Really the 6th

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Sadly our amazing visit to Costa Rica is coming to an end – just 1 more day till we leave ☹

This morning we had a guided walk thru the Bogarin Trail, a birding (and sloth) habitat virtually 2 blocks from the center of La Fortuna that was highly recommended to us by someone we met at Magee Marsh when birding for warblers a few weeks ago. Our guide Kenneth knew his stuff about birds. He did point out a sloth to the 2 other folks in our group, but he was a birder at heart. We ended up picking up some marvelous new birds – 8 all day: a MARVELOUS boat-billed heron (5 were sitting up in a bush near a pond) and an American pygmy kingfisher.

It started raining on us (a little earlier than predicted) but I had one poncho in my backpack for David to hide his camera equipment. The pineapple provided for our group at the end was very welcomed.

Then we ordered an uber and went off to a cute little “soda,” – guess a “café” is the closest thing. It had breakfast, burgers, the usual Casado meal, plus empanadas, nachos, etc. It hit the spot. We walked just a short ways to the big souvenir shop Gerardo our driver had recommended. Sure wish we could fit these hammock chairs in our suitcases!

Returned to the casa to jump in the little pool until it started raining heavily. It will be quite a challenge to dry the swim suits and backpack in order to pack up tomorrow, but we’ll manage.

For a few hours in late afternoon David worked on the photos while I took a lovely nap!

Then we went to a marvelous restaurant which had live acoustic guitar and some dishes served flambe. I had a delicious spaghetti – under the local dishes section – with shrimp and a very mild sauce; David had enormous shrimp served with a coconut dipping sauce in a half pineapple shell; Matt had one of the steaks flambe and said it was the best steak in C.R.

Afterwards we wandered the town a bit and found the kids another Pops ice cream shop and a little souvenir shop.

As usual, we are exhausted as we struggle to wrap up the photos, write the blog, and do our daily dialogue.

How we will miss the adventure, and the hope to see a new bird or two (or more) every day. Also, when you think about the fact that we’ve been studying Spanish for the entire year in preparation, I’m definitely going to miss the chance to use it. It’s been great fun, and so beautiful. And we will be forever grateful to Matt and Emily for making it possible!

By the way, Emily is only 1 or 2 away from having added 100 new birds to her life list, and we've gotten 68.

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