Fog, Pan's Labyrinth, Birds, Snakes, Frogs, Oh My! : May 1, 2007

Today we went to Volcan Poas and La Paz Waterfall Gardens. We arrived at Volcan Poas early in the morning and walked to the viewing area. It was a nice walk on a nice trail. It was thick bush on the side so we didn't see much on the walk to the volcano. When we arrived, there was this huge crowd of people waiting for the fog to pass to get a glimpse of the area. We waited for a while and saw small short glimpses inside the volcano but not much of it.

Since we had another place to go, we didn't stay around too long. So we took another path on the way back and entered Pan's Labyrinth. It was so covered and dark and moist, it was soo cool. It was like walking into the dark. You know when you were a kid and after it rained and you walked under a tree that touched the ground, there was this magical feeling. Your imagination ran wild with thoughts of the jungle and swamp... Yes, No? Anyways, thats
was what it felt like. We were walking through a magical place. We saw so many spider webs with the dew on the web. After hiking on this path for about 30 mins, we came to a landing that overlooked a lake area. Here we saw Orioles and other birds that we didn't identify. We took group shots with the mist in the background. Then we hiked back to the entrance to stop at the gift shop.

We got in our van and headed to La Paz Waterfalls! It was so beautiful. We checked in, ate lunch at their buffet style restaurant and sat down to eat. It was so cool because they had fruit stands all over the trees so a bunch of birds would come up to the stands and eat. We saw so many at once that I didn't have a chance to identify them. I said I was an intermediate birder, and I mean this by intermediate North American birder... I don't know tropical birds at all! I know that we saw tanagers, orioles, and other smaller birds of that stature at the feeders.

After lunch we walked through the bird sanctuary and the hummingbird area. In the sanctuary we saw all kinds of birds but a few of them were not found in Costa Rica. The hummingbird area was so cool because they would zoom right past you. If you were very still and took a bunch of pics in a row, you could get some really great shots of them feeding on the feeders. There were all different kinds too, not just the rufous throated hummingbird found in North America.

Then we went through to the snake room where we were able to identify the snake we saw a couple of days before. Then on to the frog section where we saw so many frogs! It was neat to see because here we were able to find them and when we went to Selva Verde Lodge later, we were able to find them in the wild because we had "practice." Then we running a bit behind and the rain was threatening so we rushed through the orchid area and onto the path to the waterfalls. We came upon it and it was spectacular. Apparently it is one of the most photographed waterfall in Costa Rica and I know why. It was magnificent! So we all took at least 100 pictures and headed for shelter because the rain was really threatening. On our way back we saw a Coati, which is like a raccoon. It was so cool to see climbing up the tree. We all tried to get pictures, but it doesn't work when it is halfway up a giant tree and there is no light. Then almost as we were out and I felt something staring at us. And I looked over and there it was. A hawk or eagle of some kind. It was gorgeous and about 15 feet away. We would have walked right past it if I didnt have that feeling. We still have never come to a full agreement on what it was, but we think it might have been a common Semiplumbeous Hawk.

All of a sudden it started to sprinkle and we knew we had two seconds before it started to pour. We made it to the gift shop at the end of the walk to wait for a bus to take us back to the entrance where our van was waiting to take us home. We all made it to shelter before we got wet, which was good considering all of the cameras we had. Once on the bus, the rain cleared up a bit and we made it into our van for the ride home. We all dozed off for a bit and made it back to the hotel.

The younger students went out to Tin Jo for dinner that night. It was an Asian restaurant. One thing about this trip that I regret is that I didn't eat more local food. We had some a couple of times but mostly we ate food from other countries. I think it was because my professor didn't care for rice and beans and since we ate as a group a lot, we didn't go to rice and bean restaurants. And as a side note, for breakfast the cook at the hotel loved us. She thought of us as Americans and therefore only ate pancakes. So every morning, even though we said tipico, she brought out pancakes, eggs, and a platter of fruit. She was so cute!

Another thing about this trip that was great is that we were never caught anywhere in the rain. This was the only day that it rained while we were doing something and even then it didn't catch us out on a trail. Costa Rica was good to us and we thank nature for that!