Cerro Chato hike

Felico joined us on our hike up to the extinct crater if Cerro Chato. Again the wildlife sounds ensured we had no trouble getting up a 6:30am to allow time for a good breakfast before being picked up at 7:40am.

Our Eagle Tours guide was Gian Carlo, who turned out to be something of a disappointment in terms of his attitude to the day's itinerary. He had great bird knowledge and his howler monkey impression is second to none, but my feeling was that complained about the wether and the hike a bit too much and he wasn't so good at setting a pace that everyone could keep up with on the way down. You really got the impression that he would have preferred to stay in bed today.

The crater is around 1 km high and as a group we made very short work of it despite the steep ascent. It took us just an hour to reach the top as opposed to the usual 2 hours!!

Sadly once we got to the top the weather denied us a view of the (apparenty) stunning crater lake with its green water. This was a real shame as it felt like we'd been robbed of the prize for getting to the top.

Coming back down was a bit tougher than the ascent as the rain made things very slippy. I found myself acting as Amber's human support structure as we met tangled roots, mud, wet clay, deep drops and other challenges. Luckily it's a role I'm accustomed to (I know my place!).

We had real bad luck with the weather as it hampered our chances of seeing much wildlife. However a real bonus of the rain is that we've seen so many toucans. They love rain. Several pairs of both Chestnut- and Keel-billed toucans added some much appreciated colour to an otherwise fairly grey day.

After the hike we went on to check out the famous La Fortuna waterfall (catarata) which was an awesome sight. The base of the waterfall was stunning, with the spray flying in all directions and the water churning away. Plus the water was a gorgeous deep blue. So lovely in fact that I couldn't resist a swim (the others weren't as keen!). The space around the river was really picturesque and I felt very in touch with the forest as I paddled about happily.

There were shoals of big fish swimming in the crystal clear water. No idea what they were, but they were sufficiently interesting to make me a little regretful that I decided not to bring my snorkelling gear.

Given the weather we're now trying to decide what to do about tomorrow, as the Rio Celeste might be too muddy to show off it's turquoise water (the result of a particular species of algae). Apparently we can cancel at short notice, so we have some time to make a decision.


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