The next stop was the cloud forest of Monteverde via the car-boat-car option from La Fortuna to Lake Arenal, a man made lake next to the volcano made by damming the river for hydro-power.
Arrival on the other side of Lake Arenal, now by bus to Monteverde.
Monteverde is a relatively well known reserve, set up by a Quaker who saw how much destruction of the forest was taking place by fellow Quakers who settled in Costa Rica (escaping the US in objection to the Vietnam War) and started cattle ranching right in the middle of the cloud forest. They had chosen Costa Rica as it has a pacifist ethos and has no army, air force or navy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserva_Biol%C3%B3gica_Bosque_Nuboso_Monteverde
Towel elephant at the park accommodation - we stayed at Monteverde Cloud forest reserve run by Centre for Tropical Science. We expected them to be basic wooden huts like Rara Avis but instead they were like very plush modern halls of residence complete with elephant towels.
We were given a warm welcome by the super friendly, super efficient Paula who looked after us and even organised our next stop - Los Cusingos another reserve owned by her organisation and waited with us at the bus stop to make sure we got on the right bus.
Snail
You can really see why it is called cloud forest in these pictures
On our first afternoon we saw quite a few fantastic birds in the forest, including emerald toucanet and a female resplendent quetzal. We then went back to the lodging and saw a male quetzal in the car park of all places!
Again not our pics but thought you would like to see them:
emerald toucanet
resplendent quetzal (male)
Either I have got thinner or something funny happened to this picture when uploading
After spending hours in the forest attempting to identify various hummingbirds which, despite their dramatic colours, often appear totally black without the right light - we were directed towards the nearby hummingbird gallery where identification was somewhat easier.
It felt incredibly hectic with all the hummingbirds flying about
We went on another night walk, which was a little disappointing compared to the massive amount of stuff we saw at Rara Avis in the dark. The highlight was probably either the nectar feeding bats on the hummingbird feeders or the bio luminescent fungi that sadly didn't come out in the photos. This frog was cool though
another frog
More impressive than the night tour was the light outside our lodgings which attracted lots of great moths. This monster is the sphinx moth.
Some of the colours are amazing
I think this is a common bush tanager
In the middle of the park there is a big suspension bridge giving views above the trees in the valley
This hummingbird posed for an atmospheric shot as the cloud rolled in
Each tree had hundreds of epiphytes growing off them, each tree was like a tiny forest
Somebody was hungry
more moths, this time from the second night
silver moth
click beetle
The night watchman Manuel came up to us while moth watching and asked if we liked spiders, we said yes and he took us over to a nearby wall where this huge tarantula was lurking.
He waved a stick outside the hole and the spider came out. This surprised Fiona so much that she let out a loud yelp, it was at least as big as my hand.
Manuel and his tarantula teasing stick
This black and white moth was reminiscent of a dairy cow in pattern - well to me at least
Great bug
katydid
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