Itinerary:

Here's some random sights along the road...

Back on the road, north toward Cano Negro, traffic stopped just ahead in Vera Blanca.  A couple locals were rescuing this Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth from the middle of the road. Sloths spend most of their time in trees, but have to come down and move away from the tree to relieve themselves (some suspect that this is to remove any signs of them from the trees they hang out in). The tree this one was in was just by the side of the road and it intended to cross the road into a field. Everyone went on their way with no harm.

Where's the Potoo?

One of the reasons we like Cano Negro so much is that the night birding is good.

Potoos are a group of near passerine birds related to the nightjars and frogmouths. They are sometimes called poor-me-ones, after their haunting calls. There are seven species in one genus, Nyctibius, in tropical Central and South America. These are nocturnal insectivores which lack the bristles around the mouth found in the true nightjars. They hunt from a perch like a shrike or flycatcher. During the day they perch upright on tree stumps, camouflaged to look like part of the stump. The single spotted egg is laid directly on the top of a stump.

Next up, the trip to Celeste Mountain Lodge...

Then it's off to Monteverde...

Apparently, the normal weather here during the rainy season creates a cold front with high altitude winds that can blow rain from miles away and drop it where it isn't expected.  This year, the cold front was hanging on unusually long.  Although the hotel room was luxury, we decided to alter the trip and escape the cold and rain.  Noel called Beatriz in the office and she arranged a night stay in La Ensenada, along the coast.

As soon as you drive out of the mountains, the weather and habitat change quickly into a dryer climate, almost like southern California.  It was worth the change since we found some birds unique to the area.  So off we went with stops along the way...

After a good morning of birding, back on the road to Cerro Lodge... PART THREE