Sunday, 10 March 2019
Santa Elena/Monteverde, Costa Rica
Travelling companion arrives for the morning meet a couple of minutes late. “Sorry I’m late, too many beans.”, she says. Really don’t want to know about other people’s bowel movements.
Short drive up to the cloud forest for a walk along the trail with a properly trained guide who knows what he’s doing and where he’s going. Unlike the other day.
Someone who knows what he’s doing. Within a few minutes he can hear a bird call. Within seconds he’s set up his spotting scope and got it centred on the bird. Just like that. We’re all standing there dumbfounded as none of us can see a thing through the foliage even when he points the bird out. The view through the spotting scope is superb. Really brings it alive with colours. Definitely need the spotting scope. Without it, we’d be in the same boat as the other day. Looking at leaves all day. He also has a laser guider to point out the area we should be looking at. This is more like it. Actually seeing something. Well worth having.
So many tourists and at one point there’s a traffic jam on the trail as all the guides have their scopes set up in the same place along with their groups to look at a bird.
For the first time in weeks, wearing a rain coat. It’s quite cool and drizzly in the cloud forest, as we’re up at about 5,500ft.
Excellent walk along the trail and see a few birds through the scope and a monkey. And it’s not hot and humid.
Adjacent the park entrance is a hummingbird centre. They’ve set up sugar water feeders to entice the hummingbirds. Oh my. Just stand still and they ruffle your hair as they whizz past. You can get so close to the feeders it’s mesmerising. Look at the slow motion video below and you’ll see what I mean.
Quick visit to an orchid garden followed by a butterfly farm. Both fascinating and interesting. The butterfly farm tour starts with a display of creepy crawlies. Scorpions, spiders, bugs and a cockroach. The lad says that cockroaches are very clean and to prove it puts it in his mouth whole. Yukety yukety yuk!
Yeah, we all go, “Eeeuuwwwrrrgghh”, in unison, too.
