Another 45 minutes of travel and we stopped at the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve where we had a 45 walk with a naturalist through the cloud forest. More leaf cutter ants(!) and some beautiful birds were the most visible wildlife, plus we learned more about the flora of a cloud forest.
Oliver, our naturalist guide.
Cloud forest, and me.
More leaf cutter ants! The worker ant has cut the leaf and is carrying it back to the nest. The smaller ant you see on the leaf is a nurse – she’s cleaning the leaf and will help grow fungus on the leaves inside the nest.
This leaf cutter ant nest is over 10 years old. What you see here is about 8 feet in diameter, and very fragile. If you were to step on it it could collapse.
Built on the bottom of a giant leaf, this nest is home to either bees or wasps – I didn’t stick around to find out.
One of the many beautiful birds we saw in the cloud forest.
Twenty minutes of the drive to and from the cloud forest was along a twisty two way, one lane, road. Normally not that unique or interesting, unless you’re doing it in a tour bus with small trucks coming the other way. Marcos proved his skills.
A half an hour further down the road and we stopped for lunch, then on to Doubletree in Puntarenas for the next two nights.