Quetzals, Bell Birds and lots of Creepy Crawlies

Humming birds a plenty
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We took the "Jeep boat jeep" option to get to Monteverde. It has got to be the best way to get there. However, don't expect jeeps, only you normal minibuses. The last leg is very bumpy, but the scenery is great.

There are many many activities to do around Monteverde. It seems to be a very popular place with American tourists of all ages. However they have definitely caught onto the fact that people come hear to see the wildlife and that they can get away with charging quite a lot for the tours. The prices of the tours is, in our eyes, too much. Expect to pay at least $40 upwards for any sort of guided tour.

A furry bug
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We decided to do a night walk around the Monteverde cloud forest reserve and a guided day walk around the Santa Elena reserve (more chance of seeing Quetzals apparently).

The night walk was pretty interesting, although to be fair we didn't really see much. Just our luck that there was a couple of parties of school kids doing the walk at the same time, so there was much noise. They obviously get bored pretty quickly! We did see many insects (no biting ones I might add), sleeping birds - migratory birds seemingly return to the same tree every year - , a tarantula and frogs. It was very educational though and the guide was very passionate about the park. Unfortunately El niño seems to have the reduced the species here significantly. Ah yes, and how could I forget the mosses. Not sure what I was thinking about.....

Titchy little frog
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The morning walk around the neighboring reserver was very interesting. Saw quite a few Quetzals (they really are magnificent birds which our photos don't do justice to - they were taken through binos!), bell birds and many others. The Bell bird is great. It has a moustache like Fu Manchu and makes the strangest of noises. Very metallic sounding, and very loud. Saw a few wild pigs, the name of which escapes me but no monkeys! The guided walks are really worthwhile though.

We didn't do the canopy walks, although we heard they they pretty good. Spent a few days chilling out before heading to San Jose for our flight to Belize to meet up with Gini's parents.