Cloud Forest Walks

Today we left at 07.30 for a walk through the cloud forest. It is a beautiful morning with clear blue skies. There is still a chill in the air but then we are at 5000 ft and it will warm up by mid-morning. We have a short talk about the research that is carried out in the cloud forest. There is a vast collection of mammals, birds, butterflies and insects here, including pumas, jaguars and of course the resplendent quetzel. Apparently all of these are incredibly difficult to see in the dense vegetation but camera traps have shown that there are good populations here. Our guide Johnny says we will be unlikely to see many birds as the weather is too good! The creatures apparently prefer the cloud and mist and today’s weather is unusual. There is a viewing platform at the highest point of the cloud forest and the views are superb.

Unfortunately Johnny’s prediction turns out to be correct; we caught tantalising glimpses of birds and saw no mammals at all. However we did see thousands of plants and these beautiful fungi.

We also saw a humming bird nest, a snake hiding in the undergrowth, a stick insect and la piece de resistance – a red-knee tarantula!

We then visited the adjacent butterfly garden which was rather disappointing. I have however learned that my blue butterfly at La Fortuna is in fact a moth, though no-one knows exactly what. Deinor is going to ask a butterfly expert friend for a positive identification.

The best experience was the humming bird walk. There were so many humming birds of all shapes and sizes. They flew so close to you that your hair moved. They are however extremely hard to photograph, especially in low light with a slow shutter speed but I spent a good while trying.

This was a very long morning and when we returned to our hotel we were all pretty tired. We headed for the nearest restaurant – Don Luis and had a large lunch as we were going on a night walk at 17.30 and not returning until 20.00 so we knew we would need serious refuelling.

The night walk was again led by Johnny. We followed him into the forest and before long saw a side-striped pit viper. Highly venomous but not aggressive. His head was out of view but he was probably some 3ft in length.

We continued our walk and saw a two-toed sloth and her baby high up in a tree. We also saw a few sleeping birds, but most of our sightings were mainly confined to insects, most of which I had never seen before.

We were all completely exhausted after the walk (we had clocked up a lot of miles during the course of the day) and opted for buying cheese, crackers, crisps, wine and beer at the supermarket across the road, which we consumed on the terrace outside our rooms, before retiring to our beds for a very well earned sleep.