So - we went on a night walk in Monteverde. There wasn't a whole lot to see, however, it was still fun. We saw a tree that had been taken over by a strangler Fig and the whole inside was hollow - pretty cool-looking when the guide shone his flashlight up the middle of the tree! Probably the most spectacular thing was this Orange-kneed tarantula we saw.
The next morning, we took a bird-watching tour. It was supposed to start at 6:30, but we managed to have the hotel owner get in touch with our guide and change the time to 5:30. Really early, but that's the best time to see the birds! It turned out to be a really good thing that we changed the time because we saw a ton of birds the first hour and then it started to rain. After spending 30 or 40 minutes in a nearby bread shop, we continued on to the Monteverde Cloud Forest park to see more birds. To get there, we hitched a ride with a friend of the guide's in back of his truck over a VERY bumpy road. Wow - what a trip! My knees were about shot by the end of the ride.
Despite the light rain, we enjoyed our time and were able to see quite a few more birds, although the first hour was definitely the best. I was really hoping to see the Quetzal bird, but since I didn't, I'll just have to come back to Costa Rica again! :-)
This is an Orange-bellied Trogan
- really quite beautiful, though my photo doesn't do it justice
Necklace and earrings in the form of the Mot-Mot bird made by a local artist
After walking through the village of Santa Elena, we returned to our hotel and got packed up to head back to San Jose. We waited and waited, but our bus never came. After the hotel owner did some calling, come to find out the bus company had made our reservations for the 22 of JULY, rather than June. Oh dear! We ran through some possibilities, including staying another night at the hotel (but we would miss our classes at the Spanish school), paying a good deal of money for a taxi, or trying to get to the place where the public bus would be going to San Jose in about 15 minutes. Just as we were thinking we'd try the public bus route, a taxi driver pulled up. The travel company that had made our reservations had sent the taxi for us. It made for an anxious hour or so, but we did make it back safe and sound.
