Another Day, Another Hike

Our vacation in Costa Rica has been anything but relaxing and our last day was going to be no different.  Today's venture, explore Monteverde's Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve with our tour guide/hotel manager, Christian.  While you can visit the park without a guide, it might be best to hike with one because wildlife is difficult to identify and the majority of the animals will go unseen unless you're traveling with a telescopic lens.  Christian had extensive knowledge of the area, the history, the biodiversity, and shared all this information with us along the way.  There are many guides with tour groups on the trails and they mostly work together in passing, sharing the locations of bird sightings and other discoveries of interest.  One thing was sure, the goal of every guide was to find the Quetzal - a storied bird long associated with the area and both Aztec and Maya cultures.

Before entering the reserve, we stopped by the hummingbird garden - an area just outside the entrance and requires a $2 admission.  The space is relatively small and can quickly become crowded later in the day as tours stop by on their way out of the reserve, fortunately, there was no one around during our visit.  Hummingbirds zipped from feeder to feeder, their speed and precise flight patterns alone are impressive, but Christian allowed us to garner a closer look.  He suggested we each grab a feeder and hold them in our hands with our arms extended - the goal, to get the birds to use our extended fingers as perches. While some of us were more successful than the others with this task, we each enjoyed being a temporary bird feeder.  The garden soon became crowded with groups from tour buses and other private charters entered the grounds so we made our way towards the reserve.

One of many hummingbirds

Temporary bird feeder

More feeding

Guess what...? another hummingbird

Minutes into our hike, we could hear the calls of various birds, but struggled to find the source - using his telescopic lens, our guide was able to find the bird within an instant.  For example, we would often hear the call of the "squeaky gate" bird echoing through the forest, but were never able to spot one ourselves.  Christian on the other hand would have the bird sighted in his lens as the four of us aimlessly stared up at the trees.  He was also very good at finding insect species that didn't want to be found, their camouflage perfectly mimicking the surrounding area.  Later, he pointed at a tree trunk approximately 100 meters away and asked if we saw anything, to which our answer was a resounding, "no."  Christian clearly spotted something, first hearing the call, then using his lens to get a closer look, he identified a bird peacefully relaxing in a nest.  Christian was also very knowledgeable of the plant biodiversity - most interesting among the flora, the Ficus tree (specifically, F. Citrifolia), a parasitic tree that strangles its host for decades, eventually becoming a free standing tree.  Our guided tour was almost over and Christian's goal to find a Quetzal continued to be unsuccessful and none of the other guides had spotted one all day.   These sightings are relatively rare and it takes an equal amount of skill and luck - thus proving to be a very challenging adventure.

Ficus Citrifolia 

Bird in nest that we couldn't spt

Camouflaged moth along the trail

With approximately one kilometer left on our hike, Christian picked up the pace when he saw something colorful shake the tree branches on the right side of the path.  He darted ahead to a clearing and urged that we catch up - he had finally spotted a Quetzal, and it just so happened to place itself in a perfect viewing area.  While enjoying our view of this adored bird, an elderly Costa Rican couple was passing by and Christian stopped and spoke with them briefly.  We later found out, in all their years spent in Costa Rica, the couple had never seen a Quetzal, Christian insisted they each look through the telescopic lens for a closer look.  The four of us are nearly defunct Spanish speakers, however, we can all read emotions - after seeing the couple react to witnessing their first Quetzel, we knew we had just seen something special.

Male Resplendent Quetzal 

Species is "Near threatened" status 

Revered "god of the air" according to Aztec and Maya cultures

We made our way back to the main entrance, thanked Christian for his time and expertise - then departed our separate ways.  The four of us took a short break and planned to hike towards the continental divide on the opposite side of the reserve.  Within the first ten meters of the trail we found a small troop of howler monkeys leisurely bounding across the tree canopy.  Unfortunately, this was to be the most exciting part of the next three hours - we spotted a handful of birds along the way and then we continued to hike to a "lookout point" that didn't exist.  This hike may have been a disappointment, however, with the breadth of  highlights on our vacation, it really didn't matter.

Howler Monkey

On the move

La Ventura

Ah whaaaa? clouds in the cloud forest...so damn literal

Continental Divide

We had one final dinner together and recounted memories from the week - the GPS dictating, "turn on road," or "unpaved road," how everyone managed to get sick at least once, poor hiking decisions, broken car keys, and turbulent car rides.  Above all, everyone seemed to love our time spent at the Jaguar Rescue Center (sans an undisclosed bout of sickness).  Reality beckoned us, and we would soon depart ways again, our friends back to the normal routine in Maryland - for Julie and myself, another adventure awaited.