Our room here at Monteverde is excellent and we had a good nights sleep after a long day yesterday. We had our breakfast around 7:30 and started walking to the park entrance at 8:00 a.m. It was pretty muddy but the temperature although colder wasn't really that bad. We reached the entrance at 8:30 and were told the park was currently at capacity and we may have to wait for two hours. To kill some time we went to the humming birds exhibit/souvenir shop. Lots of humming birds at the feeding stations and got some good shots. We then went back to watch a video presentation of the park but I was a little disappointed in it. It was more of a pitch to get donations for the park.
We returned to the entrance at 10:00 and were good to go. We started up the trail and into the mist. It was time to dig out our poncho's. It wasn't raining but more of a drizzle with high winds. It was a pretty muddy walk for the first hour as was the half hour walk to the park. We reached the turnaround point after an hour and started back on a different trail which was much easier going and downhill for the most part.
Beautiful lush greenery but too late to see any wildlife which call it a day by 9 a.m. We got back to the cafeteria at the park entrance about 12:30 and grabbed a quick bite and then struck out on a different one hour hike. It also was an easy walk and we got into a small waterfall before turning around to come back. About halfway back there was a small group of people with a guide who motioned to us to come but to keep quiet. There in the tree above our heads was a quetzal. This is a beautiful and very rare bird that everyone who comes here hopes to catch a glimpse of. We not only saw it but were able to get pictures of it! Another stroke of luck! The guide asked us to send him our pictures as he was as excited as we were.
We got back to the park entrance at five to 2 just as the bus was getting ready to leave although the time schedule said it left at 3 and we were going to walk back. As it was we'd walked for six hours so we took the bus which dropped us off right at the driveway to our B&B. I showed the pics of the quetzal to the owners and they told us how lucky we were.
Now we're going across the street to a restaurant for supper and planning tomorrow. Looks like we can catch the bus to Canas right out in front. We'll have to change busses in Tilaran but that's ok. We were going to go farther but we ate at the Canas hotel while visiting the Palo Verde river trip and it was excellent so we'll stay there tomorrow night and then head off to Liberia or North from there towards Nicaragua with maybe an overnight in between. It will be warmer and dryer than up here and we're looking forward to that and being able to do some laundry. .
Just got back from supper across the road. Pretty classy place (right up to my standards) and it's the second night in a row for a candlelight supper. Got some sunset pictures from their deck and tried to make reservations in Canas but they were booked so we may continue on to Liberia and stay there for the night. The bus passes through here pretty early so we need to get breakfast done before 7 a.m.
Another lucky day with some beautiful pictures of the cloud forest.
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29089&l=c7cbe&id=680056043
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29088&l=4a4ee&id=680056043
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