Quebrada Santa María

Sat 21 Oct: Today we decided to go to the Curi Cancha Reserve to see if we could spot some of Costa Rica 650+ bird species. Apparently Curi Cancha is home to at least 200 of them. However when we got there found out you needed photo I.D. to enter and I didn't have any on me, so wasted about half an hour having to go back to our accomodation to get it. Finally at 10.30 we entered. First saw hummingbirds. These are just so tiny and so fast, near on impossible to photograph. Next saw turkey vultures. Was really enjoying the relaxed walk around trying to spot and photograph birds and butterflies such as the enormous blue morpho butterfly, until it started raining about midday and unfortunately didn't stop. Very few birds were spotted after that, although we did continue along our trails hoping. About 1.30 we gave up and went for a little drive further down the road which got extremely steep so turned around and went back into town for some lunch and more looking around the shops before heading back to our room for 1.5 hrs for a relax, before heading out at 5.30 pm for our night tour. Our night tour was such good value. 80% of Costa Rica's animals are nocturnal, so you really need to go out at night. The tour lasted two hours, and there was a total of 7 of us on it. We saw a rhinoceros or long-horned katydid, Mexican Porcupine, a sloth awake busy grooming himself - he certainly needs more of that, what a scruffy looking animal (they sleep for about 20 hours a day so lucky to see him awake), an orange kneed tarantula, a sleeping hummingbird in its nest - they need their rest with going to over 2000 plants a day to get nectar, a Toucan, and two vipers, so a very successful and enjoyable night. Our cameras struggled to focus in the poor light but get some good shots through the guides monocle.Read more