Watching an Airbus A340 Take Off

We live not too far from the San Jose airport and often we take the back way home and come around this fence along the main runway of the airport. People here like to stop and watch and there are always quite a few cars stopped along this fence.

This time the huge Airbus A340 (Did I get the number right, Richard?) was just taking off. This is an Iberia Airlines plane and often we see it parked there next to the terminal. Must be a lot of tourists from Spain to bring this many passengers on a regular basis.

We stopped right next to the fence at the end of the runway. The plane came right toward us.

It started to turn around to get ready to take off in the other direction. It was raining so the runway was quite wet.

Laurie said he didn't want to be right behind the plane when it took off. Good thing he was smart enough to move the car foreward a little.

There were people standing along the fence who didn't move before the plane took off.

I think this would be considered a security risk near an airport at home. But here nobody seems to care if people get this close to watch.

The plane really kicked up a big fuss and a lot of water off the runway when it stared it's take off. All the people along the fence got wet and lost their hats. Fortunately we were inside the car and a little bit foreward. But it was all fun to watch.

Visit to Carara National Park

A large Guanacaste tree near where we started our tour. We were lucky to have a sunny day as it is the rainy season now.

This is a type of mahogany tree in the park. The guide said that if they were to cut this tree down for the timber, it would be worth about 50 thousand U.S. dollars. But of course this is in the park so is protected and they won't be cutting it down.

This is an interesting orange mushroom growing up between dead branches on the forest floor.

Even though it is pretty, it is very poisonous, so don't eat it!

Another type of interesting mushroom.

More of the same kind of mushrooms.

There were lots of wild banana trees in the park, several different kinds of bananas.

Banana blossoms are so pretty and interesting.

This is a Humming Bird nest, but no Humming Birds here now. The guide said that the eggs are about the size of an aspirin.

These are cacao pods with chocolate beans inside.

We have seen these trees before. It is hard to imagine just how tall they are and how big around are these exposed buttress roots.

These were wierd formations on the leaves of this plant. They looked like little green worms that just fell onto the leaves, but they are something the plant grows on it's own leaves as protection so critters won't eat them.

This is a banana flower petal just floating in one of the large water puddles.

I don't know what type of fruit or nut these were but they looked pretty.

Another type of mushroom growing on a dead log.

Assorted Creatures in Carara National Park

We found this pretty butterfly on our own without the guide's help so I don't know what it is called.

It was irridescent blue like the Blue Morpho but was quite a bit smaller.

Just glad he would sit still for a few photos.

The guide found this lizard in a tree and we were able to take pictures through his telescope lens.

This guy was just on the ground close to where we were.

Kind of prehistoric looking iguana. He seemed interested in us but would scurry away if we got too close.

A cute white bat on the underside of a palm frond.

The same bat through the telescope lens. We always think bats are asleep, but he is obviously looking at us.

This is an egg sack of tiny green frogs. In the rainy season, which is right now, there are large puddles of water under where these egg sacks are. When the frogs hatch, they just fall off into the water and so are able to survive. How did the mother know exactly where to lay the eggs?

This is a large frog in the area where we saw the egg sack, but the guide said this is a different kind of frog, a lot bigger.

Another lizard. This one had lots of pretty green coloring on his underside and on his feet.

We did see some Capuchin monkeys. But they weren't cooperating with me taking their pictures. My camera doesn't do action shots and the monkeys wouldn't sit still for a second. You can see that there is a monkey in the picture, just not a very good shot.

Same here, this was a cute baby Capuchin. But the picture is blurry and he didn't give me another chance. The Capuchins we saw the first time we went to Manuel Antonio were used to people and seemed to pose on purpose to get their pictures taken, not so these. But it was fun to see them.

Birds in Carara National Park

Carara National Park is not too far from here. It is on the way to Manuel Antonion Park and not too far from the beach town of Jaco. We had a little excursion there yesterday with all the senior missionaries and the temple presidency.

This park is known for the Scarlet Macaws in the wild. They hang out here in the trees of the park during the day and take off for other parts at sunset.

This photo was taken through the guide's telescope. We probably never would have found where the Macaws were if we had not had the guide.

The guide took us off the beaten path. In fact we went a couple of places where there were signs specifically telling one not to go off the path. But that is how he found where the Macaws were that day.

We saw some of these birds at ZooAve but have never seen them out in the wild before.

These birds were interesting but not what you would call pretty. They were in a kind of marshy area that is a U shaped lake that used to be part of a river. I guess I should have written down what kind of bird they are, but I didn't and don't remember.

This is a bird that the guide was really excited about seeing. It is a type of vulture but is white on the underside so is not the usual vultures we have seen around here.

This one was taken through the telescope of the guide so is a little sharper.

He said he has been taking groups through this park for 13 years and hadn't seen one of these birds for 3 years. Glad it sat still long enough for a few pictures.

This is another little bird we saw through his telescope. It is a relative of the quetzal, but quite a bit smaller.

Another pretty little bird through the telescope of the guide. Most of these birds we saw, we wouldn't have seen without the guide. I think he could recognize the sound of each bird so knew where to look for them. We were always amazed when he found them but he says he has been doing it for years.

More of the black birds in the marshy area. We were really lucky to have had such a nice sunny day yesterday. Today it is raining hard here and the guide said it rained there Sunday quite a bit. We had to treck through some muddy areas of the trail we followed. But fortunately shoes are washable and I was happy to have my trecking pole!