Monday, 9 December 2024

Costa Rica 1992: Last Day in the Cloud Forest


      At one point along the trail, we could hear fruit or nuts falling through the trees.  That excited us, making us think there was some exotic bird up there.  We scanned the foliage eager to see what was doing it.  We were deflated when we discovered it was just a squirrel.

    As we plodded on down the trail, my wife in the lead, I heard a flutter of wings, then she began cursing.  A blue and green bird had been on the trail in front of us which my wife hadn’t seen until it flew off in a rush.  It was a Resplendent Quetzal.

    When we got to the hummingbird gallery we were again fascinated by the unbelievably colored hummers, fighting and darting around at the feeders.  A heavy rain began to fall, so we paid $5 to stay and watch a fascinating slide presentation about animal coloration.  The leaf-shaped moths were hard to believe.  Some other moths looked like wasps and bees to avoid being eaten.

    By the time the slide show finished, the rain had also stopped, so we walked the three kilometers back to our hotel, watching the yellow sunset over the mountains.

    When we got back to the hotel we got a surprise.  The clerk informed us that InfoTur, back in San Jose had called us, and we were supposed to contact them when we got back to San Jose, because we had won a prize.  We were quite excited by the news, remembering being told that some of the prizes were tours.

    We forced ourselves out of bed at 5:00 AM the next morning, to organize ourselves before catching the 6:00 bus to San Jose.  We carried our luggage to the cheese factory where we caught the bus.  The road was again full of hills, twists, and turns, but much smoother than the one we had taken us to Monteverde.  There were a lot of beautiful views of the sun hitting the clouds as we traveled. 

    My wife was in a bad mood in San Jose.  The bus driver had broken our black umbrella which she had strapped to her bag.  We weren’t able to get the room we wanted at the hotel, and then when we walked down to InfoTur to claim our “prize”, it turned out to be a flimsy-thin T-Shirt, instead of a free tour.





View may paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca


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