Orchid Farm. We got to sleep in, hooray! Since in this area, the birds don’t get up as early as the coast and we didn’t roll out until 8. The group enjoyed breakfast together, a little stroll around the grounds in the cool morning air and a visit to a wetlands area across the street from hotel, where a groups Ingrids perched for the night.
Our first destination today was a hike in the lower areas of the volcano. It was a great walk, an we were looking for a bird called a Quetzel (Ket-sul). It’s a brilliantly colored bird, red breasted, black ish head, blue back and an extremely long blue tail. It was quiet difficult to find, special to this area, but our guide Skot was able to call a few of them to his attention, with help of our field guide, Narano. Once found, I was so happy to get a great picture of a male (longest tail) and the female, I was so proud. I’ve been switching back and forth between my regular lens and telephoto, and of course I had just switched to my regular lens, then the bird appeared. I quickly switched back and everyone was amazed at the shot I got and are asking for copies, yeay! On the walk back to the bus, we got to see a huge tarantula, it was so cool and kinda creepy.
A little while later, after a few stops on the side of the road to check out birds, we stopped in a little town named, Curro Punto. This is were we had lunch and walked around a little. I had fried fish AGAIN, and I have to say, it gets better everyday, wow. After lunch, I walked to a shop that was selling the normal trinkets and hammocks, t-shits and bags and so on, I ended up buying a pretty little purse that goes nicely with a small clutch wallet I always carry on trips (made in Guatemala, given to me by a friend).
This little purse is big enough to carry my big camera and a water bottle, it’s perfect. Very unusual for me to buy souvenirs, sometimes, you just gotta do it. This area is absolutely beautiful and rich in agriculture, with lots of cows and chickens. The land ide even hand plowed, farms everywhere and it is so clean and well kept. The homes here are very nice and a lot of pride is taken in their upkeep. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of homes and shops that are run down or look impoverished, but there is no trash along roads and tons of bright colors.
Next up was an Orchid farm, Finca Dracula. It was a beautiful place, the gardens were fantastic. I took more picture, I’m at over 700 now, and I still have 4 days to go. Yikes. In addition to pictures, we took a tour and learned about what an Orchid is and that there are over 2000 species. It was a nice diversion from birding.
But wait, we went birding some more, haha. A few of us in the group, that were tired of looking for birds, decided to just hike. We were at another trail in the cloud forest and it was beautiful, cool temps and more exercise, we enjoyed ourselves.
Once back at the hotel, the majority of the group sat and had drinks, I went with a margarita for a change, I also showed off my pictures of the day to the group. Dinner was quick, a little handmade pizza, made with local veggis, it was delicious!!!
Polly and I then just resigned to our room, packed up a little bit and chatted for about 2 hours, nothing like a little girl talk to whine down from a busy day! She is a great personal and I’m blessed to have been matched up with her.
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