Today we visited Puntarenas, Costa Rica, a country that recently celebrated its 70th year with no Army. They purport to be the most educated country in Latin America, but I’m not sure how accurate that claim is. Elementary school is mandatory, but high school is optional. Approximately 85% of elementary students elect to continue through high school, but only 30% of those who go to high school continue to University.
Our tour today was in the beautiful Cloud Mountain. We were promised a hummingbird garden and a butterfly garden, and we did see hummingbirds and butterflies, but our definition of a “garden” appears to be slightly different than that of our tour company. We arrived at the trailhead to discover we would be sharing the area with zipliners – and Ken spent the rest of the short hike wishing he could be on those lines! As we entered the opening to the trailhead, there was the hummingbird “garden” – a small group of short trees with a large collection of plastic red and clear hummingbird feeders hung all over them. And they were very busy! Ken got some excellent shots of the birds visiting the feeders, and Pam always loves watching hummingbirds in any setting, so we weren’t too disappointed. We learned that there are over 200 species of hummingbirds, 25% of which can be found in Costa Rica. According to our guide, a single hummingbird will visit between 2,000 and 2,500 flowers in a single day, and yet they only spend 20% of their time in the air. Pretty amazing!
As we walked along the forest floor, we could hear the wind howling through the trees towering above us, and the roar of a distant river running through the woods. We crossed five suspension bridges along the way, each of which gave us a different view of the river we were hearing. After approximately 20 minutes or so of walking we can to the end of the trail and the butterfly garden….an area of plants enclosed in mesh. We did find a couple of butterflies in the enclosure, so they didn’t lie, but it wasn’t quite what we were expecting.
After a stop for lunch there was the requisite visit to a souvenir shop. This one had a pretty garden area behind it where we snapped some photos while waiting for our fellow passengers to complete their purchases.
Costa Rica is a beautiful country; 65% of its land is covered in lush forests. Much of the remaining 35% is covered in a variety of vibrant crops. We would love to have got pictures of this landscape, but alas! There were no photo opportunities on our way up or down the mountain.
JodockWorldTravel 
Love the hummingbird shots!
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Ken’s getting pretty good, right?
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