Starting in San Jose, Costa Rica, the nicest part I noticed during the brief overnight-to-morning stay was the view outside the downtown hotel balcony.
Hence, the only pictures there.
After snapping the visual evidence above, it was time to scramble around to locate a bus-through mazes of different companies’ terminals-and journey elsewhere. Specifically, to Canas.
Being in Costa Rica, first thing’s first: Big Cats.
At Las Pumas, the staff cares for assorted rescue animals. This jaguarundi, they wrote, had deformed legs so she could not live in the wild. Her friend was a three-legged Jaguarundi who got that way because she got caught in a trap trying to hunt chickens.
Ronia, the margay (who is a bit hard to see in this image) lives at Las Pumas because some people tried to keep her as a pet. Not an appropriate domestic cat, but so small and cute you could see why someone would attempt at such. She jumps very high distances like it’s nothing.
Next stop was Palo Verde.
It was described as a tropical dry forest with lots of migratory birds. Tropical dry forest, yes: hot, arid, and replete with flora. The anticipated abundance of avian fauna wasn’t as present as expected, though.
Many of these friendly mammals were present throughout the forest and dwelling area. We also saw some monkeys here and there; no felidae were spotted, but since we’d visited Las Pumas before, my desire was appeased.
Ascending the hot, dry, rocky cliffs could get quite brutal, but vast views made the journey worthwhile.
Plus, flatter, lower areas, offered opportunities to refreshingly dry off in the wind.