Birdy nonsense in San Gerardo de Dota

The big attraction of San Gerardo de Dota is quetzal spotting - ‘a strikingly coloured bird in the trogon family’. Apparently these birds will only appear if you get up at 5am and stand in the freezing cold surrounded by birders with telescopes, binoculars and huge cameras.

Unfortunately I hate standing still, being cold and surrounded by people, so definitely not my favourite part of this holiday!

I was also feeling very light headed due to the altitude (and an empty tummy) so walked back to the lodge after a brief glimpse of a green feathered thing through a telescope. Rusty had driven and given a lift to two birdy people so had to stay until another quetzal had deigned to appear and had its photo taken.

Meanwhile on my walk back, I took a photo of the lodge and a much more visible hummingbird.

After breakfast we went for a walk round the lodge area, finding it quite tough going again due to effects of the altitude.

It is such a beautiful lodge and we had a very happy couple of hours basking in the sun (wearing jumpers!), watching swallows fly in and out of the eaves.

Lunch was enormous so I took my now very full tummy off for a happy hike into the forested hills.

I even spotted and managed (sort of) to take a photo of a black guan (looks like a turkey masquerading as a tropical bird).

We are off down the cold mountain to the steaming hot coast again tomorrow, mozzy repellant at the ready.