Awesome day in Monteverde

Today we spent the first half of the day in Monteverde Cloud Forest with our private guide.  His name was Guiliano Salazar Gigli and he was a fantastic guide. He's been a guide for 16 years (used to be a lawyer in a past career) and was extremely knowledgeable about not only the flora and fauna but also about the history and conservation aspects of the reserve.  He seemed really passionate about his job and spoke English well. We really enjoyed our experience with him and I'd recommend him to anyone - see his website.

As I usually do when we hire guides, I requested to see something - a quetzal, well not any quetzal - the Resplendent Quetzal which is endangered and there's only about 300 in all of Costa Rica.  As you may know, so far I've been extremely well rewarded for requesting sightings.  Past requests include a seahorse in Bonaire - done, and 4 sea turtles - also fulfilled though it may have been 4 sightings of only 3 total turtles.  Therefore, I was cautiously hopeful about this one although I thought the chances of seeing the quetzal was very low, as did the guide as he hasn't seen one in 5 days.  HOWEVER, not only did we see the Resplendent Quetzal but we saw 2 - a male and female pair.  They were as spectacular as everyone says - the colors are radiant and awe-inspiring and when they take flight - it's an unforgettable sight. Here are some of my shots:

Other sights we saw included the golden browed chlorophonia, the black faced solitaire, beautiful variety of humming birds, magnificent trees and strangling figs, orchids, waterfalls, and a white nosed coati up close and personal.  It was a truly incredible experience.  The guided tour was so good that I'm seriously considering coming back to Costa Rica for the 3 day guided walk from Monteverde to Arenal with this same guide.  Like I said, I loved the experience and I really enjoyed touring with Guiliano.

After lunch we went to Don Juan's combined coffee-chocolate-sugar cane tour.  This was also a great tour.  We learned a lot about running a plantation for coffee, the process for making coffee, chocolate and sugar and got to try a bit of everything. Highlights include learning that dark roast is actually less bitter than light roast but also contained less caffeine, that fat in milk neutralizes some of the caffeine in coffee, and that chocolate was initially served unsweetened and with chili. Here are some coffee tour pictures:

We finished off the day with a night hike which was also awesome. We saw a pair of sleeping resplendent quetzals! - likely the same pair from the morning, a kinkajou, tarantulas, sleeping humming birds, stick insects, bats, toads and a variety of other bugs. Today was super awesome!