The Cloud Forest

Got up early today and had a coffee before the bus ride to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve.  It was sunny in town, but up in the canopy it was rainy and misty.  We were most definitely in the clouds.  The hike we took was about 4km in total, winding through the trees.  You could hear the sound of rain, but it was only the mist collecting in the canopy and dripping down to the ground below.  We walked along in silence for most of the hike and watched for wildlife, hoping to catch a glimpse of monkeys, toucans, or the elusive quetzal.

The first thing we saw was a fat caterpillar that was black and orange.  It curled up into a ball when we stood around it; not much of a defense mechanism.  Later we arrived to a scenic overlook to find...clouds.  The view was blocked with a thick mist that sometimes gave you a peek of the trees below, only to be covered up again by more clouds.  A bit further up was another place to see out where the mist was clearer. I snapped a couple pictures and was about to turn away when I noticed this guy:

It's a black guan, I guess they're a threatened species.  He was chilling on his tree for a bit, checking us out while we stared back. Eventually he got more bored with us than we did with him and he took off.  That was the last of the wildlife we would see. The forest was really eerie to walk through, it was like something out of a movie, most likely Jurassic Park.  Some of the trees were gigantic and had huge canopies at their tops, where it seemed like a whole city of monkeys could live.  And again, everything was green upon green upon green.  The rainforest really is a special place, and so different from the forests we have back home.

Back in town I checked at the hostel to see if my shoes had gotten here from La Fortuna, they said to go to a different hotel with the same name up the hill.  Sure enough, they made it back to me.  Total miracle! I took a nap and picked up bus tickets for tomorrow's trip out to the beach.  I'll be heading to Santa Teresa with Brian and Kristin via a bus to Puntareñas, a ferry across the Pacific to the Nicoya Peninsula, and two more bus rides before arriving after our 6 hour journey. Can't wait to get out in that warm ocean. The surf reports are looking good, and Santa Teresa is one of the best places to go.

Time for bed, buenos noches.