As I was awake early and even though it was raining and had been torrential throughout the night I decided to go for a swim at 6.00am - well you are wet anyway so what is a bit more water - that said it was a strange sensation when water is falling on your head as you swim through it!! Even though I was almost packed John came out to remind me of the time at 0630 - he was worried our bags might be late for the 7am deadline!!! He is forever the worrier - I finished my 70 lengths - showered and finished packing and still our bags were with the driver by 0650 indeed we were in breakfast having a coffee well before the official 0700 start!
Breakfast was leisurely but as everyone was ready we left 15minutes before our 8.30 departure time.
We looked for the white hawk as we passed the bend in the road where it was yesterday - Liz shouted she could see it, initially the guide, who I think thought she was joking, was slow to react, but sure enough there it was and we all got photos despite the rain-mine weren't brilliant though.
After about 90minutes on the road we stopped at the German Bakery for coffee - some ate cakes but still full from breakfast John and I bought an apple strudel and an apple pastry for later.
We arrived in St Elana just after midday - it was breezy but the sun was out - we all went off in different directions for lunch - John and I found somewhere for a soup and coffee - we have decided light lunches from now on. Today's soup was OK if a tad salty but it did the trick. After lunch we bought postcards and Costa Rican wildlife leaflet in a weatherproof plastic coating....very necessary if you don't want a mushy leaflet while out and about!
We arrived at the Cloud Forest hotel just after 1pm and sat looking out over the forest to the sea beyond while waiting for our rooms to be ready......with a cup of coffee.
When we got to our rooms we had a nice relaxing afternoon - we also experienced the fastest ever laundry - we put our washing in at 2 and it was back washed and still warm from the drier by 4pm.... brilliant ........he who is in charge of laundry was very impressed!
We left at 5.15pm to go to on a night walk in a nearby forest with a local guide - it was a great walk and we saw lots of things particularly considering the rain persisted in varying degrees of torrential!
Before we started the night walk we put on our over trousers - good move but I left collar of my jacket open - bad move - the rain seeped down my neck and down the front of my T-shirt.
So at the end I had a very dry bottom half and a rather damper top half. I also want to know why water goes up your sleeves from the bottom - my arms were wet from the bottom up!
My water resistant small back pack was not resistant to this deluge and was saturated along with my purse which was in a plastic bag and the arms of my light fleece which was in the bag were wet so it was useless to warm up in even though the body was dry!!
All that said I did enjoy the walk - even John, given his aversion to water, had to admit it was enjoyable - that said he used my umbrella so he was drier!
We saw:-
a rare ring tailed salamander - you know it's rare when the guide is excited; a tiny frog - which is born as a frog without the tadpole stage and another frog with a pink under belly; a small lizard; a young pit viper which could kill you if it bit you; an orange kneed tarantula and grey babies in a hole; sleeping birds -a blue crowned mot mot, brown jays, a keel billed toucan and an orange bellied trogon; stick insects, a big green hairy caterpillar; an enormous leaf cutter ant nest; a spider which when touched makes itself look like a stick; fluorescent fungus which glows in the dark; a mouse and finally we saw a couple of kinkajous high in the canopy.
Sadly I only took a photo of the salamander (todays photo) as it was too wet to get camera out for others.
When we got back as it was heading for 2030 and we had booked for dinner at 1930 we went straight into supper and dried out there - I had to cajole John to lend me his sweater half way through dinner as I was very chilly .....I only had a T-shirt on while he had a long sleeved shirt - so it was fair! I was not very hungry so decided on more soup - vegetable this time - but I thought it would be cream of vegetable but it was consommé with large pieces of vegetable - that said it was tasty and with a piece of garlic bread and a cup of hot chocolate to finish it did me very well and would see me through the night!