Day 4: Monteverde to the Coast

Afternoon: A Walk Around La Ensenada Ranch

After lunch at the hotel, we packed up and headed back down the dreaded Monteverde Road and continued on up the Pan-Am highway. After a brief rest stop, we turned off and headed for La Ensenada, a nature-oriented ranch on the coast of the Golfo de Nicoya. The temperature went from mild to hot on the way down, and we were glad to have the gradual adaptation. (The next tour group, however, started with Ensenada.)

Upon arrival, we checked into our rooms and settled for a bit, then went out and wandered. Not a hundred yards down the path we found a small family of howler monkeys and an iguana. Pedro then led us on a late afternoon walk around the grounds, where we saw an amazing number of different birds and at least one extraordinary tree.

The birding high point had to have been the pair of cara-caras mating. The male bird brought a love offering (some kind of dead rodent, it looked like) to the female, then mated with her while she was investigating it. Afterwards, they both settled down to eat it. We were losing the light, so my photographs weren't very good, but it was still a memorable vision. (I also got a bee sting around the same time, which was less fun.)

After dining al fresco, Pedro brought out his telescope, and we looked at some of the celestial objects, including Saturn, the Pleiades, and the Moon. Unfortunately, the scope was designed for birding and would not point straight up or anywhere close, thus making it impossible to view such sights as Jupiter or the Orion Nebula.