Costa Rican Adventure Day 8

Now at our lodge, La Quinta here in Serapique. This lodge is not so luxurious as our last place, but it has comfortable beds and good showers and its own extensive gardens and butterfly house, so it has its plus points.

After breakfast we drove a short distance to the Organisation For Tropical Studies, which is located in a large area of forest adjacent to a national reserve. As the name suggests it is an area where scientists come to do research into different aspects of tropical biology. La Selva, the name of the research station is recognized as one of the premier facilities for rainforest research. This station is one of three in the country.

We were greeted by a local guide, Christian, and then commenced a three and half hour walking tour of the grounds looking for wildlife. Mainly it was bird orientated, but we also saw peccary - a small jungle pig. During a great few hours we saw over 35 species of bird and several red poison dart frogs, very hard to spot in the dense dark leaf litter. We also saw a two toed sloth fast asleep in a tree, but all you could make out was a dark mass of dense fur! To cap it all we saw two Crested Owls resting in a tree. These are very hard to spot as they are primarily nocturnal and rest up during the day in the dark recesses of trees.

Golden-hooded Tanager

Yellow-crowned Euphonias

Crested Guan

Two-toed Sloth

Crested Owl

For lunch Fabian took us to a local roadside restaurant they specialises in heart of palm. Along with the delicious food we had some great fresh juices - passion fruit, pineapple, watermelon and blackberry. They were so fresh and really refreshing.
Fabian gave a demonstration of how the heart of palm is harvested, removing the outer layers to reveal the heart, which is the only piece you can eat. It was delicious and tasted a bit like uncooked chestnuts. At the end of the meal we had a group picture with the owner of the restaurant who was a very nice lady.

We then returned to the lodge for some R & R and later took a bird walk around the gardens of the lodge, trying to add to our bird count! We managed another nine, including Honey Creepers,  Toucans, Parrots and a huge flock of Swallow-Tailed Kites. We also saw the Howlers really close, calling at the end of the day, which was really great.

Chestnut-mandibled Toucan

Gray-Headed Tanager

Howler Monkey

The mosquito's were starting to bite then so we headed for Sarah &  Andrew's room for rum a clock. Fabian joined us and played us some of his music from his phone through a set of speakers, an impromptu party that resulted in a lot of laughs and dancing!

A little worse the wear we left the hotel and headed to a local restaurant.  Excellent fish, steak and fresh juices rounded off a great day!