At breakfast today, there was the usual gang of birds at the feeder – plus one new one, the Golden-Hooded Tanager.As we headed down to road toward Fortuna, we met a troop of White Nosed Coati Mundis – 18 of them – walking around all over the roadside and the road itself, seemingly oblivious to the gang of humans clicking away with cameras. Our guide explained that these all females and juveniles – they are social, while the males are usually seen alone. What a treat!
A bit further along, our driver spotted a Fer de Lance, a very aggressive, very poisonous pit viper, known locally as a Yellow-Tail Viper. Alex said this was a juvenile; it was about 4 feet long. It had been hit by a car, but it wasn’t dead – we did our photography from the safety of our little bus.
This is a Crested Guan, a rather large black bird with a distinctive red wattle.
These are nests of the Montezuma Oropendola, or Weaver Bird. This one is another big black bird, but this one has a bright yellow tail.In Fortuna, we made a quick stop at a supermarket to pick up some drinking water and last minute gifts. We enjoyed looking at the interesting food items for sale – this wasn’t Wal-Mart.
In late morning, we finally arrived at our destination, the San Jose de Cutris School, in the village of San Josita. We were the guests of Grades 1-4, which were just finishing their morning session (the older kids come in the afternoon). The children escorted us to a large open pavilion, where they sang the Costa Rican national anthem, the US national anthem, and some Costa Rica folks songs. They then showed us some folk dances, which ended with SOME of the tourists in costume dancing with the kids.
After all that excitement, each of us was given a personal tour of the school buildings and school yard – what a great chance to practice Spanish, with an 8-year old! Fran’s escort was named Jennifer, and Margaret’s was named Danielle. But – we really wanted to steal Danielle’s big brother, Carlos.
Most of the group had brought gifts for the school. We presented our pens and pencils and crayons to the school principal and then said our good-byes.After school, it was time for lunch – a home-hosted lunch with a family not known for speaking English. Margaret and Fran went with the group from New York to a small but lovely home, where our hostesses were Anna and her two daughters, Leity and Marianna.
The menu included rice, black beans, cabbage salad, potatoes, chicken, tortillas, yuca (cassava), pineapple juice, and pineapple custard for dessert.The father of this family is a florist (he was at work) and we enjoyed seeing the beautiful flowers he grows for his work.
Here we had a close-up encounter with a Red Lored Parrot - right in the back yard.Just about the time we figured out how to communicate, it was time to leave! We all signed their guest book and promised to send them pictures from our visit.
Next stop was the Baldi Hot Springs, one of many spas that take advantage of the boiling water coming from the base of the Arenal Volcano.Baldi Hot Springs is a hillside covered with pools of all sizes and shapes: there are 25 pools, with 12 different temperatures, ranging from 93° to 152° F. There are 3 waterfalls with thermal water, 4 pools with cold water, and 3 wet bars. It’s like a giant natural Jacuzzi – something for everyone!
We enjoyed wandering around the tropical gardens that surround the pools. Lots of beautiful flowers and lots of leafcutter ants … we wondered if the owners realized that the ants are eating their way through their real estate.
After our relaxing visit to the hot springs, we headed back to Eco-Lodge. Again, there was good wildlife viewing along the way. We spotted a female Three-Toed Sloth and her baby – way up in a Cecropia tree.
We also saw another bunch of Coati Mundi – this time a group of 22 females and juveniles – and a beautiful Chestnut Mandible Toucan..
