Monteverde

Yesterday I had my first hot shower since leaving Canada. It was wonderful.

We're in Monteverde, a really touristy cloud forest in Costa Rica. We delayed our 3rd day off and bumped up our 4th day off to form a weekend proper, and we made the 3 hour drive from our home in Santa Rosa to a hotel in Monteverde.

We had a rain day yesterday. We went out into the field at the usual time (4:30am) and were rained out by 6:15. This works for me seeing as my best data is collected between 5am and 6am. We then left for Monteverde around 9:30 or so. Almost as soon as we got here, it started raining. Well... it IS the rainy season, I guess. We hung out in our room (Jess, Celia, David and I) and I played with my computer. After we had dinner, Jess Celia and I spend the evening reminiscing over old music and singing to old 90s dance music. It was fun. We used the "strobe effect" on our headlamps and had a party.

Today we went for a hike in the forest. But before we went into the forest itself, we hung out in a hummingbird garden. So far, I think that has to be the highlight of my trip. There were at least 7 different species of hummingbird and they were all flying around these hummingbird feeders. I took A LOT of photos, but they're still on my camera so I'll post some later. At one point, I realized how tame some of the hummingbirds were, and I got my face within about 3 inches of the hummingbird feeder, with hummingbirds on it. I even reached up my hand really slowly and pet a couple hummingbirds. I couldn't believe it. fortunately Jess was taking photos at the same time, so I have proof that I tickled a wild hummingbird's belly!!

I'm currently sitting on a balcony of a restaurant using the free wireless. I had a full meal but I'm still feeling hungry! I'm glad I'll be eating dinner in a couple hours :)

I've been posting photos on my flickr site.