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Published: September 17th 2017
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Tarantula
We are told that this is one of about 50 different species of tarantula. Geo: 10.3041, -84.798
We woke early so we could make our 7:30 reservation for a guided tour at the Santa Elena Cloud Forest. I say "early," but every day is an early rise here. The sun comes up around 4:30. We gathered our rain gear just in case. We've been very lucky with the weather so far, but you are almost guaranteed at least some rain in the cloud forest. Cloud forests get their name from having clouds parked in the forest a good chunk of the time. It makes for interesting microclimates and ecosystems. We met up with our guide and two other people in our group. Steve and Cindy hail from Maryland. Cindy is a biologist for the Smithsonian: we were impressed.
The guide was able to answer all of our questions and offer us so much information about the animals and plants of the area. A few interesting tidbits: trees in the primary forest can host as many as 2,000 different other plants on them. This makes for some very interesting looking trees; all kinds of different foliage. Because trees grow here year-round, they don't have rings. If you want to find out how old one is, carbon-dating is your
best bet. You can tell the sex of a millipede by looking at the 7th pair of legs back from the head. Josh can show you how. Sometimes they will spray a small amount of cyanide in the air. It smells like almonds.
We saw what is essentially the turkey of Costa Rica and were able to get pictures. We also saw a tarantula hanging out in his den. One of the last things we saw was a hummingbird nest. You could see two tiny beaks sticking up out of the top, waiting for food. Most of the hike was very comfortable, but we did have to do the last half hour in pouring rain which put a damper on things, so to speak.
After the park, we took the shuttle into town and resupplied for dinner. The kids picked out a 5lb bag of generic frosted flakes. That's a lot of flakes! (see photo). Then hoofed it up two very challenging hills to a place called Pizzeria Johnny for lunch. The drinks were excellent and very reasonably priced. Josh and Alex had "cold chocolate" and Kate had hot chocolate. Mom had a frozen lemonade. We split a large wood-fired pizza. It
Costa Rican Turkey
Our guide maintains that this bird is the only thing in Costa Rica that doesn't taste like chicken. was tasty, but about the size you would expect for a medium pizza at home and cost $20. We took a cab home and snacked and chilled out around the house for the rest of the day. Close to dinner Richard came by to let us know that the resident toucan was hanging around. We raced outside, but only got a glimpse as it flew away. Mom waited a while for it to come back, but just saw some humming birds and what Richard identified as Pacific Jays.
That night we watched part of a movie called Sahara from Richard's DVD collection.
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