Pocket Full of Sunshine

3/17/13      San Jose

Yet another early morning- our last in fact.  We departed the hotel around 7am for Poas Volcano.  It took us a while to get there but the sights of the valley over the guardrail-less road were beautiful.  We arrived around 8:30- before the clouds and before the crowds.  As soon as we began moving everyone started having coughing fits because of the sulfur.  It was pretty funny actually.  We very quickly made our way up to the crater where we had a beautiful view.  We took the appropriate number of tourist pics before splitting off.

When Did We Reach Paradise?

3/16/13       Hotel de Montana Paraiso Quetzal -> San Jose

We had an early morning walk to view quetzals this morning.  We saw the same nesting male as well as the female.  We also saw them do the nest exchange that they wouldn't do with us there yesterday.  We had a group half the size today so it made sense.  Hearing them call to each other from in and out of the nest was also really fun to hear.  The calls are only slightly different but once Jorge pointed it out it was easy to hear.

We left the Quetzal Lodge after breakfast and some last minute hummingbird pictures.  We took a quick jaunt to an area called ' The Towers' which is at an even higher elevation.  The vegetation is primarily small bushes, bamboo, and grasses.  We did see some Volcano Hummingbirds and Volcano Juncos, which was nice.  From there we began our mountain descent back into San Jose.

 Fiery-throated Hummingbird

 Volcano Junco

Volcano Hummingbird