Costa Rica Day 6 - Monteverde

Today we drove from La Fortuna to Monteverde.   The road becomes very narrow and windy as it rings Lake Arenal (a man made lake).   THe first extra is from where we stopped for the banos.  If you look on far hills you can see wind turbines.   It was heavily raining when we left La Fortuna and as you can see in the second extra, by the time we got around to where they were, the cloud was descending.

We had a bite to eat in the main town centre of Monteverde (it seems to be a number of villages) which surprisingly was sunny and they hadn't had any rain.  Aparently we are in the divide here between the Pacific and the Caribbean.  After lunch it was on to the cloud forest to meet our guide who took us through parts of the forest.  We saw a hummingbird on a nest made from spider web and moss (3rd extra), a tarrantula, howler monkeys, a variety of other birds but we were hoping to see the Quetzal.  It was not to be.  Our guide had a telescope which was brilliant for pointing out where the different birds and animals were.  THe highlight however was leaving the forest and going to the hummingbird garden.  A cafe had set up some feeders with sugar water and I was in seventh heaven.  There were hummers everywhere and there were many 'brummmmmmm' as they zoomed past me.  THe main is the Magenta Throated woodstar.  A small but fiesty wee hummer.  Contrast it with the Violet Sabrewing (4th extra) which I think was the biggest of the six different types of species we saw.   I have put a few extra up (5th and 6th extras). 

We went back to the hotel to check in and I was able to speak to T and have a long chat about Maggy's process and get the good news (see blip for 9 April)

We went back out for a night walk in an old coffee farm.  We saw a viper, armadillo, various birds and beetles,  and the blue butterfly resting which is the last extra.   They have a beautiful blue colour on the top side and underneath this patterning.

Back to the hotel for a quick change and then out to dinner where I had a celebratory Margarita.

It was a wonderful day for me and such a relief.

Oh and I've turned comments back on.

(backblipped 9 April 2024)