Diario de kittsw

Today we did an organised snorkel tour. We left at 09:30 and went to a number of sites.

The first one was an impromptu stop with the manatees. Although it is out of season for them and we were advised there might be none, the boat stopped when they saw one, and after we had entered the water we saw there was a group of five or six. I filmed the group, including bubbles from one particular beast with flatulence. Due to the rules in the reserve, none of the group approached more than five metres to the animals.

The second place we went was a short swim in the local area above what was known as a wreck but appeared to be purposefully sunk pontoon barge.

The third place was a conch shell heap in comparatively shallow water. Apparently, the local fishermen had, for years, been cleaning their catch of conch in this area and dumping the shells.

Fourth. The channel on the reef in the Hol Chan reserve. we were able to swim in the shallower water on the circumference of the channel. In the channel itself it was about nine metres deep. The tour leader from the boat showed us a few special things, including a green moray eel which he seemed to have a familiarity with. I chased it at a distance for a little to get some pictures.

Shark Gully was the fifth location. Where there were a large number of nurse sharks. During this dive the go pro battery went flat. The water was shallow and there were other creatures such as rays and larger boney fish.

The sixth and final swimming stop was an area known as the coral garden. This was the best site for small fish life and it was a pity I didn’t have a good camera to use as there were many of them, as colourful as any found in aquariums.

After that the two guys of the crew gave out rum punch and took us for a slow extended cruise around the island including a spot where Tarpon live. Apparently the Tarpon will leap for items held just above the water surface, including hands. I saw them leap up to 40 cm and they took a couple of nips of my hand. One even took Ursulas fingers up to the palm, luckily they don’t have proper teeth.

Monday

… started the first tour of the cloud forest at 08:00. Amongst other things Ursula was very pleased that we saw, finally, a Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno), or rather a couple of them, though they were a little far away for me to get a good picture of with out a telephoto lens. The guides all carry spotting scopes on tripods, which, when a smart phone is held up to it, will take a quite passable picture. The guides who took us around seemed to know the locations of some fairly interesting plants or animals, so if there are no big drawcards found, they can reliably point out the interesting smaller things. We also saw some White Headed Capuchins (Cebus capucinus), a well hidden sloth (probably Bradypus variegatus), various fungi, butterfly chrysalis and a wasp with, reputedly, the nastiest sting in Central America.

After three hours walking through the cloud forest we sat down in the Hummingbird Cafe and I shared a pineapple cake with Ursula. The café is so called due to the large number of nectar feeders hung around under its verandas. The hummingbirds come up in droves to get the nectar and fly around amongst the people who are here. They make a quite loud whirring sound. I had seen a single hummingbird at our hotel just on sunset the previous evening, but there were literally dozens of them from the forest near the cafe. It is very difficult to take a good picture of them due to their high speed in everything they do.

In the afternoon we took the “free” bus up to the Selvatura Park skywalks, but when we got there it didn’t look too promising to see much wildlife as the day was warm and there was so much noise from the zip lines and other park attractions. We went back down to rest at the hotel for our night walk. Because it looked like rain we spent some time wandering around the town to try to find some rain protection. Our temporary ponchos which we had earlier in the trip hadn’t survived this far. After dropping in at a few of the tourist places we were directed to, all sold out, we finally found a good selection in the little general shop not too far from the hotel. The night tour organisers had ponchos anyway!

The night walk started at 18:00, and though it was windy and rainy, we saw a very good selection of creatures, despite the dark. The guide was very well versed in places to find things. Even including small scorpions in an old abandoned shed. There was a sloth with a baby swinging in one of the high wind blown trees. Some of the others on the night walk were a bit upset when the guide said that if the baby fell the mother would not go to retrieve it. In any event it never fell, even though it climbed a small distance away from its mother. We saw:

Emerald Toucanette (Aulacorhynchus prasinus)
Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra)
Swinson Thrush (Catharus ustulatus)
Wood Thrush (Hylocichla musteline)
Tennessee Warbler (Oreothlypis peregrine)
Katydid – leaf mimic and a green one
Yellow Throated Vireo (Vireo flavifrons)
Kentucky Warbler (Geothlypis Formosa)
Crab spider
Sloth (probably Bradypus variegatus),
Side Striped Palm Pit Viper (Bothriechis lateralis)
Golden Browed Chlorophonia (Chlorophonia callophrys)
White Throated Thrush (Turdus assimilis)
Blue Headed Motmot (Momotus coeruliceps)
Chachalaca (most likely Ortalis vetula)

Wednesday

The view from our hotel and also where we had breakfast was the Arenal Volcano. It sticks up into the clear air in the early morning, but by breakfast time the humidity has increased until its slopes are covered in cloud. Ursula and I chose not to go with the tour group who seemed most intent on visiting the local hot springs for bathing. We planned to walk around the small town and try to find a private walking trail which we heard about from the staff where we had breakfast. We met Kaikai there as he had independently found the small restaurant too.

By 11:00 we walked from the restaurant on Calle 468 to the main square, in keeping with the streets, imaginatively named Parque de La Fortuna. Then we spent about a quarter of an hour in Parroquia San Juan Bosco La Fortuna, the towns major church, just off the square. The church had a normal open gable roof but the ceiling inside had a cylindrical vault made of wooden boards running the length of the cylinder. I had seen this style of “fake” vault in before in Suchitoto so I assumed it must be a thing in Central America.

Our next task was to find the private walking trail. We headed off a road we thought was the right one, and found ourselves in the north western corner of La Fortuna, with no roads which went any further. I tried to get some video of some small fish I could see in a channel by the side of the road by lowering the GoPro into the water on a piece of string. We also found a shop which sold almost every type of kitchen need and hardware. Luckily they also sold drinks as we were both getting quite parched by this time.

Eventually working out where we had gone wrong we went back out onto the main road heading west. We came to an offshoot, Calle 480, down which we finally found Sendero Bogarin. After paying our fees we sat for a while under a lean to where the owners had constructed an area to attract birds. They put out fruit to tempt them in. They told us there was a sloth on the property and showed us its location, but it was high up and hard to see. We took a walk around the perimeter of the property. It was hot and humid and threatening to rain. we didn’t see any big animal, but saw a lot of interesting smaller things. A large number of leaf cutter ants in trails as well as a number of butterflies, including the Glass Wing (Greta oto). The Glass Wing is near impossible to take a picture of as there isn’t much to focus on. There were also purple bananas and all sorts of fungus. The walk took about fifty minutes. when we got back, the owner told us the sloth was in a better position so we went back and took fifty pictures trying to get a good shot of it. As it was still rainy, we decided to stay under the lean to and we watched the birds for another hour. During this time a couple from the UK turned up who were serious bird watchers. They had hired their own personal guide to take them to bird spots on their holiday. The husband was also sporting a camera with a telephoto lens which I estimated was worth about 10k$AU.