Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Into the rainforest!

At breakfast in our mountain lodge our guide rushed in to tell us that a Quetzal (a rare bird) had been sighted. “Quick” said the guide, “ You must come to see.” We rushed out down the hill side and went to see the Quetzal. It was a beautiful bird - colourfullwith long tail. Unfortunately most of us hadn’t taken a camera or phone to breakfast! Needless to say we only managed to stroll back to breakfast!

A drive of a few hours down the Pan American Highway (not my idea of a highway!) bought us to a rainforest lodge near Golfito. The heat knocked you out as you left the bus and we were soon a sweaty mess!

We are in the middle of the rainforest. There are tropical plants and flowers. Water holes with caymens! Lizards, frogs and fish. Our room  has windows made from mesh - no glass. All our meals are provided and they are delicious. The bar is an honesty policy.

A few of us went on a guided walk up and down hills through the rainforest trying to spot birds and animals. We set off in high spirits even though in this heat up hill was torturous but never mind! Half way through the walk the heavens opened and we were drenched. I had my good old plastic poncho but most people had nothing! The poncho helped to keep the camera dry but when I got back I was still drenched through including undies!

Our shoes were soaked as there were quite a few places where we were walking through ‘rivers’. Put dry clothes on folks said. Little did they know that Valda and I had quickly washed our only ‘dry’ clothes before we left for the walk! Nothing dries in this humidity and we decided to just sit it out!

You go to sleep listening to the sounds of insects and frogs and during the night I was woken by Valda using expletives about what she was going to do to the frog outside our room!

Today we took a drive to a river where some of the sensible members of the group opted to do the tour on a boat whilst others decided to kayak on the river. We all set off when suddenly we saw a crocodile swimming across the river. On of the kayak’s was a double with a couple in it and as soon as they saw the croc the guy started to paddle closer to it but the girl was nearly hysterical with fear - all of us in the boat said we’d be feeling the same!


The day was very hot with clear blue skies and luckily we were out of the sun for most of the time. We saw numerous birds and a few iguana’s in the trees but the crowning glory(?) was seeing a 2m boa in a tree - luckily it didn’t seem interested in us!!

Have had a swim, watched and tried to take photo’s of toucan’s, listening to the evening chorus - the frogs are loud tonight! - observed a Jesus Christ lizard - named because it can walk on water! That lizard is very impressive on water!

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