Lions and tigers and bears

I will have to settle for birds, butterflies and monkeys.

La Fortuna is one of the areas of Costa Rica with rain forests, so there is a great variety of flora and fauna.

On our first full day here we went to one of the (several) butterfly conservatories in the area. It was great fun to hike the trails through the forest. Our particular favorite was the Howler Trail, where we were very fortunate to see lots of Howler monkeys in the trees. I was quite pleased with the pictures I was able to get. And they do indeed, howl.

This particular butterfly farm has four butterfly houses and a full room where they capture and care for the chrysalis. The butterflies pictured here all have small numbers on their wings. A young American student has numbered each one and is studying their habits and life cycles. She was patiently watching them when were talked with her. I also saw the most beautiful bright blue butterfly. It was quite large, but so fast that I was not able to get a decent picture.

The bird was photographed at our hotel. It is undoubtably the largest hummingbird I have ever seen. Not the best photo, but it does show the size of this bird.

Again, we have seen a large variety of birds, but I have been able to photograph few of them.

We also spent some time wandering around La Fortuna. In recent years it has changed from a small town supporting the local farmers to a tourist town. All the shops support the tourist needs. Costa Rica attracts two main types of tourists: those interested in extreme sports and those interested in beach resorts. This area is for the sports, with hiking, whitewater rafting, zip lines, and the such. More on that in my next post.