Sun Aug 20

The terrors of last night seemed like a distant memory, a nightmare quickly fading away. I woke feeling refreshed and joyful, thankful that we didn’t stay the night in Calle Insectario. 

We went down for breakfast around 8:30: fresh scrambled eggs, toast and fruit. It was so comforting to be cared for and cooked a homemade meal. 

After breakfast we walked into town. It was a gorgeous day with the sun shining through the thick cloud coverage. The town of Santa Elena is beautiful and very walkable. It’s a fairly small town and the buildings and roads are well maintained. There are plenty of natural areas and gardens throughout the town.

We came to a trail head (Ficus la Raiz) and put 1000 colones in the little box just outside the entrance. The trail was nice but very short. It really just winded down to a little brook where there was a towering ficus tree with an impressive root system. The roots were like trees themselves and even formed a natural bridge across the brook. There were also several nice picnic areas with built in table and benches made of wood.

There wasn’t much more to walk so we went back up, exiting the trail. We walked just 30 seconds up the road and found a free trail entrance. We saw beautiful plants and lots of butterflies including some large, bright blue ones that completely camouflaged into the leaves when they weren’t flying. We enjoyed this longer hike more than the official one.

We walked back through town and stopped at a cafe for a drink. I got a mora y fresa (blackberry and strawberry) smoothie and James got a hot coffee. The food looked and smelled excellent so we decided to have lunch too. We shared a beef and shrimp quesadilla and a pesto chicken sandwich. They were both delicious and fresh, my favorite of the two was the quesadilla. The beef was succulent and the shrimp were plump and juicy. It went well with their house picante sauce, aptly named Covid Killer. 

After getting a chai sucio to go we went back to the B&B. We rested, did work, and napped as the afternoon clouds rolled in, completely blanketing the valley. I made friends with the hosts’ cat and observed a little firefly that must have accidentally hitched a ride on my shoe when we were by the brook. He didn’t seem like he was doing too well, he barely moved even when little sugar ants started picking at him. I gave him some water on a soaked tissue which he gulped up. He flew away an hour later after regaining his strength. I also saw a group of 5 black guans, roosting in a nearby tree.

Later, we got ready for our night walk with Kinkajou Night Tours. A van picked us up and drove about 20 minutes away. There were lots of people standing around. We signed waivers broke into smaller groups of about 7. We were in the English speaking group with a French family and a couple our age from Ohio. We were given little flashlights before trekking off into then darkness led by our guide. He skillfully scouted out many things for us. 

We saw a colorful motmot bird, a sleeping woodpecker, a tiny frog, a little grey snail eater snake, three types of green vipers coiled up high in the branches, a bioluminescent scorpion, bioluminescent fungi, two giant stick bugs, a hairy tarantula, and even a mama sloth with her baby. 

We really enjoyed the night walk and our guide was very knowledgeable about the different critters. It was great that the guides all communicated with each other via walkie-talkies, alerting one another to different animals they spotted.