Santa Elena Forest Reserve, March 5

   We woke up to still having no internet which is very disappointing.
    We got up early and headed toward the Santa Elena Preserve and only had to wait about 5 minutes for road construction to clear!

     The preserve is not as visited as the Monteverde one and we did not run into heaps of people. The day was relatively warm and we both shed clothes as we hiked. The hike was a bit more strenous than the one we took at Monteverde, but do-able. We hiked about 6-8 kilometers, I'd say.  We did not see a tremendous amount of birds. This was partly because there apparently weren't many around that day and partly because we are not experienced enough birders. There may have been many quiet ones lurking that we just did not sp  We did climb a tower that, on a clear day, allows a view of Mt Arenal, but it was shrouded in cloud. And, it was very out of my comfort zone to even climb the tower as the stairs were very narrow.

The birds that we did definitely see:
slate-throated red start
grey-breasted wren
tufted flycatcher
maybe a hepatic tanager. {Mark took a photo so we will have to have this verified by Willy, Jecca or Otis}
black guan
And, from the tower, we saw either a blue and gold tanager or a black and yellow silky flycatcher. We did not get a long enough look and did not get a photo.

After Santa Elena, we went back to eat near the Monteverde Cloud Reserve at CASEM, the women's cooperative because the meal we had earlier in the week was so good.

En route to going home, we stopped at the Post Office to mail a few postcards and, quite amazingly, ran into Veronica, our landlord and Mindy and Chris, the people we met who are staying at one of Veronica's other casas in Guacimal. What are the odds? Later in the afternoon, they all stopped by to chat and to see where we are living.

We are still annoyed about the internet and a few other slipshod things about the rental. {only 2 towels, a very wonky toilet, shabby furniture}  But, we have learned to live with it.

Mark Fleming is working on our new upstairs bathroom and is having a tough time finding all the supplies we have bought and it has been very hard to communicate with only having had about 5 hours of internet at the casa all week. And, Frank has written many times about corrections to the text and to the bibliography of the book we are working on and it has been hard on him and me to be so cut off. Nick is still in North Carolina, so he can't help Mark F to find the materials.

And, Nantucket had a snow day yesterday! It has been an unrelenting winter and we are not sorry not to be there for it.