Cloud Forest

Hey Gang,

So I am having an excellent time down here. I have just finished up my stay at the Aula Global Wildlife Reserve in the Cloud Forest of Monte Verde, and have now moved down to CATIE to study Toucans in Turrialba.

The Cloud Forest was amazing. I got to share the entire reserve with just Kathy and Hannah. Hannah was there doing a study on Bee, Hummingbird, and Butterfly pollinators and their habits in primary and secondary forests. When we would help her out we would watch a patch of flowers for about and hour and a half and record all the data we could about it. I also took it upon myself to do some repair work to some of the paths and created a couple steps, I also reconstructed a hanging compost system. Our time there was basically split between helping out in the mornings, then relaxing in the afternoon and the occasional night hike after dinner.

The reserve that we stayed on was created in 2001 and founded by Colin Garland when a Jaguar had been spotted on the property. It is a private reserve not open to the public to reduce the human impact on the wildlife. Although we didn’t get to see any Jaguars, a camera trap had caught on Ocelot on the property just before we showed up. The 700-acre reserve has some unique features to it. On one end of the property there is a lookout where if on a clear night it is possible to see Arenal Volcano, the property is split by a river cutting through it which we hiked down one morning, and on the far opposite side there is a large Fig tree named the Grandmother Tree “Arbol Abuela”, which we bush-wacked to one day.

The reserve is a beautiful and peaceful place filled with wild life. While There we spotted White-nosed Coatis, Emerald Toucanets, Peccaries, lizards, a couple frogs, a bunch of different Hummingbirds and even gotten close enough to hear the call of the elusive and radiant Resplendent Quetzal.

Now I got to get back to tracking Toucans,

Let you know how it goes.

John