In the midst of a Cloud Forest.

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After staying a few nights at Arenal and bore witness to an active Volcano spew burning lava rocks. We decided to head to Monteverde and its renowned Cloud Forest. Don't know what Cloud Forest meant or what qualifies one. All I could think at the time is maybe the area is surrounded with fog. I'll probably need to some research and get a sense of the name.

We ventured to the national park, greeted by howler monkeys; for lack of a better term "howling" as we pass along. An abundance of varied species of birds surrounded us. The guides mentioned that in 2009, they counted 500+ of different species in just that are alone. Good to know that there's a few remaining natural habitats free from human harm. As we headed back, we stumbled upon a lucky break. During the months of April to May, the rare and close to extinct Quetzal birds migrate to the area allowing fortunate visitors like us to awe its beauty. The Quetzal happens to be the National Bird of Guatemala and because its population started to decline, they can no longer be seen in most areas of Guatemala. Guatemalan locals would need to make an effort and travel to Costa Rica in hopes of getting a glimpse of this magnificent creature.

Before dusk settled in, we decided to do something different. We managed to hook up with a jungle night tour in hopes of experiencing the dense and dark areas of the forest. Not a good idea but we figured it was worth a shot. Traversing along the path ways in pitch black, rattles your core (a little bit). With the amount of nocturnal animals active at this time, I couldn't imagine being able to survive the night if I was to get stranded.

We managed to saw sloths, ants, a small crab (yup; that doesn't sound right) and a humongous six inch tarantula that scared the heck out of me. For some reasons our guide was trying to tease and entice it to come out of its burrows (don't have a clue who in their right mind would even bother teasing a tarantula). While he constantly meddles with our friendly neighbour pet, he would remind us, not to move much as these scary insects are easily rattled with vibrations. But of course, as soon as it got out of it's burrows, all of us high tailed out of there. I think I covered a distance of 15 feet in a mater of 2 seconds.

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