Exploring the Central Mountains - Costa Rica

20 Feb Santa Elena

After a peaceful nights sleep we discovered that it got light shortly after 6, but we didn't rush up had a slow start to the day.  Whilst getting ourselves sorted out, we were watching birds in the bushes near the room and saw King-birds and Emerald Toucanets.  We were still down for breakfast before 08.00 and almost as soon as we got there, the power in the hotel went off for some scheduled repairs! 


After breakfast, we drove a couple of kilometres to the south through Monteverde to the Reserva de los Ninos - or the childrens reserve.  This reserve was set up with the aid of donations from children in Sweden. Not far outside town the road reverted to gravel/stone and it was somewhat bumpy again.  At the reserve, we paid $12 each entrance fee and took a 3 km trail around the reserve.  The path wasn't too bad but was somewhat undulating!  We saw a few birds and lots of interesting plants and trees as we walked around.  We also saw a large lizzard and an Aguti, a sort of large guinea-pig/rodent mammal.


After a couple of hours we headed back to Santa Elena for lunch.  We stopped at a cafe called the Orchid Cafe and Bakery.  Lynn had a salad and I had a panini. The service and food was very good and it wasn't too expensive.  Following this, we had another wander around town and an inevitable ice-cream!

Back at the room, we had a lazy afternoon.  By about 16.00, the bird-life in the trees picked up and we spent two hours watching all manner of exotic birds flitting around.  We'd given up watching the Grackles as there were so many of them!  Without listing them all we saw fly-catchers, Euphonias, Toucanets, Warblers, King-birds, Tanagers, Grassquits, Sparrows, Orioles and the remarkable Masked Tityra - a white bird with a red mask!

We took ourselves back into Santa Elena for dinner and ate at Amy's where we had earlier negotiated at 10% discount!  Lynn had Arroz y Pollo (rice and chicken) and I had Casado, a mix of chicken, black beans, tortillas, cheese, salad and rice - all very tasty and washed down with cold beer!