Monteverde / Santa Elena

The second third of our vacation took us to the mountains and cloud forest at Monteverde and Santa Elena. I guess the easiest way to see frogs here is not by tromping through the forest, but by going to a little frog zoo called a ranario.  Although we saw a number of frogs, they were mostly sleeping (being nocturnal), and they were all behind glass which made photographing them a little more difficult.  

In the same facility as the ranario were four mariposa (butterfly) houses where we saw many different species, including the beautiful blue morpho butterfly.  I did not get any good pictures of the blue morpho as they open their wings and close them so rapidly.

The two towns of Monteverde and Santa Elena are about 7 km apart, and most of the activity happens in Santa Elena where we stayed.  Here is one of the main streets of Santa Elena.  Notice how nice the cars are.

 Probably the highlight, or one of the highlights of the trip was our day in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve where we were very lucky to see two Quetzales.  Although this is not the national bird of Costa Rica, it plays an important role in Mesoamerican mythology, and sightings are rare.  We took the advice of many and booked a tour with a guide.  Elvin, like all guides we saw, carried a great spotting scope and could show us this bird perched high.  H was able to use the long lens of our camera to get this shot which shows off the great tail of the male.

 Besides the lush growth of the primary and secondary forests, we saw a number of birds, including many hummingbirds.

Also exciting in the cloud forest was our afternoon adventure of taking a canopy tour, otherwise known as ziplining.  I had previously thought I would be too scared to fly over the treetops on a cable, but then I envisioned what it might actually be like, and I thought I could handle it.  Really, it wasn't scary to me at all, and we had fun.  Monteverde is where ziplining was first invented, so we thought it fitting to try it out there.  Although it was fun (and we couldn't take photos along the way....), we probably won't do it again.