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Published: January 5th 2012
Today was an early morning ~ breakfast at 6am to be able to make it out to the Reserve for 7:30! Met some fellow canadians (Paul, Suzie & Laura from Hamilton ~ their other daughter Emma who's 16 preferred to sleep in ~ not looking forward to teen years). We, well our taxi driver, had picked them up at their hotel, how convenient to have two paid fares for the same trip. The entrepreneurial spirit is strong here! They're also really efficient with networking as everybody knows each other too. This is actually how we found our B&B, from a recommendation of another neighboring hotel that had no vacancy. During the Reserve tour, we were amazed by Fernandez, our guide! The guy had a side pouch of 4 or 5 books that he would continually pull out. He was like a magician; different bugs or plants would appear from one hand or the other before even having finished his story on a completely different topic! Wow, his passion was impressive. "In the name of science, my friends, here's ...". At this point, we both agreed that the cost of a guide was well worth it! We stopped at a couple of
quetzal "hotspots" but failed to spot the infamous bird. We learned a ton though, on the area's flora and fauna and truly enjoyed the hike. After the hike, we stopped back in Santa Elena for lunch (not as good as the pizza place and more expensive!) Stopped in a coffee shop for some ice coffee and a little wi-fi and waited for our shuttle to our next tour: El Trapiche Coffee and Sugar tour. On the tour, we met "un p'tit gars" de Nedelec with his family (Normand Gauthier); what a small world! The 2 & 1/2 hr tour took us through the various steps of growing and processing both coffee and sugar so there was something for both the kids and adults. Of course, there was some sampling of the finished product which obviously didn't hurt. We even spotted a sloth while on the walk. We ended the day with a super at a small spanish restaurant near our B&B and hit the sac early again.
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