• Day 144: Wednesday May 23rd

20:30 Helping the host wife with the washing up and talking to her about her family was a pleasure. I relaxed and read in a hammock on the porch, from which has a truly incredible view of the entire Monte Verde valley down to the Nicoya Peninsula with a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean on the horizon.  This hammock was in an overwhelming spot where I could see the green of the trees below, the whitest clouds and the bluest skies above - words cannot do it justice.  I've started reading two books now, and this one is entitled White Waters and Black and since DL read a couple of pages out to me I decided I will really enjoy this book.  I'm on chapter 4 already despite Perla (the dog) trying to join me.

Delicious View (D.Philpot)

Think Perla Is Hungry (D.Philpot)

Shot Of Perla (D.Philpot)

Perla Getting In The Hammock (D.Philpot)

Tigre The Cat On The Prowl (D.Philpot)

Morning Birdy! (D.Philpot)

I met the gang and ML took us up to the Monte Verde cloud forest reserve.  The son was quite loud, Caballo was not enjoying the altitude getting tired easily and so the other cook often went ahead.  I instead learned other things for instance that being completely alone without these concrete paths is so much better to explore nature. Nevertheless I saw beautiful golden Beetles (literally golden), some strange/pretty flowers I had not seen before, I heard a Cowbird, saw some good views despite it being misty, I almost walked down into a restricted area, we crossed over the huge lookout bridge and then at the end I bought a hoody - one I've seen and liked many times in another colour… so despite swearing not to buy anything I gave in. On the way out we saw lots of funny animal signs and a large blue-crowned Motmot (a bird - Google it, trust me!).

Prepare again for another onslaught of photos from the reserve:

Welcome Sign (D.Philpot)

Golden Fly (D.Philpot)

Interesting Plant (D.Philpot)

Angelina Jolie Plant (D.Philpot)

Raspberry Tower Plant (D.Philpot)

A Cute Vine (D.Philpot)

Very Pink Plant (D.Philpot)

A Ferns Fiddle Head (D.Philpot)

Red Plant Tail (D.Philpot)

Luminous Green Beetle Chewing Away (D.Philpot)

Odd Brown Plant (D.Philpot)

Starfruit (D.Philpot)

Fire-Red Bug (D.Philpot)

Peculiar Structures (D.Philpot)

Common Back Home (D.Philpot)

Reserve Garden Flowers (D.Philpot)

Red & Yellow Bug (D.Philpot)

View Above The Reserve Canopy (D.Philpot)

Purple Leaves (D.Philpot)

Gorgeous Pink Flower (D.Philpot)

Another Canopy View (D.Philpot)

Warning Trail (D.Philpot)

Couldn't See Why, Not That I Was There... (D.Philpot)

The Rain Is Coming (D.Philpot)

Green Tree Growth (D.Philpot)

An Interesting Seed (D.Philpot)

Just A Brown Bug (D.Philpot)

Dwarfed By The Rainforest (D.Philpot)

Bridge Capacity (D.Philpot)

View Off The Bridge (D.Philpot)

Sloth Type Territory Apparently (D.Philpot)

Tree Vines (D.Philpot)

Life On One Tree (D.Philpot)

A Spiky Seed (D.Philpot)

I Added One Leave Only (D.Philpot)

Me And A Tree (D.Philpot)

We then went into the Hummingbird Café, named for good reason, immediately after the reserve which is a lovely place that has around 10-15 feeders hanging up and around 20-50 hummingbirds which would fly about very close to you. Next we walked down the road about 600 metres for phone signal and met ML who picked us up for more snacks given by DL back at theirs - where we saw another Motmot in the drive on the way in. 

Perched Hummy (D.Philpot)

Feeding Hummingbird (D.Philpot)

Poised (D.Philpot)

Close-Up (D.Philpot)

Metal Version Of ML (D.Philpot)

Signs Outside Reserve (D.Philpot)

A Gorgeous Motmot (D.Philpot)

This evening I learned some more Spanish with the daughter of the host family, who is very smart and artistic for her age, and had categorised words into groups e.g. vehicles in order to learn English but had Spanish on the reverse and so she was teaching me J Meanwhile I saw many interesting insects flying around and into the window next to me including a tiger striped Moth I got a lucky shot of.

Just A Boring Moth You Say... (D.Philpot)

Or Maybe Not! (D.Philpot)

Green Moth On Glass (D.Philpot)

Beetle On Glass (D.Philpot)

Host Daughter Teaching Me Spanish (D.Philpot)