Monteverde

Hola!

I have arrived at my destination, and to my surprise there is wireless internet here!  It's not the best, but if you find just the right spot to put your computer it moves along not too badly.

Sadly no photos to post yet: I have been too busy settling in and absorbing this place to break out the camera.  I will have to change that soon!  This place is very cool, and in many ways not what I expected.  For one thing: it's sunny.  We seem to be on the very edge of the cloud forest - we can even see it - but our location is primarily sunny.  It's cool, especially at night, and very windy.  In the days the temperature reaches the low-to-mid twenties.

I have started (and pretty much finished) my training here at the Butterfly Gardens (www.monteverdebutterflygarden.com), and I will be giving my first tours today.  The garden consists of a visitors' centre containing live insects and arachnids, and four covered gardens for butterflies.  Most of the tours are given by volunteers, but there are a few staff on hand as well.

The sun rises at 6am here, so I have been able to get out in the mornings and do some birding.  This morning is so windy that there is little to see, but yesterday was productive and I saw a handful of new species without leaving the vicinity of the gardens.  The highlight for me was a Blue-crowned Motmot, a bird that I have long wanted to see and did not disappoint!   It has been a bit frustrating to see a large number of birds that I can't identify.  With so many species here, it's easy to think you've gotten a good enough look at a bird, then get back to your field guide only to find there are half a dozen nearly-identical species to choose from!

In addition to the birds I have seen Agouti, and a troop of White-faced Capuchins visited the gardens yesterday morning.  The monkeys are definitely humanized, and come quite close looking for food handouts.  It is amazing to see the inquisitive creatures so close-up, but also a bit sad that they are being fed by people (not here though!).

Anyway, I'd best be off.  I will make sure I get some photos for the next post.

Cheers!
Kyle