February 14, 2008 - Thursday - Arenal to San Jose - We leave the Tabacón this morning, returning to San Jose. First stop is El Silencio de Los Angeles Cloud Forest, a private biological reserve located at the end of a long and narrow winding road. This is the first Cloud Forest I have visited up close, so it is fascinating as our guide walks us along a trail under the canopy. We saw lots of fauna and flora, including several varieties of hummingbirds, orchids, army and leaf-cutter ants, and many varieties of philodendron. As a bonus as we finished our walk, an Armadillo scooted under some bushes - the first time I've spotted one.  We also walked through their plant rescue centre, where there were some beautiful orchids growing, as well as other cloud forest plants. We had a very nice lunch at the adjoining Villa Blanca restaurant.  I saw a mural in the lobby which depicted the same historical scene showing the primary industries of Costa Rica as is illustrated on the 5 Colones note, which I received from our guide in 1995!

As we head back to San Jose, there was the inevitable stop at Sarchi, but thank goodness it was only a half hour this time before we got underway again. I really find the shopping stops made by group tours to be boring and a waste of my time.  We ran into rush hour traffic as we approached San Jose, which made us late for our Farewell dinner. We all rushed through our hotel check-in, and managed to get to the restaurant before they cancelled our reservation. We went to a different restaurant than last week. This dinner was very pleasant - no band playing this time, so we could talk with each other, trading our impressions of the last few days' activities. I had to be the first to leave, since my flight tomorrow leaves at 7:45am, and I was told my pickup for the airport is arranged for 5am. That means I have to get up at 4am - a killer hour!

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