Midwest Surroundings: Costa Rica Day 6

On Day 6 of my Costa Rica trip, the group went in search of the Resplendent Quetzal… and found a few! After birding, we went horseback riding, had lunch at a beautiful mountain lodge, then went zip lining; a very exciting day, in deed. That means, this post is going to be packed with pictures!

The obvious choice for Bird of the Day was the Resplendent Quetzal. People from around the world come to the mountains of Costa Rica in search of this bird. Entire communities maintain a living through lodges, restaurants, farms, not to mention the tour guides and various tourist attractions in the area, all thanks to this rare and wonderful bird.

Here is the male and the female. Of course, the male is the flashier of the two.

I wasn’t kidding about the tourist coming from all over to search out this bird. Can you tell everyone is bundled and shivering? We were not the only ones caught off guard by the chilly morning!

Ah, the beautiful sunrise over the mountains.

After our morning bird walk and a lovely breakfast at our lodge, we set out on a horseback ride. Some people enjoyed it, others, like me, not so much. I think I must remember this trip if at any time in the future, someone asks me if I would like to go on a horseback ride. The scenery was beautiful, the horses were fine, the guides were helpful, and nothing terrible happened… I just don’t like riding. It’s my fear of falling. An irrational fear, I know, but unless I am buckled in or have a railing between myself and the drop off, I don’t feel secure. The entire ride I thought either I would fall off the horse, or both the horse and I would fall over the edge of the road we were walking down. It’s weird, and it seems to be getting worst as I get older. Anyway, here are a few pictures of this adventure.

Here they come. Obviously these are fairly well trained horses if one man can bring eight horses down the mountain road to us.

The owner had the ridiculous job of selecting which tourist would ride which one of his horses. I have to give them credit for being so patient and polite to us, not a job I would be able to do.

After lunch and a little more birding, we went zip lining. Probably not an activity for those fearful of falling, but here I was again, ready to jump in with the group! Of course, this activity involved a buckle so it was not near as scary as the horseback riding.

We actually did eight runs. As you can see from the map, they have you zigzagging back and forth across the river.

The property was gorgeous, as well as the walk along the river up to the first platform.

Here we are, all suited up and ready to go.

The scariest part was stepping off of the platform. Again, so much credit must be giving to the guides. They were absolutely amazing, so kind and patient with us silly tourists. Without their reassurances and friendly manner, the experience would not have been as enjoyable.

That’ me, I’m actually doing it! There may have been a buckle, but this was not like any ride at Disney World!

Here comes Jen. You can tell in this picture how high above the river we were. On all of my runs I was mostly looking straight ahead toward the next platform so I didn’t stress too much on the height. Unfortunately, that meant I missed a lot of the scenery.

Here’s our driver, Harrison, acting like a clown. He seemed to have a blast. I think he picked the right vocation, carting tourist to the hot spots of his country. Though, he did tell us that some the groups he drove did not invite him along to participate in the activities, he was to remain with the bus at all times. That would stink! I’m glad our group was not snooty like that. I really enjoyed his company and his happy, go-lucky personality definitely added to the trip.

Whew, it was an action packed day! Here are a few more pictures of the mountain area of San Gerardo de Dota and the wonderful flowers and birds there.