After a barely adequate amount of sleep, we returned to the airport to pick up our rental car from the Avis desk.

Dave had reserved a 4×4, as we expect some of the roads ahead to be a bit sketchy. We got “upgraded” to a standard pickup – probably more robust than we need but now we’re ready for anything.

We have named the truck Gerardo, for San Gerardo de Dota, the first area we are visiting.

Leaving the massive city of San Jose was a traffic nightmare but we soon headed south into the hills.

We had a very delicious lunch at a Tico restaurant; local (Tico) food in Costa Rica includes simple ingredients like rice, beans, plantains and often tropical fruits. Gallo Pinto is the national dish – rice and beans sauteed with onion, cilantro and salsa lizano, sometimes with eggs or sausage. 

Parque Nacional Los Quetzales is called Costa Rica’s other cloud forest, second only to Monteverde.  This park is a bird-watchers paradise.

We are at 9100’ elevation here and it will probably get cold at night.  We both feel the elevation.

Our lovely hotel in San Gerardo de Dota is beside the Savegre River. 

The cabins surround an incredible series of gardens

We spent most of the afternoon in the gardens, watching the hummingbirds.

They are apparently quite aggressive and ‘speak’ to each other with a series of clicks and chirps.

Their wings sound like tiny helicopters as they whiz past your head!

This silver throated tanager sure liked the leftover watermelon rinds.

In the later afternoon just before the sun set, four turkey vultures came to roost in the trees just outside our balcony!

Costa Rica is known as an eco leader. We passed several windmill farms on the way here, and the lodge has run-of-river-style power. Their first power generator was installed in 1981!

The hotel packages their own coffee.  Coffee is celebrated as a national symbol in Costa Rica.  They only grow arabica beans and most of their coffee is exported.  Coffee is called grano de oro, the golden grain. 

There are several known breeding pairs of Quetzales in this part of the park. Tomorrow we take a guided tour at 0515 to see if we can spot them!