Monteverde In The Rain

Aug 28, 2008

With my still aching foot I managed to walk a few miles today.  I explored another area of tropical forest, more lowland, and less wet and lush than the cloud forest reserve.  Also no entrance fee  which is kind of nice.  Very quiet in there but for the birds, that are so skilled at remaining hidden.  I was the only human being around.  Some of the trails here hug the mountainside and it can be a little bit dizzying looking down, especially where the trail narrows.  I saw a Turquoise-browed Motmot (or maybe blue-crowned.  They look similar) here. In good light you can see the fabulous green and blue tail.  From there I continued to hike up the road, feeling sore and wet from perspiration but also because it was beginning to rain.  I tried to stop in the restaurants in two different hotels, and this will give you an idea of why I said in a previous entry that sometimes I find the libertarianism of the Ticos scary and at times maddening.  The fellow at the reception of hotel number one directed me to continue taking a gravel road till I found it.  So I walked about 200 metres or so down this gravel road only to find that the restaurant was closed.  Like, he didn't know?  Or he couldn't be bothered?  Then I went to another hotel, and as I took the long verandah towards their restaurant I noticed about six dogs lying around.  They all look like pit-bull, Sharpei crosses, ugly and nasty.  One of them started barking then he came after me.  I went into hotel reception and asked the fellow there (he had been busy watching TV .  Ticos love watching TV) if the restaurant was open for a cold drink.  He began to take me there which would mean walking through all his lovely dogs.  I said to him, "Yo no confio en los perros," or I don't trust your dogs, and I left.  From there I arrived at the entrance to the Cloud Forest, and suddenly it began to pour.  I took refuge in the Hummingbird Gallery, where from a sheltered bench I rested my aching feet and admired the various hummingbirds, all of them flying as though totally cracked-out on sugar water while a torrent of rain pounded everything.  After a while I stopped in the cafe for a drink and lunch.  I ended up visiting with the owner, who with his family has a coffee plantation outside Santa Elena that he has offered to give me a tour of on Monday.  He said he is totally into Fair Trade and his family directly markets their own product, some of which gets distributed through his cafe.