We awoke at 5 ish and John went outside to check our jackets and their state of wetness - they were nearly dry but cold so we brought them inside. The weather, even though it was dark, looked hopeful - it was not raining!!
I let John shave and shower then I finally got up at 6 and had a lovely hot shower. After getting our stuff ready for our walk in the cloud forest @ 8am we went off for an early breakfast as they started serving at 0630am. On the way we heard then saw the other Jules also heading to breakfast.....in the absence of other people she had apparently been talking to one of the hotel's cats!
We left at 8am for the cloud forest - it was dry when we left - so John came - if it was raining he would have stayed behind today as he has had enough of getting wet. When we got to the cloud forest it was drizzly so we bought a couple of plastic ponchos to keep any excessive moisture away....that with anoraks and over trousers made for a comfortable walk - as we returned uphill they had to come off as the extra exertion meant everything was steaming and they became damp on the inside. We didn't see much wildlife - a centipede and evidence of spiders but the walk was good and it enabled us to see the difference between the cloud and rainforest.....there were far more epiphytes - bromeliads, mosses - and ferns and lichens extracting their nutrients from the passing trade winds than in the rainforest.
At the end of the walk which lasted about 2 hours we had a hot chocolate in the cafe before making our way back to the bus. Enroute to the town we jumped out twice once to try and get closer to a 9 banded armadillo - I got a couple of photos but he ran off under a large fallen tree which was probably home never to be seen again and then,a few minutes later, we got out to watch and photograph an orange kneed tarantula crossing the road. Once in St Elena we stopped for 10 minutes to allow quick purchases - we bought the locally made Monteverde ice-cream - which doubled as lunch. I had macadamia nut and coffee while John had macadamia nut and rum and raisin......with caramel sauce, cream and a wafer...yum!
I spent most of the afternoon catching up with my blogs and emails while sitting in the hotel's enclosed verandah looking out over the forest and gulf beyond - very peaceful.
At 6.45pm we all headed off to a local Italian restaurant for supper. We had a lovely thin crust pizza - asparagus (spelt ssparagus on the menu), ricotta and gorgonzola - different and very nice. Tomorrow we go further west to the warmer drier areas - hopefully - which will be a pleasant and welcome change!