the way out of Quepos heading south.

[Alicehunter2000]

Nice roads south of Quepos  :laugh:

Sincerely though.......beautiful country. Always been scared to try to purchase land there as the internet is full of Costa Rican stories of scams.

David

[Howeadypsis]

Great pics, i love that Cyrtostachys renda,fantastic olour!

Nice to see the mature D lutescens too!

[SubTropicRay]

Hi Jeff,

Beautiful photos.  I will be visiting sooner than later.

The clumping palm looks a bit like Chelyocarpus.

Ray

[Kris]

Dear Jeff,

we in india believed that earths most beautiful women folks are in costa rico,Ask me how ? because we see them in miss-universe contest and many of them have won this event.

And your photos of this place proves the fact the country is filled with natural beauties.

And you are the lukiest person on earth to be there.  

Nice photos and hope to see more of your side of the world.

Love,

Kris(south India)

[amazondk]

On my trips to Costa Rica I paid a lot more attention to the local beauties than palms. In fact I did not any attention to palms at the time.  Although I was interested in bromeliads.  Beauty of course is a relative matter and is in the eye of the beholder.  

dk

[Al in Kona]

Thanks for posting the photos from Costa Rica.  Yes I know it's a beautiful place, I've been there twice but never to the Quepo area.  Once we took a camper-van and drove from San Diego, CA  all the way to Panama and back without even as much as a flat tire - it was a great experience.  If I wasn't living in Hawaii, I'd probably choose Costa Rica as a place to live.

Isn't Costa Rica & Panama far enough south (most of it below 10 degrees N. latitud) so that tropical storms such as hurricanes don't hit that area?  However, some areas of the country have experienced earthquakes.

Think of all the palms that you will be able to grow!  Hope to go there for the 2008 IPS Biennial.

[Jeff in Tampa]

Hey Ray,  You know you are welcome to come visit anytime!

Al, yes I have heard that they do not get hit by hurricanes but they do get an earthquake at least once a year.

[SubTropicRay]

Earthquakes eh?  No Place is perfect.

[amazon exotics]

Costa Rica is a great place. Nobody mentioned the great surf there. Land prices have been on the rise so anybody interested should think about buying now. You can find property for sale through Remax of Costa Rica and a few other larger named reality companys. Thats safe. Could the one palm in question be Astrocaryum?

[JakeK]

The Caribbean coast gets the bottom edge of hurricanes once in a blue moon. It is too far south for cyclonic storms sustain their motion.

The Caribbean coast was hit with a massive earthquake a few years back that lifted many of the coastal reefs 3 meters making huge portions of the coastline unsurfable. Actually the whole country is prone to earthquakes, but large ones aren't common.

The worst thing that could possibly happen to an average tourist, excluding petty theft, would be to struck down by the bot fly larvae. Those suckers are nasty. Either that or be hit by feces from the capuchin monkeys (they will throw it at you in the touristy areas if you don't feed them).

[Jeff in Tampa]

Jake, the bot fly is nasty.  My friend is in Costa Rica all the time and never got bit until he went to Belize.  Weeks afterwards it kept itching him until he went to the doctor who pulled the larvae out from his leg!

The monkeys came through the tree canopy and down to the pool almost every day and never bothered us.  I would hate to have feces thrown at me!!

[amazondk]

We have an insect transmitted parasite around here which is a real pain, LEISHMANIOSE TEGUMENTAR.  When infected by the parasite, I believe they get into the intestines.  Then a leason appears on the skin.  A fried of mine had this problem and it left a real ugly scar, and the treatment is no fun either from what I have heard.  The parasite inhabits game in tropical forests and sometimes man becomes a target.  Then there is malaria and dengue fever.  But, on the other hand life in the Latin American tropics is good, and for  me the risk is worth the reward.  I did have malaria a few years ago and it was no fun at all.

dk

[Dave Butler]

Jeff,

Great pictures waiting patiently for more

[JakeK]

Jeff, the rest of your photos in the link are great too. Your time near Quepos should be great. Did you see that old cargo plane that has been converted into a restaurant on the road from Quepos to Manuel Antonio...strange.

Just of out of curiosity, when will you be moving there? On my next trip down, this November I will be meeting with a contact about property on the Osa peninsula. That is about the only place where I can still afford to buy a piece of rainforest at.

Getting attacked by a bot fly larvae would almost be like a badge of honor, but I still wouldn't want to go through that. I hear the pain can be incredible.

DK,

The Leishmania's vector is the sand fly, almost like the bot fly which has a vector of the mosquito. I really wouldn't like to experience any though.

[amazondk]

Jeff,

How are prices in Costa Rica these days?  That is for hotel, food, rent a car, etc.  I really would like to pop up there for a few days and go to the beach.

dk

[Jeff in Tampa]

Jake, Yes I did see the plane/restaurant.  It's just up the road from my friend's house (within walking distance!).  We kept meaning to stop by for a drink or lunch but we never made it.  Rumor has it that it was the plane that Oliver North flew on during the Iran-Contra Affair.

I plan on moving the first week of October as long as I can get everything wrapped up here in FL.  I want to take a drive down to the Osa Peninsula after I get there.  I hear it's incredible there and even has more wildlife than anywhere else in the country.  If you are in the Quepos area, please look me up, maybe we could have a drink at that plane and check out some local palms!

DK, I'm not sure about prices.  I was staying at a friend's house so I didn't really check out the hotel prices.  I think my friend spent about $300 for the rental car for a week.  I did see signs around town for rooms starting at $29.95 but I'm not sure what they were like.  The house I stayed in rents for $7,500 per week off-season, although that is not the norm for the area!

[MattyB]

The prices aren't very cheap.  It's very Americanized.  They want our tourism and our money.  My wife and I,  and her mom, bought a house on the Pacific side.  We will be renting it out as a vacation property.  I guess private persons can't own property there but corporations can.   So, you just form a corporation and that's your loophole.  It's a cash only market, no financing.  I hear Union Bank might be trying to start up a financing program.  There is serious housing and resort development going on there so get in while the gettin is good.  Real Estate is jammin' down there.  Maybe I can stay in our house if the 2008 biennial is near.....that'll be so cool!  Al,  they are too low for hurricanes.  The hurricanes start forming there as tropical disturbances but quickly move away.  They do have volcanos!!!!

[amazondk]

I guess it has probably changed since I was last there in 1986.  At that time there were some

Americans around but not too many.   One of the highlights of the trip was sitting in a bar which looked on a Casino watching Tattoo from Fantasy Island sitting on another bar with a beautiful Blond.  It was a bit surreal.

dk

[Frank in Florida]

Must get back to Costa Rica, the photo's bring back fond memories.  My wife and I were there several years ago, the biggest surprise was the abundance of African Oils, Attaleas, and snakes, though most were not poisonous-still unnerving.

Fortunately, this one could not hide.

[Zac in NC]

Beautiful Eyelash. They are stunning snakes.

Zac