Day 8 – 3 April 2011

It was 515 before anyone got up at all. The sun was rising and I was already awake (only fifteen minutes before our alarm was to go off). I got up and soon after my stirring woke the others. After showering and getting everyone ready, we walked to the restaurant for breakfast. We already fed Alexis some watermelon and brought the rest with us. We ate an omelet and some pancakes with orange juice and coffee. Breakfast was much more reasonably priced than lunch and dinner. The food was also good and the pancakes tasted like they use brown sugar instead of white sugar.

We were scheduled to catch the shuttle to Selvatura Park, which is where we would take the hanging bridges tour, butterfly garden, hummingbird garden, and eat lunch. The shuttle was a little late and ended up being an extremely tight fit, but we managed. The roads were again bumpy beyond belief and Alexis managed to fall asleep for the last ten minutes of the twenty-five minute ride.

We wanted to let her sleep as much as she could, so we decided to just carry her in the car seat to see the hummingbird garden. Alexis woke up on the way to see the hummingbirds, so we took her out of the car seat and transferred her to the backpack and switched gears to do the hanging bridges first. This was a trail through the clouded rain forest which crossed over 8 bridges. As we were walking, it started to mist and rain lightly. So, our first full day in the rain forest, we got wet…imagine that. Alexis had her rain jacket on, but it wasn't enough to warrant us putting any extra clothes on. The cool mist actually felt nice while walking the lengthy trail. After almost a few hours of walking and talking pictures, we were pretty tired and took the few minutes we had before the next tour of the butterflies started to rest a little. This allowed Alexis to get out of the backpack and move around a bit, as well.

Off we went to see the butterfly garden, which was led by a guide that actually spoke English very well. Our group size only consisted of seven people, which turned out to be a very good thing (the group behind us had at least twenty as we saw when we were leaving). The guide pointed out many of the different species of butterflies in Costa Rica, some of which are only found in Costa Rica. We were able to take some spectacular pictures in the garden here as butterflies were all around us.

It was now just after 11:00 and we had worked up an appetite. We knew there was a shuttle bus heading back to the hotel around 13:00 so we had two hours for lunch and the hummingbirds. We were hesitant to go in for lunch because it seemed quite early, but opted for that before seeing the hummingbirds (how heavy Alexis was getting for us to carry her factored into the decision as well). They had an excellent lunch set up for tourists that got lunch in their package, as we did. We got a glass of mango or blackberry juice, a make your own salad and fresh fruit, a plate of rice, vegetables, fish, and steak or chicken, and some caramels and chocolates for dessert. So far I think some of the best food we've had were at the parks that we visited (both here and at Palo Verde).

We then walked our way down to see the hummingbird garden. This was much like the setup we saw yesterday with just an open area that had numerous feeders around. The birds were in abundance and were not afraid to buzz right around you and virtually fly right into you. We got in the line of fire a few times and were almost taken out by the speedy fliers.

We spent some time in the gift shop waiting for the shuttle and all eyes were on Alexis, as usual. It was about this time that I realized we should have printed a stack of pictures of her and wrote "Alexis was here" so we could post them as we made our way around the country. The shuttle took us back to the hotel and Alexis napped again.

We wanted to head into the nearby town of Santa Elena and sightsee, shop, go to the supermarket, and eat some dinner. The town was really only about one block in size and was shaped like a triangle. It took us a little longer to walk around because it was raining for quite a bit of it. Dinner was pretty good at Morphos (named after the Blue Morphos – a butterfly only found in Costa Rica). We at pretty early, so it wasn't very crowded either. That's always a nice thing for us because we don't feel like we bother anyone around us when Alexis is fussy.

When we finished shopping, we got a taxi from the depot in town. It's fairly easy to get taxis in most places around Costa Rica, but they sure do get expensive pretty quick. After getting back to the hotel and hopping on the internet, we retired to the room as Alexis was falling asleep. We put her down in the crib and weren't sure what to do for the night. It was only 18:00, but she was exhausted. We let her sleep and we, too, soon went to bed.