Friday 25th November - Better Late Than Never

We report as instructed outside the reception building at a few minutes before 06.00. It is light but we can see the valley below filled with clouds. There are a few birds about as we wait for our guide to arrive. D even goes back to the cabin to check the date and timings on the itinerary but it confirms 25/11/22 at 06.00. We move up to the waterfall to watch hummingbirds and check back at reception from time to time. Eventually we give up and return to our cabin for a cup of tea and some Duolingo.

Jose, the hotel proprieter and bird enthusiast arrives at about 7.45 to say that he has Pieter on the phone. Apparently his car broke down in a mobile blackspot and he was unable to contact anybody. He offers to come to the hotel if we still want to do some birding and we agree that we should have breakfast while he drives here. Jose ushers us down to breakfast and takes our order.

When they arrive our breakfast plates are almost like works of art and the coffee is splendid as well. As we eat Pieter appears and is very apologetic. He suggests an amended plan for this morning plus an early couple of hours tomorrow to catch what we have missed. This sounds good to us. As we talk at the table a pair of woodpeckers that we have not seen before come to feed on bananas hung in a tree. This is Hoffman's Woodpecker and the picture shows the male.

 We start our tour with a short walk down the hotel  approach road. There are hummingbirds and a couple of flycatchers but it is starting to warm up very quickly and this limits how active the birds are. He suggests an alternative which involves him walking back up to the hotel and bringing the car to pick us up. We head back the way we drove in yesterday, but without getting lost. We stop a couple of times, once to look for Aracaris and once for Bat Falcons but have no luck. In the small town of Paraiso we stop next to a small park with some large trees and a childrens playground that is going like a fair. Today is the day that schools in Costa Rica break up for their long holiday. After a brief hunt Pieter finds three Tropical Screech Owls huddled together on a branch, the first owls we have seen on this trip. 

We move on to a small wetland area and see several species there that are new to us. The morning has flown by and it is time to head back to the hotel. On the way we stop off at a coffee plantation where they have a roasting business. It was fascinating to see how the beans are extracted from the berries before being dried and roasted. 

At the hotel we are told about the opportunity to see a rather special bird called a Scaled Antpitta that takes place around 16.30 each day. We need gasolina regular for the car so take a drive out round a circuit that passes a couple of viewpoints as well as a filling station and a supermarket. The cassava crisps were so good we are going to have some more. There is a good sigal here for the mo-fi gadget and we are able to listen to the BBC commentary of England v USA at the World Cup. At the filling station they have the radio on loud with a Spanish commentary on the match, which somehow sounds a lot more exciting than the game that John Murray is describing. D has carefully practised 'Quiero veinte litros gasolina regular por favor' and it seems to work. Twenty litres is delivered and paid for then the guy says "Have a nice day".

We drive on to a viewpoint where we can see across the big valley and the lake up the side valley where our hotel is situated. Our drive brings us back to Paraiso and we then follow the same route that Pieter drove this morning. Somehow we have offended Gertie Google as she does not utter a word. Back at base we have time for a cup of tea before moving over to the waterfall area for this afternoon's feature. We watch hummingbirds for a while then one of the staff, Gabriel, appears and starts spreading worms along the track leading into the forest. He bangs the plastic tub a few times and tells us to watch. Before long we see the Antpitta making his way down the track. He gets closer and D is able to get a photo in the gloom.

Dinner tonight is excellent finished off with flambed banana. Two food pics in one day breaks an unwritten rule on Radblogs but we couldn't resist this.