San Gerardo

I arrived in Santa Elena around 1030 and was able to check into the hostel, Pensión Santa Elena. It had a kitchen, so after I dumped my stuff in my room, I bought a few groceries. I had a couple of sandwiches with a wedge of gorgeously delicious manchego cheese, then rested for a couple of hours.

At 1500, I went horseback riding for sunset. It was great! We were on trail for about two hours with plenty of trotting and galloping. And to top it off, we saw a magnificent sunset at the top of the mountain. At the end, they showed us how they press the sugar cane to extract the juice, then gave us some to drink. Surprisingly not as sweet as I thought it would be. I remember chewing on sticks of sugar cane as a kid, but they were much sweeter than this. Or perhaps my tongue has just become accustomed to sugar since Americans put it in practically everything. Then we made some caramel and had a piece of banana bread and a small empañada, a flatbread-looking thing made from corn and cheese. Yummy!

After I got back to the hostel, I grabbed a quick quesadilla meal from across the street, ate a little, then went for a night walk tour. Wow!

Although I didn't get to see my kinkajou, we did see a bushy-tailed olingo, which are endangered and very rare to spot. We saw so much, but the big ones for me were a short-tailed fruit bat eating a guava, a two-toed sloth on the move, a massive walking stick, and a bark scorpion, which is pictured under a black light. Really nice walk!

When I got back to the hostel, I ate my quesadilla and crashed around 2200. I was up again at 0630 for today's excursion at Selvatura Park, zipline park that also has hanging bridges and exhibits of two-toed sloths, butterflies, and reptiles, where I got the pic of the bluejean poison dart frog. I did all three of those exhibits first because it is raining quite heavily, and they were awesome! I could've spent all day in the sloth exhibit, which also houses a scarlet macaw, because the adorable things were quite active considering they're nocturnal.

As you can see by my pic, I'm on one of the hanging bridges now trying to take pictures with my real camera without getting it too wet. Today has been great so far, and I'll see the hummingbird exhibit next. I hope the weather lets up before I do the zipline!

Pura vida!!

Night Walk:
Orange-kneed tarantula
Brilliant forest frog
Bushy-tailed olingo
Rufous-eyed stream frog
Pygmy rain frog
Keel-billed or rainbow-billed toucan
Sidestriped palm pit viper
Waking stick huge
Leaf mimiking catydid (green)
Two toe sloth
Bark Scorpion
Emerald toucan endemic x2
Short tail fruit bat eating guava
Blue crown motmotOkumaya devam et