Bird Watching and Night Walk

I was meant to be up at 05.30 for bird watching but that has now been changed to this afternoon so I have a free morning. The hotel has several self-guided trails so I choose one and set off before breakfast armed with camera and binoculars. Birds flit from tree to tree and their song fills the air accompanied by the occasional call of howler monkeys. These are the second loudest mammals in the world after the blue whale. I arrive in a clearing and hear scurrying in the undergrowth. Suddenly a large family of peccaries appear, including tiny piglets. They look at me and I look at them. After a minute or so they settle and continue foraging.

I continue on my walk, the sun glistens on the dew and scarlet macaws squabble in a distant tree.

The hotel has an organic garden and the majority of the vegetables and herbs used in the kitchen come from here. There are also around 100 chickens.

The path leads me back along a trail behind the beach. I see land crabs, mangrove crabs and basilisk lizards scooting across the backwaters as I disturb them.

After breakfast, I decide to kayak across the bay and snorkel at the far side by the pier, where I am told there are loads of fish. There is a bit of a problem finding me fins that fit. The hotel obviously thinks only men and children snorkel. There are no medium sized ones. We eventually find a pair that sort of stay on so I put them in the kayak and set off down the bay. The coastline looks beautiful from the water. There are no clouds and it is hot though still only 09.30. I enjoy paddling across the bay which is probably a kilometre wide. On reaching the pier I beach the kayak and don mask and fins. The water is warm and clear. There is no coral but an abundance of large fish. I even see some juvenile tuna, maybe 18 inches long. The beach by the hotel is stony but this end is fine sand with a few pebbles so it is easy to drag the kayak back into the sea.

The food here is excellent with an abundance of fresh seafood. I opt to eat in the bar which is a bit of a mistake as service is somewhat relaxed (though the beer comes quickly enough). I have ceviche followed by mahi mahi. Both are delicious. Then it is time for bird-watching. I am joined by another lady and Gerardo is our guide. He is a scientist working at Cativo and is a fount of knowledge. He spots birds where I can only see leaves. It is extremely pleasant to now be having a much more personal experience. My one complaint about the g-adventures tour is that there were too many people on the guided walks. Two people is way better! The birds are, as ever, horrendously difficult to photograph.

As soon as it is dark we head off with Gerardo again to spot night creatures. This is such a different world, particularly as five minutes into the walk it started raining. Not to be deterred, we donned ponchos and carried on. The rain worked in our favour as it brought the amphibians out and we saw the beautiful red-eyed tree frog.

We saw so much – cane toads, bull frogs, scorpions, bats that fold leaves and roost underneath them. We even saw a porcupine high up in a tree and caught a glimpse of a kinkajou – related to raccoons but looks like a large bush baby. Unfortunately, as it was raining so heavily, I could not take many photos. My camera is not even slightly waterproof. However, it was a thoroughly enjoyable walk despite the tropical downpour.