Monteverde, land of quetzals

March 8-12, 2016

When one of my uncles heard I was traveling through Costa Rica, he let me know that he had former neighbors and still good friends living there, and he'd be happy to put us in touch. I was not at all remiss to reach out, and I ended up having the greatest week in Monteverde because of it.

Set up in the highlands, its home to the cloud forests of Costa Rica. This is the view looking from the road to town. I was staying with my uncle's friend Tony, about 5km away from the little center of Santa Elena.

Originally a settlement founded by Quaker families fleeing the draft in the US, the Monteverde area has become a tourism hotspot. Signs advertizing rafting, zip lining, hanging bridge tours, birdwatching, coffee and chocolate tours, and more line the streets outside hostels and tour agencies.

I visited Don Juan's farm twice before, on 8th and 12th grade school trips. I took this photo for Dad who thought Don Juan might remember me. I noticed my hair later. I kinda like it...

I was not so interested in paying a bunch for a tour, but I did want to go hiking in the Monteverde reserve. Tony searched up a bus schedule for me, and I hopped the morning bus (an old yellow Bluebird) up the hill to the entrance. Entrance fee paid and map in hand I set off. Though the reserve is known for the quetzals that live there, sightings are rare, and not having hired a guide and not being the best at spotting stuff, my hopes were realistic. I didn't expect quetzals, but knew I'd get other birds that decided to fly right in front of me.

The tourist section of the reserve is a small portion of the whole protected part, and trails are well kept. While not exactly a rugged jungle trek, the forest is still amazing, and very green. There were few enough people that I was walking with no one in sight mostly, listening to the wind rustling the trees and the wild bird calls that filled the woods. Cue photo montage.

Even exotic lands have dandilion plant

Getting to the lookout point at the far end of the loop, the mists had rolled in. Gotta have clouds in a cloud forest I guess.

Looking out the other way was the Pacific waaay in the distance. I could see it through the haze, though the camera didn't capture it very well.

I was also looking out over the continental divide, which was somewhere not very far in front of me. It definitely felt like I was looking down off of both sides of the trail.

Rumor has it on a really clear day you can see the Atlantic too. I couldn't.

Meanwhile, back in the forest...

Pretty sweet suspension bridge out over a big ravinne. The trees growing next to it were so tall!

Now its story time!

So being me, and not having a companion, I was walking along making only footstep noises. A couple other groups came through talking loudly in German or discussing the latest episode of some Netflix series. I stood still and let them pass, so I could listen to trees and birds instead of their noise.

I was feeling rather morally superior, and smugly thinking that I got to see more hummingbirds than them, since often I heard their whirring before seeing them off to the side of the path. Just then I came along a couple people standing still and staring into the trees.

Always a good clue that there might be something interesting to look at.

So I *smugly* closed the distance making as little noise as possible. When I reached the group, a lady pointed and whispered 'quetzal'.

Quetzal!!

Though not an avid birdwatcher who would have a sighting make or break their trip, I was eager to see one of the beautiful birds all the same. I had enough time to see a bright green blob in the branches when it took flight. I was left with an impression of bright green and red. But not just one bird flew, there were two more I hadn't seen!

A quick walk up the path didn't find where any had landed, so I continued on my way feeling lucky all the same. Two quiet minutes later, I heard a bird to my left, and I managed to find it! All by myself!

*proud look*

It was about quetzal sized and a lovely shade of green, but obviously without the red breast and huge tail of the male.

Middle of the photo, the brighter green spot. My zoom did its best.

When the three had flown off earlier I heard a guy say it was two males and a female. I was just starting to wonder if this was the female, when the other two males flew in. And my jaw dropped.

They were beautiful, with tails as long as their bodies blowing in the wind. And nicely positioned too.

I stayed there watching them for a good long while. Others came along, and I got to point the quetzals out to them. The birds flew around changing branches a couple times, but stayed in easy view. One fellow had binoculars.

I'm positive it was mating season, since the males squabbled every so often, and the fact that there were three of them around one lady. They were also vocalizing some incredible sounds. (The video is of nothing, but if you turn the audio up you should be able to hear the quetzal calls)

At the end the calls sounded like those little whistles you have as a kid that's got a spinny thing, and when you blow into it, the whistle kind of gives an increasingly high pitched whhheeeEEEeee!! It was supremely ridiculous coming from this majestic bird, and I giggled.

I could have watched for much longer, but eventually decided to continue. Plus I needed a bathroom. But right near the bottom of the trail, there was another pair of quetzals, nesting in a tree. The male was working digging out the hole in the tree they were going to use, and looked kinda stupid with his butt sticking out and feathers bouncing around as he dug. I didn't watch for too long, since it was kinda just a bird butt, and not much could top my 4 birds from before.

So back down to the visitors center, bathroom, and my PBJ lunch.

I also watched Angel, who was making glass figurines to sell.

This one is a quetzal, I watched him make turtles too.

He was more than happy to answer all my questions, and I was fascinated, watching glass rods become animals. He had clear rods for the base, melting thin colored rods onto the side for the colored parts of the figurines. The blowtorch let molten blobs of glass be added and shaped into heads, limbs, and loops to make pendants.

He had turtles, hummingbirds, frog figurines, quetzals, and some of the cutest sloths too.

I asked permission before photographing, and I noticed he asked a bunch of other tourists for no photos please. Score one for making friends first.

After lunch it was back for a short loop, I visited the waterfall on another trail.

And I had yet ANOTHER quetzal sighting, a lone male off in a tree, bring my count for the day to 7.

And they say the things are hard to find...

I watched more glass work until the last bus for the day came, bid Angel goodbye, and headed for home quite satisfied with my day.

The next couple days passed with just as much fun, and not as many quetzals.

I cooked meals, ate them with good conversation from Tony, and enjoyed the cheddar cheese he got special when he heard how much I missed it.

We biked into town and had crepes for breakfast one morning, I rode an armadillo.

I think at the end I´ll make a post that´s just full of the pictures of me on top of statues.  There´s a bunch.

This building, clearly destroyed by a fire, was almost artistic in its demise.

And I came at the right time to hear Tony play not one, but two gigs with various bands. The first one was at a bar called Unicornios, and was the Costa Rican version of my favorite karaoke bar back home. Dark, stage in the corner, and blasting too-loud top 40, I enjoyed myself.

Imperial, the beer of Costa Rica

I had a weak beer or two, and listened to the band doing rock/regge covers of everything from Imagine Dragons to Stevie Wonder, Tony on keyboard.

That night ended late with meeting new friends in the parking lot, driving home with the back of the car stuffed with sound equipment and the guys who live next to Tony, seeing an armadillo, and then talking longer in the parking strip outside the house. The stars were out in full force and we found Jupiter. I went to bed around 3am, blissfully happy after a night of the human interaction I had been missing for so many months.

We got a late breakfast the next morning of pinto gallo, then at noon I went with him to the weekly ultimate frisbee pickup game at the local school. I had a blast, my long ago middle school strategies kicked back in, and my legs reminded me I hadn't run and had done very little exercise other than walking in 8 months. I told them to suck it up, and paid for it the next day. But I had so much fun!

That night's gig was a bit more tame than the previous one, Tony played with a different group outside of a restaurant in town. This time it was songs in Spanish. I had a strawberry smoothie. And then pizza with the band members after. They were wonderful and funny.

Then my number was finally up, I caught a 6am bus out of town in the morning to go on to my next adventure. But I take with me some great memories and new friendships. It was wonderful to have a local to stay with, I got to be a part of the community there, rather than look at it from the outside, and I'm super grateful for the hospitality I enjoyed. Hopefully I'll get to meet up with Tony and his family again sometime, either in Costa Rica on a future adventure or when they're in the States.

This image was everywhere, and I thought it was beautiful. The blue barranquero (called a mot mot in Costa Rica) is my favorite, its got such an awesome tail. I saw a couple of them flying around the house too!