Costa Rica Journal - July 31, 2001 00:05 The Next Day Local Time

Well, the PowerBook has made somewhat of a recovery...it's still acting up and not turning on all the time, but atleast I was able to download and go through yesterday and today's photos. Let's hope that it will continue to let me do that...

This morning, we did a walk in the Cloud Forest of Monte Verde. One of the interesting things we learned was about some kind of parasites that totally consume trees. It starts at the top at works it's way down, slowly decaying the entire tree as it goes. We also saw what's called the rattlesnake flower, seen here blossoming. In the middle of the walk, we went across a canopy walkway, which was cool for getting another shot of the forest's canopy. On the way back, we saw a really cool caterpillar and caught a glimpse of a Coati. I went around the building and patiently waited for him to peek his head out of a ditch he was hiding in. After he built up some courage, I was able to take several other quick shots of the White-nosed Coati (2) (3) (4).

Right outside the reserve was a gathering of several hummingbirds, including the Coppery-headed hummingbird Purple-throated Mountain Gem Green hermit hummingbird Magnificent hummingbird?? and the Violet Sabrewing (2) (3) (4).

After lunch, we headed out to an attraction called SkyTrek, where you climb up the side of the mountain and then slide down several ziplines across the forest. Being a typical touristy type, I snapped a picture or two of my Dad (2) (3), my Mom, (2) (3), and my sister, Kelly (2) (3). Just to give you an idea of what it looked like, this is the last long zipline...the highest was over 300 feet high. That was a nice location to see the Arenal Volcano, the countryside and several mountains (2) nearby.

Immediately after finishing that, we went out on a night-walk, just as it was starting to get dusk. We were fortunate enough to see two very-poisonous Side-striped Palm Pitviper snakes (2) (3) (4) (5). Even our guide was pretty scared of him. We also saw a cool spider, with a grasshopper just a couple inches away on the same tree. Later on, we saw the famous leaf-cutter ants (2) and then several species of butterflies, including the Glass Wing Butterfly, another similar species with no name, the Hawk Butterfly, and a bright white Butterfly. We also saw a small cricket that had just shed it's old skin. A Big, Hairy spider (2) almost got in our way and was fairly annoyed that we were shining our flashlights on him. Concluding the evening, were a Millipede, a Black & White Beetle, and a leaf-mimic grasshopper.



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