Hummingbirds and Sloths in the Cloud Forest of Monteverde

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We left San Jose, bound for the mountain village of Monteverde, by local bus. That morning I had woken up feeling very nauseous and I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the five hour trip. I was having a reaction to the malaria tablets which I knew would wear off in a couple of days but hoped my stomach would be up to the twists and turns in the road. The countryside was very dry and dusty but as we wove higher it became much greener. For the last couple of hours after we turned off the Pan American highway the road was very rough gravel. However the wonderful views, particularly as the sun set, were worth the rough trip. Monteverde was originally settled by the Quakers when they fled from the USA after four of their members were jailed for their refusal to be drafted into the Korean War. They set up dairy farms in the area and in order to protect the watershed the Quaker community set up a private reserve which was later billed as the place to view one of Central Americas most famous bird, the beautiful and now endangered Quetzal.
The second little township in the area is called Santa Elena and it seems to be mainly a small tourist town, though it has a large supermarket and a department store which caters to the local Tico families. Tourists come to visit the cloud forests, to raft, horse ride or to visit one of the many zip lines or canopies which go over the forest. It was after dark when we arrived so we had a bit of trouble finding the guesthouse that we had booked as it was set a little below the main part of town (which really wasn’t much more then one street long). We stayed in Cabinas El Pueblo which we can highly recommend. Immaculately clean (sparkling!) with the friendliest of owners. Freddy couldn’t speak a word of English, our Spanish is next to non existent, but somehow we seemed to know exactly what each other was saying! He had the biggest smile I’ve ever seen.
Had a light dinner before heading to bed. Next morning we had to decide what to do over the next couple of days. Thought quickly about zip lining but figured we can do that in Australia and headed off to visit the Sloth Sanctuary instead. It had only recently opened in Monteverde and is run by the daughter and grandchildren of an American woman who has been working with sloths for over 20 years at another sanctuary on the Caribbean Coast. It was a truly great couple of hours - there were only 12 sloths - half two fingered and the rest three fingered sloths. We weren’t allowed to touch them but could get very close as they weren’t behind glass or in cages. They have the sweetest faces! The woman who ran the refuge was extremely passionate about the animals and told us heaps of interesting facts about them, as well as the sad history of the animals residing there. Sloths take one month for their food to pass through their bodies and only urinate and defecate once a week. They are gentle animals but incredibly strong - also very awkward if they are on the ground. We watched one manoeuvre himself across the floor. I was as delighted to see them as Jerry was - both of us loved the experience and thought the $20 each we paid to visit them was money very well spent. And there were only two other people in the room with us which made the whole experience even more special. Check out their webpage
www.slothrescue.org
We walked the seven kilometres along the dusty road back to our guesthouse and spent a quiet afternoon reading and watching the birds from the guesthouse balcony. Another early start next morning saw us in a taxi going to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve, the area set aside by the Quakers and now administered by the Tropical Science Centre. We joined a group of four other people and with a guide walked into the thick forest. It was a very professional organisation - tracks were beautifully cared for, and the guides were passionate. There seemed to be many guides employed, all with very expensive spotting scopes. There also seemed to be a bit of a competition going between them about ‘who had spotted what’ as we found when we arrived back after the tour as they were all avidly comparing notes. Each group headed off in different directions and we didn’t see anybody else until we arrived back nearly three hours later at the main entrance. We were very lucky as we got to see the endangered Quetzal - a beautiful turquoise, red chested bird with a flowing long (one meter) tail. It is featured on the flag and money of Guatemala. The early Costa Ricans used to hunt him for his tail feathers. They would use around 100 to make a single head dress. We saw him on one side of the path through the scope - we all had a good view of him, before he flew over our heads,(tail feathers streaming behind him) to the other side of the path, where we watched him again through the scope. The photo was taken through the scope.
There were no clouds in the forest - it was too dry - but that actually made it easier to see the birds and to admire the thick lush foliage. We were one of the only groups to see a quetzal that day (we saw the guides showing each other photo proof after the walk finished)- and we saw jaguar footprints as well - one had been spotted in the forest only a couple of days before. It was a very pretty area - all the trees were covered in moss, we saw many different flowers - bromeliads, ginger plants, orchids, hibiscus of all colours, and a fascinating flower nicknamed ‘Hot Lips’ which looked like two big red lips blowing you a kiss!
After we left the main forest the guide took us across the road to a café where we saw dozens (and seven different species) of hummingbirds. They were feeding sweetened liquid from bird feeders in the café grounds. It was a highlight of our trip so far! I can’t describe the sound and sight of dozens of these brightly coloured birds flying around you as you stood watching them. My favourite shone a vibrant blue, another flashed brilliant purple, there was a tiny fawn and yellow one and many in shades of green. They were hard to photograph - you couldn’t see their wings as they fluttered - the movement was very fast! A wonderful and unexpected treat….
We dragged ourselves away from the hummingbirds and spent another couple of hours exploring more of the forest trails - again barely seeing another person. We finished the day off in the Hummingbird garden before catching a taxi back to Santa Elena. A great day made even better for Jerry as he found the resident sloth which lived in the trees across the road from the hostel later that evening! It was a very scenic area - we had spotted the Pacific Ocean from a viewpoint on one of our walks between the two small townships. We were leaving early next morning to spend a couple of days near Arenal Volcano and looking forward to the trip - one and half hours down the other side of the mountain to the Lake Arenal by jeep where we were to catch a boat across to the other side and then another jeep to our hotel. I had decided to blow the budget and stay in a hotel at the very base of the volcano instead of the little township of La Fortuna about 15 klms away from the Arenal National Park.

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Photos

The endangered Quetzal
Taken through a spotting lens

Comments

[Rosemary]

great photos
love reading your blogs, thank you, will show Sue tonight when i have tea at her place.

[Lebdawho]

wonderful!
Hello! I am heading to Costa Rica in just a week and I wanted to say how much I loved the little bit about the sloth rescue! You have made me want to change my mind on where I'm heading while I'm there!