Last day in Monteverde

We had a relaxed day, wandering the trails of our lodge in Valle Escondido, today. One of our favourite places along the trails was the "hammock garden" - a lovely place to relax, until a 4-year-old comes along and almost tips you out of the hammock! Gran Anne also produced a kite that she'd brought along - Solana loved it but unfortunately there wasn't enough wind to fly it properly - maybe tomorrow... Wildlife spotting today included a green & black lizard well camouflaged in a tree, quite a few vultures and hawks circling on the thermals in the valley below, dragonflies, more leaf-cutter ants, oriole birds and a little snake (the latter found by the lodge gardener). We also saw a big blue morpho butterfly - very eye-catching, although it would not sit still long enough for a decent photo. In the evening we also saw and heard a very noisy toad, which we think was a cane toad (although we refrained from licking it to test for hallucinogens!). It is also nice to fall asleep to the noise of the forest - mostly noisy crickets, but relaxing nonetheless. So far, we have seen and identified 5 species of mammals, 4 species of reptile/amphibians and more than 30 species of birds (31 that we have managed to identify and even more that we haven't), plus countless insects (some impressive, some biting and some downright ugly!).Читать далее