Canopies, Monkeys and Birds, Oh My!
Today we woke up in a cloud – and could literally see about 10 feet in front of us. So much for the view…Typical tourists, we instinctively planned on paying $$ for the heavily promoted Cloud Forest™, but soon realized the real thing was at our doorstop. We donned our rubber boots (see photo below) and hailed our machete-wielding trail blazer/maintenance guy, and set out for a day hike – mostly uphill [Would you like some cheese with that whine? –B].
Picture it: a flock of Tilley-wearing, grey-haired, book-carrying birders, clinging to their binoculars in search of the resplendent Quetzal (that’s a bird). In the middle of this flock, two 30-somethings dazed from a lunch of beer and pizza, desperately trying to make conversation. [Truth be told, we’ve both become obsessed with crossing off birds in our own ‘Birds of Costa Rica’ book, and Brendan has spouted bird factoids ad nauseum. Particularly impressive is his ability to weave random bird knowledge into seemingly innocuous conversation, as if it were somehow relevant to our discussion about, for example, exchange rates. For the record though, I am kind of proud of our blue-crowned motmot sighting and all of my motmot knowledge…the motmot, otherwise known as a clock-bird…well-known for its colourful mating rituals, etc. –M ]
We´re also seeing lots of monkeys– white faced capuchin and howler monkeys (pictured below). Not sure when the thrill of seeing random monkeys on the streets will wear off, but we’ll keep you posted.
Tags: Costa Rica, Travel
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