MONTEVERDE 28 MARCH

Hotel Poco - Swimming pool

Dinner at Morpho

Bat Tour

HOTEL POCO A POCO
POOL
ROOM
MORPO BUTTERFLY

Callie is up and six and tries to wake up the rest of the family in vain. He goes for a stroll through the garden and sees stunning birds (including the tucan). The rest get up for breakfast which is once again a great buffet. The restaurant has stunning vistas and feeding areas for the birds - so we see beautiful hummingbirds. Luc enjoys the chicken nuggets and watermelon - lots of fruit here. And Monique eats her favourite - black beans and rice. Callie and Luc chats with his friend and his family.

We decide to do the bat exhibition/tour. This is a great experience starting off with an educational section where we learn that Costa Rica has vampire bats, but they drink as much blood (from cows) as a mosquito. They are not family of the mice nor bird but the wings look like hands (scary!!!). There are over 600 bat species in Costa Rica and Callie & Monique learns that the big bats the saw in the jungle (8 years ago) were indeed flying fox (fruit eaters). The highlight of the tour is the live exhibition, venturing into a dark room with funny noises. The bats are behind glass and the noises are amplified sounds they make. We see lots of baby bats and also learn that bats only have one baby once a year. They are mammals and the baby drinks milks for 3 months. The tour ends with a beautiful animation movie, called Stellaluna, about a baby bat. Luc wants a bat Tshirt, but the shop has none - so he gets a frog Tshirt (after much ado!).

We check out of our nice hotel, makes a stop at the famous Stella bakery and the local co-op to support the local artists. We see a howling monkey (those where the ones we heard in Arenal, who sounds like lions) running across the phone lines.

We got back to Poco Poco to check in. Nice cool room and wireless, so Monique gets time to catch up with everyone. Luc and Callie hits the heated pool. Late afternoon we decide to go for a hike in the Ecological Sanctuary. This is a family run, wildlife refuge and much drier than the cloud forest on the other side of the mountain. We do a one & ½ hour hike - see stunning views and a few faka’s (something like dassies).

Back at home we get dressed and take the winding road into Santa Elena town where we go for dinner at the other backpackers favourite, Morphos Café. Stunning restaurant painted full of the beautiful blue Morpho butterfly. Tonight is more the evening for families as there are lots of kids there. The cosoda is great and Luc enjoys his chicken with tortillas. And even more - the banana split with wonderful local vanilla ice-cream.

We stop at the hotel DVD shop and Luc watches his movie called, Snowbuddies, about a group of Labrador puppies who takes part in a snowski race. The old folks only see half of the movie before falling asleep.