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Another early morning. Mama brought our breakfast in at 6:30 (photos) so we could head out to La Selva Biological Research Station for a tour.
The tour started slow – the group was too large: 11 Spanish speakers and 5 English: us, another man who teaches such things, and a Japanese couple on their honeymoon. Also, it was a general tour so everyone kindly was shown every lizard and frog and a few things through the scope when we did manage to spot a bird. We spent a long time learning about the center, and that were are 12 different “life zones” based on altitude, temperature, and humidity in Costa Rica. La Selva is connected to almost all of these thanks to the fact that there is a clear “corridor” from this lowland to the heights. People can hike the entire length, from top to bottom, which takes a week (didn’t ask how they got up there). I swore I saw a sloth but then couldn’t find it again (it was really hidden). Saw termite nests and a banana leaf “tent” made by the white bats (see photos). Because they were asleep, we were walked down the path one by
one to see them – you can imagine that tested the patience of the keen bird-photographer, who, by the way, declined to see them in person. Meanwhile he found and photographed a new bird.
We did end up seeing SEVEN new life-birds (up to 38 new ones this trip so far), but 3 were seen after the tour, while we were waiting for the downpour (first time) to end and on the road as we exited!! And we found an Agouti!! I couldn’t help but purchase an excellent field guide at the reception building, which I carried around and used a lot!!
Our tour lasted until around 11:30 and by then we were parched. We got in the lunch line and saw that most people had wrist bands on or were the researchers, but they said we could just help ourselves to the coffee/tea/water, and we probably had 6 glasses each! The skies opened around 1 pm while we were still drinking and chatting to our tour-mate, and then we sat under cover watching a great display of little birds. We ran between drops to get to the parking lot, and by the time we were back to
our town of La Virgen it was virtually dry. Our supper was a warmed up version of last night’s dinner. Wendy had made a little mix up – we had had lunch out yesterday ad eaten our leftovers around 6:30 for supper – and when her sister brought dinner around 7 we were shocked, and she was quite flummoxed. We managed to discuss it and put everything in containers in the tiny fridge, and tonight it was very tasty: rice, frijoles, fish, and a tomato and chopped cauliflower salad in a sort of mayo dressing that was very tasty indeed.
Our dialogue question for the day was “what have I learned so far and what are my feelings?” David’s response was quite touching – that things can’t always go as hoped, and that we have added a lovely family to the tapestry of our lives. And the experiences, oh my! and we're not even one-third into our adventures.
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