Curi Cancha

We decided to go to Curi-Cancha Reserve instead of the Monteverde Cloud Reserve or Santa Elena Reserve.  After a breakfast of donuts from the panaderia we headed off at a reasonable time to get into the park.  Right when we arrived we saw a Blue-crowned Motmot.  Dan is now quite the birding expert and could not stop telling people about all the birds we spotted.  The man at the information desk recommended trails to us and said sometimes people catch a glimpse of quetzals along the trail we were taking.  I’m guessing those people are the ones who actually pay for guides.  It was a beautiful walk through the forest.  We were able to identify things we’d seen on the night walk.  We walked up to the overlook where you can see the Continental Divide.  We tried to creep up on other people’s paid tours to see if we were missing anything.  On our own we spotted a bird with an orange belly and Dan identified it later as an Orange-bellied Trogon.  We were informed by Richard that this is an impressive spotting and true birders have a hard time finding them.  We are the real deal even with two noisy kids.  After the park we stopped briefly in the cheese factory and saw them curds and whey.  We also bought some seriously overpriced ice cream.

Orange-bellied Trogon

This kid seriously lives up to her name!

Overlook at the Continental Divide

Big leaves

The two young explorers plotting our course.

We just learned that what Gabby is standing in front of is a tree that grows from the top down over another tree.  Eventually (150 years) the tree on the inside gets completely eaten away.

Motmot

Cheese making

The Santa Maria Night Tour

I find driving at night in Costa Rica terrifying and ill advised.  The only thing that might be worse is walking after dark.  So it only makes sense that on this trip we decided to go strolling about in the woods in the pitch black with our children.  Of course we had a guide, who I think was maybe 15 years old, so we were perfectly safe.  Earlier in the day Dan had faced his fears walking high above the trees on hanging bridges and now it was Gabby’s turn.  She calmly reminded me she is scared of the dark.  I’m pretty sure she’s not crazy about small spaces either because we dragged her into a cave over the summer and she was in a state of pure panic.  I give her points though because she held it together (perhaps better than her dad on the bridges). 
We went to the Santa Maria Night Walk because it was a short walk from our rental house.  We were put in a group with two older (than us) couples.  I’m sure they were thrilled to be matched up with little kids.  Luckily it turned out a couple of them were teachers.  They were delighted that our kids were getting to really experience nature.  The one woman kept telling Gabby how lucky she was and that she should be grateful to her parents.  We need someone to remind them of that on every trip. 
The girls held there own on some slick hills in the dark.  They were careful not to step on the lines of cutter ants, although Lottie made me a little nervous sticking the toe of her rain boots near 2 meter deep ant hill.  We were able to see a tarantula, frog, ants, and an anole.  The main event was the sloth moving through the trees at the end of the tour.  We literally sprinted through the woods when one of the guides notified the others that a sloth had been spotted.  While staring in awe at this amazing animal the former teacher was really laying it on thick with Gabby about how lucky she was.  Gabby’s response was that the last sloth she saw was close enough to touch.  She wasn’t even trying to sound snotty, but I sort of wanted to die.  It is a delicate process to explain to your 6 year old the concept of privilege and not sounding spoiled.  We can now check both a two-toed and three-toed sloth off our bucket list. 

Best picture I could get of the sloth.

Our VERY kind guide took this one.

The MASSIVE ant hill