That being said, I had a wonderful time. Señor Edgar was a great guide (the same we had for the night hike) and I was the only client. One-on-one in the jungle. It was a lot like what I had for the cross Koh Chang trek I took last November in Thailand, but much better. Edgar knew his stuff, and we were able to communicate much better than I was able to in Thailand.
We saw various guans, toucans, warblers, hummers, and other birds in the canopy, and gobs of spiders, and insects. Where the mud was more congealed, we saw the spoor of puma and venados poquitos. I saw a mountain crab, and couple of salamanders and frogs. The hummingbird’s nest was cool, too.
Thus endeth my mountain adventures. It rained—a lot, there was mud—a lot, and there was very little sunshine, but the temperature was mild, and pleasant. I would have liked to have stayed somewhere with perhaps better proximity to restaurants (all three of them in the town), but overall, I would definitely return to both Santa Fe, and the Coffee Mountain Inn.
I’ve got it in my mind that it’s time to head back to PTY, and onward to the USA, though I have a couple of days left. I have less reluctance this time to go back - maybe because this trip has been more melancholic than Thailand, despite my better ability to communicate with the locals. I have ideas as to why, but I’ve got no desire to explore them; this is a blog, not a therapy session.