ziplining through the cloud forest

Today, we spent the morning traveling up to the slopes of Barva volcano to a lush wooded area on the side of the inactive volcano inside what is known as the cloud forest. Honestly, it didn't seem nearly as much like a cloud forest as the hike up Poás volcano yesterday, but it was beautiful, green, quite mossy, and very similar in altitude and scenery as the Poás hike. The terrain was amazing to behold, although it was somewhat difficult to absorb at times while we were whizzing so high ziplining through the canopy. We did zipline over a few waterfalls and running water that were quite lovely. The highlight was at the second platform; after our first brief zipline, the guide pointed out 2 sloths in the trees overhead. They were impossible to photo, and difficult to see while they slept, but the guide whistled at them a few times and once they started moving their heads, we could spot them more easily. Very exciting! The kids ziplined like champs and seemed to have a blast up there on the lines.

As we were waiting for our tour guide to pick us up from the apartments this morning, we spied a dazzling blue and green hummingbird sipping from the red blossoms nearby. From what I could decipher in our bird guide, I think he's a Steely-vented Hummingbird, but I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong. He stuck around for several minutes and gave us quite a show of his speedy, slick little self.