During our second full day in the cloud forest we visited another reserve. This one had hiking trails and several suspension bridges. The bridges kept things interesting for Quinn and we had a great hike.

Quinn and Amy in the forest house

The forest house had another resident too.

The suspension bridges gave us an opportunity to look out over the forest canopy.

Quinn and Lisa navigating

That evening Lisa arranged for a guided night hike. There are a lot more critters out at night, and we even saw a wild cat (called a margay) up close – he was moving through a tree right above us! We kept the kids close as we watched the cat, which was about twice the size of a house cat, jump from tree to tree and finally run off through the underbrush. We knew we’d seen something special when our guide was excitedly telling other guides what we’d seen!

A scorpion on a tree under UV light

This python hangs upside down from low branches waiting for an unsuspecting rodent to pass by.

The next morning it was time to pack up and leave the forest bungalow. After stopping for lunch on the road back to San Jose, we said goodbye to Brian and Lisa. They headed down to the coast for some beach time, while we went back to Alajuela to prepare for the arrival of our next visitors!

Here’s some video from the hike, a couple of bees getting busy, and some crazy leaf cutter ants at night:

Oh, and for those of you who view our site on mobile devices, my friend Nick finally made me add some left margin so now the page shouldn’t be right up against the edge of the screen. Thanks Nick!