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After spending another two nights in San Jose it was thankfully time to escape the smog. Catching the bus proved to be a lot easier than I thought it would - the bus stop was where it was supposed to be and the bus nearly left on time! Five hours later, after having travelled about 1/3 of the way on gravel and dirt roads with amazing views, I arrived in Santa Elena which is a few kms away from the Cloud Forest reserve.
I found a nice place to stay and went off exploring. First stop was a lovely walk to the butterfly garden, during which I came across a cool colony of leafcutter ants doing their stuff. When I got there I was unexpectedly given a tour of the insects kept at the garden, but chickened out of holding the tarantula. This was because they explode when dropped and I didn't trust myself not to have a bit of a flap with a big hairy spider in my hand. Then I had a personal tour of the butterflies which was cool, saw some amazing ones including transparent and big bright blue ones.
Then I embarked on a guided night hike around part of the cloud forest. Because of the rain we didn't see very much. Two wild tarantulas were found in their holes, along with some mating millipedes, a sleeping toucan and various crickets and stick insects (called walking sticks by the Americans which confused me at first!). Sadly no sloths or tree frogs as they don't like the rain.
This morning I got up early doors and took the bus up to the protected area of the Cloud Forest. It was shut when I got there so I spent some time in the Hummingbird Garden which was amazing with massess of hummingbirds whizzing about all over the place. Then I spent ages in the reserve, with a guide to start with and then by myself. With the guide we were really lucky to see two resplendant quetzals which are bright blue, green and red birds. Some people spend years trying too see one of these! It was a brilliant sight and they sat around for a while, so we got a good look. The forest was a lovely place to be by myself. Sooo peaceful with just the birdsong and little bright flowers amongst the towering trees in the mist making it something not quite in this world.
Then I decided to walk the 7k back to town and got absolutely soaked - hence taking the time to write up my trip now whilst the rainy season lives up to its name. Canopy tours tomorrow!
previous travel blog entry
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