Puntarenas, Costa Rica - January 13

Partly cloudy, 31 degrees at the port, 22 degrees during our excursion

‘A Walk in the Clouds’ is the name of today’s tour and that’s what we did. Actually, we didn’t walk in much clouds, but saw and felt the clouds. Apparently, we lucked out with the

humming birds

weather, in so much as there was no rain. By the time we got to our excursion destination we had risen 6000 feet from the port – the air was cooler and less thick, it was lovely. At one point it was a bit chilly and the clouds were rolling in and I thought we were going to be cold and wet, but no…it was lovely.

admiring a waterfall

The drive to the San Ramon eco park took about 2 hours. I am always resistant to long bus rides, but this one was fine. Our guide was very engaging and informative, and he struck the right balance between sharing info and letting us snooze. Along the way we saw the Costa Rican countryside with cows, chickens, farms, jungle and the most interesting thing being house plant crops – these were in rows upon rows, very recognizable to what we would have in Canada as house plants.

butterflys are everywhere

Once at the eco park we split into 2 small groups of 13 each and followed a naturalist through a tropical cloud forest and across suspended bridges high above the jungle floor. The first thing we saw where hummingbirds – I don’t know how many, but I’ll guess about 20, of different varieties, some small, some blue, some red.

Then we walked higher and higher through the jungle, over gravel paths and suspension bridges, some more than 10 stories high. The temperature was just right – about 22 degrees with some sun. As we walked we saw orchids and other brightly coloured flowering plants. This area is very natural other than the hummingbird feeders which are only used occasionally and the paths –

butterflies need lunch too

otherwise everything is in its natural state.

dormant volcano

Our walk ended with a visit to a butterfly house…there were butterflies everywhere.

Lunch was filled with typical Costa Rican specialities – fried fish, pico de gallo and a Costa Rican beer. We also tried ‘agua dulce’ - a traditional hot Costa Rican drink that looked like coffee but tasted a bit like molasses)

adios Costa Rica!