More Costa Rica fun

[Dangit.  This post was supposed to have pics, but we´ve gotten another virus on our memory card.  How does anyone survive using a stupid PC?]

After our success at Monteverde, we were content to try something similar the next day.  Although rather than paying for an expensive park, we found a free trail to hike up to the top of a mountain where the radio antennas live.  We talked to an American couple in our hostel - indeed, it seems like everyone travels to Costa Rica in couples, whether romantic or not, everyone was in pairs - who had taken the hike the day before.  They warned us it was very steep and pretty muddy, but we still decided it sounded like a good idea.

It took us maybe a half hour to walk to the start of the trailhead, and right away we started finding good bugs.  The terrain was a bit different than the cloud forest, more open and drier, so although there was plenty of overlap, we also found things we hadn´t seen before.  And since we were still turning over leaves and peering into holes with our flashlight, our pace was slow enough that the trail, which was in fact quite steep, was hardly a consideration.

In addition to the beetles and caterpillars and such, David´s eagle eyes picked out one of the coolest bugs I have ever seen.  It was a variety of stickbug, which is cool enough.  You may remember the giant one of those we found back in Guatemala.  But all the stick bugs I´ve ever seen look like their name, little brown and grey twigs.  This little guy was green!  He looked like strands of moss bunched together.  He did his best to quiver and shake, imitating a piece of moss just blowing in the wind.  I know we are total nerds, but we were thrilled, what can I say?  A very exciting day of entomology.

Not long after that, we spotted a couple of white-faced Capuchin monkeys swinging in the trees.  They were pretty far off, but coming across wild monkeys never gets old.

As we neared the top, we heard a loud, deep rumbling sound.  It is a sound we have learned to recognize, that of an erupting volcano!  When we reached the top of the mountain, not too far off we could see the bottom half of what was clearly Volcan Arenal.  Unfortunately the top half was covered in clouds, obscuring what must have been a nice big puff of smoke and ash.  Central America has not been stingy with its volcanic activity, this was the fourth volcano we´ve seen (or in this case, heard) give a nice little eruption.

That night, nursing mild sunburns (and we were wearing sunblock!) we decided to skip cooking our own dinner in the hostel again, and instead splurged on a restaurant built up in a tree.  Actually, instead of paying the high prices of the actual treehouse, we went right next door, where the owner had wisely build his building right next to the big tree so that the branches still overswept the balcony where we sat.  There was only a small wrought iron fence sitting between us and another couple that were sitting in the actual treehouse, our food was great and we paid about half of what it would have been.  Now that is what I call backpacking with style!

The next day we went to another reserve for yet another hike.  This one was much denser forest, so we spotted only a few bugs here and there.  But don´t feel too sorry for us.  We walked out onto an overlook over a supremely green valley, and I jokingly said "And cue, toucans!"  Before I could even laugh at my own silly joke, David looks down and says "Toucan!".  Actually it wasn´t one toucan, it was a whole flock of at least seven or eight.  This was the Keel-Billed Toucan, a large black bird with a bright yellow face, chest and beak.  These were much closer than the ones we had seen in Guatemala, so seemed much bigger to me.  A little while later we stumbled onto a troop of coatimundis.  While we had seen others in Tikal, this group had three tiny little babies running around in their midst, which were adorable beyond words.  It did make us nervous though, because to continue on the trail we had to push through the group.  The babies were totally unconcerned with our presence, and kept running up to us to check us out.  But each time they did, we noticed the adults giving us the evil eye, and we really didn´t want an angry mother giving us rabies or something.  We moved slowly and loudly, and remained unmolested.

Later we came across a large group of those Capuchin monkeys.  It was impossible to count them the group was so large, and they were dancing in the trees all around us.  A few of them got rather close to check us out, before skittering away, flinging themselves out into the air off the edges of branches only to catch themselves on another tree.  The acrobatics were impressive.  Eventually though they decided we had worn out our welcome.  At first we noticed a few sticks and branches "falling" in our general vicinity.  Finally one of the older monkeys swung down, baring his teeth at us silently and creepily.  We took the hint and continued down the trail.

We also hiked down the valley to see three waterfalls, and saw a handful of other birds, including the beautiful turquoise browed motmot.  On the way home we stopped at a café run by the local cheese factory, and had some of their fresh ice cream.  Delicious.