I am the Walrus

Writing from Santa Elena, Costa Rica. This is a tiny hill town just outside the Monteverde Cloud Forest. We woke up to a sunny day in San Jose and had a breakfast brunch at our hotel.

We were picked up at 8:20 by a small van and we ended up with 10 people aboard. The roads were good and the views spectacular as we passed beach towns and Puntarenas. We turned off the main highway and climbed up roads that were gravel and large rocks. Our driver was good and got us here safely making a stop along the way to use the toilets and buy snacks.

We were dropped off at Mar Inn B&B, high on a hill just outside of town. Our room is spacious with a sitting area, flat screen TV, and second bedroom. We walked down the hill stopping for a local type lunch (chicken breast or pork, rice and beans, salad) and then continuing into the commercial area. There are three streets forming a triangle with shops, restaurants and touristy places. It is pretty hot so we did a few errands and headed back to rest up before our night hike later this afternoon.

The night hike was a bit of a joke, but enjoyable. A van picked us up and we bumped along some gravely roads to the Refugio. There were lots of people there and we were divided into groups of 10. We were the green group and our guide was Antonio. We were given flashlights and started off in the dusk which soon turned to a dark night in the woods. We climbed up stairs and over tree roots often seeing the lights from other groups. The most exciting animals we saw were leaf ants. Tiny ants that work day and night hauling bits of leaves to their nest. Poor things only live about three weeks and the nest can have several million ants. They are amazing and can carry eight times their body weight. There were worker ants and soldiers ants and one queen back in the nest having babies.

Saw a nasty spider, a viper high in a tree and other bugs.

 
We also saw several sleeping birds on branches. An orange trogon, two toucans, and a brown jay. Apparently they only have a nest when they are breeding. As we were leaving the guide got a call that two Kinkajous were sighted in a tree near the office. We hurried over there and saw the two, also know as honey bears, grooming each other on a tree limb.

(This is a stock photo)

They didn't seem to mind all the people and flashlights shining on them. We then saw a grey fox for a moment.

All tolled the ants clinched the most interesting prize and we got to walk around in the dark. We did see an amazing show of stars in the dark sky. This is a very popular attraction here, but I would not give it high ratings.