Photo from the bus leaving Monteverde. The hills outside the protected reserve are completely deforested and grazed, high up on the ridge in the background some trees remain, this ridge is the continental divide, any water on this side of it runs to the Pacific and on the opposite side to the Caribbean.
Arrival at Los Cusingos, once the house, garden and private reserve of Dr Alexander Skutch, he left it to the Centre for Tropical Science when he died a few years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Skutch
View from our cabin, the highest peak in Costa Rica, Chirripo is just hidden behind the distant cloud. We watched four species of Manakin in the trees in front of the cabin!
Walking palms
Petroglyphs
There was a fiesta in town and the two lads who looked after the reserve were keen to get us settled in so they could finish work and go. There was a miscommunication about only using one key and we ended up locked out and no-one on site to help us. Ralph came to the rescue and broke in using a knife and spoon! By the look of the woodwork several people must have broken in the same way.
Big cricket in our cabin
The manakin page of Costa Rica birds at the ready as we watched from the cabin balcony, they are definitely contenders for our favourite birds. In case you don't know why we have named this post "nothing is going to stop us now" its because that's the theme song from the 1980's film Manakin -genius.
Manakins are too quick to catch on camera so here are a couple of images of the ones we saw:
Blue crowned manakin
White collared manakin - a bit of a boring name for such a colourful bird
The red crowned manakin - more commonly known around the world as the Michael Jackson bird due to its elaborate and hilarious display - which sadly we did not see.
OWWWW!
The room
Strangely many of the graves here are tiled
After our days birding we went up the road to see if we could get some food at the fiesta - the music was great
Not sure what this was but it tasted like the sweetest thing ever made, you could feel your teeth rotting. It was a strange bright coloured snow cone covered with condensed milk and it tasted a bit like rhuburb and custard.
One man was shaving ice from a block about twice the size of a breeze block with a plane. 
The next morning we took yet another birding tour with the groundsmen
speckled tanager
passarini tanager - this photo doesn't do the bright red tail any justice
green honey creeper
turquoise cotinga - this photo really doesn't do it justice
Shed skin of a cicada
amazing spider
less amazing spider
cicada shed skin
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