6th e-mail
Hi everybody,This morning I took the bus from Puerto Viejo to nearby Guapiles and I have the afternoon to kill so I figured Id write you all (I just watched one and a third soccer games and figured I could prob. be doing something more productive). Willo, Im sure flying into San Jose will work out fine, its easy enough to get places here that i will just make sure that I am in the area around when you arrive. I cant wait for you to get here and see all the great things! Yesterday morning I took the earliest bus I could (530) to Selva Verde reserve 8 kms west of Puerto Viejo. I had to wait a few minutes for the trails to open, in the meantime I chatted with one of the guides there who was also a birder. AFter a short while he told me that a birding tour for the hotel guests had just started. He walked me to where they were and for the next 2 hours I birded with 5 other part time birders. The guide wasnt great and being with a group kinda made it tough to see all the birds ie. sometimes you get stuck at the back of the line. the only upside was that the guide knew a lot of the calls of the common birds there so could say what was around before we actually saw the birds. The guide was very friendly and we chatted for a bit and h said that if he saw me later he would take me to a pond where he had seen a grey'necked wood'rail, a bird I have already seen here but a nice bird to see none'the less. We didnt end up meeting up til after I had already visited the pond (no wood rail) and was on my way back to catch the bus to Puerto viejo. During the tour we saw quite a few birds including 3 Great Green Macaws flying overhead! They are an endangered species due to habitat loss. We saw 2 other types of parrot, Brown'hooded and white'crowned. The white crowneds we got to watchfrom quite close as they ate sdome kind of brown spiky fruit that looked abit like flattened chestnuts on the outside.We also saw a few Poison Arrow frogs of two types. One was green and black and is hence called a Green and Black Poison Arrow frog, the other red with blue hind legs call the Blue Jeans. They look just like the little plastic frogs that dad sells at the store! We also saw two types of Trogons, birds closely related to the Quetzal and very beatiful birds, Violasceaos Trogan which has a yellow belly, purple head and back with a black and white tail. the second type was new for me, Slaty'tailed Trogon, not quite as spectacular as the Violaceous(red belly, green head and all black tail, very christmasy actually) but nice nonethe less. We also saw lots of hummingbirds lke the Long'tailed Hermit and the Red'footed Plumeteer. I have now seen about 25 different types of Hummingbird! Amazing diversity here. After the tour I walked the trail and saw LOTS of poison arrow frogs, mostly the green and black ones. I saw lots more birds including a Broad'billed motmot. Motmots are strange birds, quite colourful with long tail and they nest in burrows in the ground! As I waited for the bus I saw a Snowy Cotinga fly across the road. They are fairly common but not usually seen as the stay in the canopy. I had to wait 45 mins for the bus and go figure I saw the Cotinga after waiting about 44 mins. Oh well. this morning I took a walk out the north side of Puerto Viejo before taking the 940 bus here. I dont know what I´ll do for the afternoon, maybe watch another soccer game ahh, and do my laundry! Should be fun. Tommo0row I think I am going to catch the first bus to braulio Carillo NP and bird there and see if I can stay the night in which case I´d return here, buy some food and get my pack and if possible take a bus back to Brauliio Carilo in the afternoon but most likely the next morning.Talk to you later, I´ll call on Christmas. Gump