Today we got up at 430 to go birding with Gerald, a wonderful Costa Rican guy who runs our hostel and is a naturalist. He is a huge wealth of information. I wrote copious notes after the trip, way too much for details here, but we will post some photos and info later. I will mention the black faced mannakin. The male of this species builds a structure from three sticks in the forests, dances around it, and vibrates his feathers to make a clicking sound and attract a mate. Birders come from across the world to hear this, we heard two! There is another mannekin species that Gerald says does a version of Michael Jackson´s moondance, dancing backwards to attract his lady love. After this we went to Volcan Arenal National Park. Astounding!! We hiked through thick forest, where cicadas´ deafening calls are the woods´giggling breath. The wind in the trees sounds like a deluge, gurgling Montezuma orioles try to drown out both sounds.Grasshoppers are everywhere, camouflaged on large greel leaves. We also saw a small slug with the shape and color of a dead leaf ' amazing bit of mimicry! The forest is so thick you can´t see what is past the first few trees beside the trail, you are wrapped and nurtured by deep green shade. One tree was huge, with butress roots the size of wooly mammoth trunks. At a certain point, you leave the forest and scramble over basalt, volcanic boulders. Looking one direction you see Lake Arenal. The other direction is the volcano, dome shaped and inconceivably huge. Its sides are volcanic black, with patches of green indicating plant growth, and its peak is wrapped in mist. On the way back to the bus we saw many butterflies, including the red, white and black postmen who fly fast and refuse to be photographed, and green lizards with blue stripes on their backs. I will write more detailed descriptions of all this, but am done for now. Tomorrow we will go to the Monte Verde cloud forest region, Tuesday to the town of Herredia, Wednesday we fly back to the U.S. Ve are very sad, but the adventure will continue. More from Monte Verde.