Since our shuttle bus left at 7 am this morning we got up at 6 in order to have breakfast at 6:30, the earliest it is served here in the little kitchen of this hostel. It is somewhere around 5 or 10 km from here to the Monteverde Reserve.
A very large tree
We met out guide, Jorge, at the entrance gate and he took us around several of the trails through the reserve. He pointed out many of the plants and explained a great deal about the ecology of the cloud forest.
Spider monkey
We were lucky to spot several mammals — a tree dwelling porcupine, an olinga, and a spider monkey. As well we saw a number of different birds, including a nesting hummingbird which I spotted. Jorge was very excited about the hummingbird and took several pictures of it himself.
Athough we walked for almost three hours, we did not spot a quetzal. Jorge had taken a year of training to be a nature guide, and he was also taking some biology courses by distance education. He was an excellent guide and we learned a great deal.
Plants in the cloud forest
After we ate lunch we went back on one of the trails we’d not seen in the morning It was quite a bit steeper than the trails we were on this morning, and both Enid and I have sore legs tonight. We haven’t done much walking until today. On our way back Enid spotted a snake, about a metre long, but it crossed the trail so quickly that we couldn’t photograph it. We both really enjoyed our day.