When Steve booked a full day with Felix, our guide to the best of Monteverde, we were given a list of different options for activities to do. We knew we wanted to hit Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, and we briefly considered doing something non-hiking and non-birding in the afternoon, just to mix it up. But because hikers gotta hike, and birders gotta bird, we dismissed that idea pretty quickly. The most appealing afternoon activity was, predictably, another hike with plenty of bird-spotting, this time in Reserva Curi-Cancha, another of Monteverde’s best spots.

Curi-Cancha had more open spaces than Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, which was mainly wooded trails. There were plenty of wooded trails in Curi-Cancha as well, of course, but mixed in were some beautiful vistas.

Masked tityra! A very cool find.

Even the trails were a bit wider and more open at Curi-Cancha than they had been at Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. (That’s neither a good thing nor a bad thing – both parks were equally beautiful. Just an observation.)

Leaf-cutter ants! These guys are so adorable and hardworking. They’re my favorite ants by far – definitely better than the ones that come investigate the anklebiters’ trails of snack detritus.

The hummingbirds were a highlight of Curi-Cancha – like at Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, they were everywhere. Here we also had the extreme treat of seeing two hummingbirds in their nests! The nests were about the size of a teacup – darling. And beautiful.

Purple throated mountain glen in its nest!

Another treat at Curi-Cancha – spider monkeys! They were hard to miss – very, very noisy and exuberant, just like the white-faced capuchins in Osa. Seeing monkeys in the wild, though, is just really something special.

I didn’t get any really spectacular pictures, because they were all moving so fast, and they were so high up in the trees. But just seeing them was incredibly cool!

What a red-letter day this was! Steve and I were so grateful to Felix for sharing his favorite spots with us. We loved learning from his expertise on the birds of Monteverde, and even more we loved hearing about his personal experiences and life growing up in Costa Rica. Definitely a day that we will remember forever.

Next week: a different kind of Costa Rican forest experience – breakfast in the treetops! – and another of Costa Rica’s legendary birds.