Santa Elena Cloud Reserve

Today I visited the Santa Elena Cloud Reserve.  The park is located a few kilometers past the Selvetura Park I visited yesterday.

Clouds Rolling into the Reserve.  Later on, the weather got
sprinkly/rainy and the clouds/fog came much lower.

I went a bit later in the day (leaving the hostel on the shuttle at 10.30am).  I had booked and paid for a guide in the park because I have realized that there is absolutely no way I can find all of the cool stuff they can.

I completely lucked out and was the only person signed up for the 11.30 tour spot.  (I later heard that the early tour consisted of 8 people).  So I got a private 3-hour tour for the low, low price of $15 (plus $7 park admission and $4 round trip transportation).  Not at all a bad deal!

Honestly, I don't feel like we saw a whole lot of wildlife, but I am far from disappointed with the tour.  I was shown a number of jungle plants (I figure that if the animals aren't forthcoming, the guides resort to plants).  And I did see a couple of birds and 2 or 3 nests and several insects and a couple of spiders.

Hummingbird nest complete with mama hummingbird on her eggs.

I assume we saw less because it was raining (monkeys don't really come out when it rains), and possibly because it was a little later in the morning.  I've heard that you see more wildlife early in the morning (maybe this is because you are seeing the nocturnal animals finish their day and the diurnal animals starting theirs?).

Unlike other days at other parks, I only took a few photos.  We saw mostly plants that I had previously photographed.  The insects were too quick to photograph, and even if they weren't I'm not terribly into insects or insect pictures.  And the birds were far away and hard to focus on.

And even without the appearance of the famous Quetzal bird (I did hear it though), I am satisfied with my experience at the Santa Elena Reserve and can now check "Cloud Forest" off of my list of things to do in Costa Rica.