February 4, 2008 - Monday - San Jose to La Ensenada "Star" Lodge
- Our drive from San Jose to the Lodge was uneventful. The cabanas at
the La Ensenada Lodge
are basic but clean. Most of them are facing south, have nice verandas
with a hammock,
and are lined up along the edge of a big field which is used for
observing. It is very convenient to be able to setup our telescopes and
cameras right outside our door, especially for those of us who are astro-photographers. When we are running
long imaging series, we can go back to our cabana and have a
nap while we wait
for things to finish. All the cabanas are equipped with red lights only,
and the rest of the resort is also red lights only except for the bar area,
which is setup for those who are not interested in astronomy. We have the
whole Lodge to ourselves, so the staff really cater to our special
needs...including having coffee and cookies available all night long!
As you will see by their website, La Ensenada Lodge
has a lot going for it: reasonable prices, good facilities, and lots of
activities (if you're so inclined). The staff are very friendly, and willing
to do almost anything for their guests. The owners are very nice people,
and occasionally have dinner with their guests. Overall, La Ensenada Lodge
gives me a good feeling, and I'm comfortable staying here. What more
could you ask for?
Feburary 5, 2008 - Tuesday- I start our first full day at La Ensenada Lodge
by taking an early morning Nature Walk to the local pond. Along
the way we see the Brahma bulls that are raised at La Ensenda ranch, as well as:
Screech Owls (in the tree behind the kitchen), Red-lored Parrots, Violaceous
Trogans, Clay-coloured Robins (the national bird), Rufous Motmots, Great-tailed
Gracles (following the horses in the pasture), several termite nests (in
the trees), and a big Spiny-tailed Iguana in the bush. We see lots of
wildlife at the pond: Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, crocodiles, Snowy Egrets,
Great Blue Herons, and lots of small wading birds such as Sandpipers.
I
signed up for a Tractor Ride
this afternoon. I didn't have too many expectations about this activity,
however it turned out to be very enjoyable. The owners of La Ensenada
are Italians, and their son Giancarlo guided the hour and a half Tractor
Ride all over the property. We saw quite a bit of wildlife, thanks to
the amazing spotting skills of the Tico tractor driver. We stop to
see how the salt ponds are used to make salt from seawater. Near
the end of the ride, we wound up a narrow and steep road to the top of a
hill overlooking the farm property and the Gulf of Nicoya.
After dark, I saw the
Zodiacal
light for the first time since I've been observing. This proves that La
Ensenada Lodge has magnitude 6 or better skies, unlike any other locations I
have observed from in my lifetime. One possible exception to this might be while
I was sailing from
New Zealand to Fiji aboard SV Sequoia
in 2004. I tried to take a series of photographs of the Zodiacal light to
make into a movie, but the exposures were not right. I tried setting up my Astrotrac tracking mount and my astrophotography gear, but without being able to
see Polaris I was getting frustrated by not being able to align the mount
properly. I decided to put the photography
gear away for the night and enjoy myself by observing visually. I hadn't
brought a telescope with me, however I borrowed one of the little
Orion StarBlast Dobsonians (4.5" or 113mm aperture) the Sky and Telescope
folks had
thoughtfully brought along. Despite the small aperture,
I managed to view: M48 (a nice open cluster); Saturn (the gap between planetary disk
and rings was visible, but little else); IC2994 (a beautiful open cluster);
Eta Carina
Nebula (a gorgeous emission nebula easily visible with the unaided eye); and NGC2457, NGC2451
and M41 (all nice open clusters). Not a bad observing log considering I was tired!
I didn't stay up past midnight.
I find out this evening that my cellphone works fine from La Ensenada Lodge, despite my
earlier concerns to the contrary, so I call home around
9pm local time and check-in with my family (7pm their time). Pacific Time
is two hours earlier than local Costa Rica time (Central Time zone). So if
you have a GSM cellphone, by all means bring it along with you for casual use in
Costa Rica. Check your cellular provider's roaming capabilities
and rates in Costa Rica. I would also suggest you read the
Cell Phones article for tips on how
to save on charges if you are staying in Costa Rica for awhile.
February 7,
2008 - Thursday - We go to Carara National Park today.,
which is a day-long bus trip. First stop is to see some 33 big crocodiles under
a bridge over the Rio Grande de Taracoles. After we arrived at
the start of our little hike, there was some rain from the tree canopy falling
on us. Along the trail we saw some Leaf-cutting ants, a pair of Scarlet Macaws in a
tree (a thrilling sight), and a Slaty-tailed Trogan. We had a very
nice buffet lunch at the nearby Hotel Villa Lapas, which is located in a scenic
tropical gully along a river. We
stop for a swim at the beach at Caldera, just south of Puntarenas. Diego and
Walter served us watermelon and bottled cold water - again, a nice touch.
We return to the Lodge via Miramar.
I have been incredibly frustrated with my astrophotography efforts while staying
at La Ensenada "Star" Lodge. The skies are nice and dark (around magnitude
6.0), but Polaris is very low in the northern sky. This makes polar alignment
using Polaris practically impossible. John showed
me the basics of drift alignment this evening, and that allowed me to align my Astrotrac much
better than before, so I could take some images. As I write this on our third night, it has been quite cloudy - again
very frustrating!
February 8,
2008 - Friday - our last full day at La Ensenada "Star" Lodge -
Since I went to bed quite early last evening, I go on another early morning
Nature Walk - and I do mean early.
I have the photo to prove it, showing Rigel Kentaurus & Hadar visible in
southeastern sky as the sun rose at 5:45am.
I signed up for a Horseback Ride this morning.
We all had a good time; especially considering none of us appeared to have
ridden a horse for many years. The last time I rode a horse was when I was a teenager. The horses were very well trained, and the ride
was interesting. It took us about two hours to ride all around the
property of La Ensenada. We went to the top of a hill overlooking the coastline,
and basically rode around the other hill where we had previouslystopped for viewing
on
the tractor ride.
Our afternoon was free of activities, which was a nice change. After
dinner this afternoon, we had some entertainment by a couple of Xylophone
players.
After
dinner, I had a nice sleep for a couple of hours. When I woke up around 7:30pm there were
beautifully clear
skies!This is the opportunity I have been waiting for all week. This
evening I don't take any chances, relocating my Astrotrac tracking mount
to a spot on the field where I can see Polaris, and get a proper polar alignment. I
take time lapse images of the southern horizon over a three hour period
until midnight. This sequence shows many of the southern objects in the sky as they
rise. I then image the Eta Carina region - now I'm cooking! After Eta
Carina I move to the Southern Cross and image the whole region: Crux, the Coalsack, and the large nebula to the east.
While the camera is imaging the Southern Cross region, I go back to the cabana
and process the Eta Carina
images, since I can see they are quite good. Finally, I produce an image I'm happy with!
Both John and I are up until 4am imaging, since this is our last chance to do
astrophotography from La
Ensenada "Star" Lodge.
For the best high definition video experience go
directly to the Vimeo website
by clicking here: Costa Rica Southern Skies
Click on the little four segment symbol near the bottom
right corner of the video window
to enlarge this video to high definition size on your computer monitor.
February 9,
2008 - Saturday - La Ensenada "Star" Lodge to San Jose - We spend our last
morning at the Lodge comparing observing notes from the night before. Several of
the group pulled all-nighters, since the sky was so wonderful. I think last
night was
perhaps the all-time best observing evening I've ever experienced. It was warm,
the magnitude 6 sky was steady and crystal clear, and of course the temperature
was very comfortable at about 25°C. The bonus was having virtually no mosquitoes.
I don't know where they went, but it was a welcome relief. I observed a
dozen or more southern sky objects visible from this latitude of 10° North.
Observing from 10° North has driven home the point that I must travel to the southern
hemisphere (South Africa, New Zealand or Australia). Observing from those more
southerly locations will reveal a whole new sky to me.
After my trip to New Zealand and
Fiji in 2004, I'm convinced that the southern
hemisphere has more than its fair share of superb celestial objects. I must
add some of them to my
Observing Log within the next few years.
We
have some resident Howler monkeys who live near the cabanas. I walk down
to the end where their tree is, and take some close-up photos.
Before we all climb aboard the bus, we have a group photo taken. Then we leave
La Ensenada "Star" Lodge for San Jose. It is a long drive over the mountains. We
stop for lunch at Sarchi, and of course the tourist trap stuff is there for us:
t-shirts and caps, knickknacks, and those painted ox carts Sarchi artisans are
famous for. After we check-in at the Courtyard Marriot, it's nice to have a hot
shower and get the dust washed off. It's also wonderful to connect to the
Internet to catch up on the news and my email, and post to my JoeTourist blog.
We attend a farewell dinner at the nearby Laguagua Cuban Restaurant this
evening. It was very noisy, and it took 1½ hours between ordering and
receiving our food. Most of the group will be returning home, however some of us
are continuing on with the Volcanoes and Rainforest back-to-back tour. I'm
looking forward to traveling with a smaller group.
