Early start for a quick breakfast (I had a delicious home-made granola with chia and coconut milk) and then meet our driver at 7am to take us to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We had a private guide for the walk around the reserve with whom we saw lots of things and heard lots of birds - nightingale, ‘squeaky-door bird (Solitaire), toucanettes and quetzal.

Abi spotted a female Quetzal. The guide was great at showing us everything around on the ground and in the trees and how climate change has affected the area. They used to have only 30 dry days a year and now have 90! 50% of frogs have disappeared with a knock on effect on everything else. I particularly liked the tree ferns, and the tanagers. We also saw a tarantula in its hole.

After the walk around the reserve, we went over to the hummingbird viewing area where they had sugar-water in feeders for the hummingbirds to drink

On the way back we opted to be dropped off in the town of Santa Elena to have a look around and make our own way back to the hotel - it was nice to see, but the walk back was much further than the ‘15 minutes’ we’d been told! We had a juice for lunch and then relaxed for a bit before our trip to the farm we’d booked for the afternoon.

on to Finca Madre Tierra