San Jorge Lodge at Milpe (Temperate Rain Forest)

After eating breakfast at the Tandayapa lodge, Mother and Angie went down to get their cameras for some last chance pictures. luckly, it didn't rain when it was time to leave. We all hopped into the car and started heading over to the lodge at Milpe. On the way, we stopped at the Tulipe archeological site to see some ruins. It was pretty much giant bathtubs in weird shapes. Befor we left, Angie bought some sugar cane juice and brown sugar. After that, we went to look for a resturant, which Angie said was suggested by some of her friends. When we got to where it should be around, we couldn't find it. We saw a dirt road and thought that meaby it was down it. But we passed it like 2 times before we were able to turn into it. In the end, we found ourselves at the lodge. Angie got out to ask where it was and she found out that it was down the road. We finaly found it and ate there. The food was kinda good. We did see alot of toucans. At Tandayapa, we only saw 1 toucan. But there, we saw like 6. After lunch, we headed back to the lodge to get our luggage to our room. The first thing you saw were huge bamboo. They might have been bigger then if we all stood on each others shoulders . The rooms were also   nice. Zoe was happy because the rooms had hammock. Mother, Angie, and Zoe grabbed their cameras to see some new birds. We did have a big surprise. It was getting closer to dinner and I hear Zoe say, "Stop! Let me take a picture!" I turn around and see this otter/bear faced/ badger looking mammal that had climed the tree and was looking at Zoe with a surprised look on it's face. He climmed down the tree and ran into the bushes before Angie and Mother turned around to see it. At first, they didn't beleve Zoe. But then the same mammal climbed up a tree, grabbed the plantain, and ran off with it. Both of the parents and Zoe got pictures of it. After that, we had dinner and went off to sleep. Happily, no mosquitos bit me that night. That's about it. - MH

We ate breakfast and got our last pictures in and said goodbye to Estalin who was our wonderfull birdguide and lodge caretaker and set off to milpe. On the way we stopped at tulipe which is an archlogical sight where they discoverd giant pools that had been meticulously made. They were giant pools in the shapes of squares and halfmoons and on odd one that looked like someone had just shoved some rectangles together. One of the theorys this the the native people use the pools to tell time because thought the second the moon, at night, would appeared in different pools. Another theory is that it was used as a ceremonial pool for worshiping their gods the sun and the moon. After seeing those five pools we walked to another one. The pool that was farther away was shaped in a circle and was surrounded by a forest of bamboo. Archeologists hypothesized that this pool was used you stargazing. The pool also had a water input and output to keep the water moving and decrease the amount of algae. Then we set off to Milpe. We were planing to go to a resturant called case de blanco but it wasn't where we thought it was. In our search for it we accidentally drove all the way to the lodge. We retraced our steps and after some searching we eventually found it. We sat down for a VERY touristy lunch while over looking a valley. While we were waiting for our food we when to a little VERY sketchy bridge out to a tree platform. I quickly went across and happily enjoyed toe view my mom followed and might have let out a few curse words. Myles and Angie both decided they enjoyed living and stayed on stable ground.  We made our way back to the lodge after lunch and we unloaded all out stuff. Thankfully it wasn't raining this time we put our stuff in our rooms and quickly made our way to to humming bird feeders. And that's how we spent our first day taking pictures of bird with the exception of several mammals. Then next day we went on a huge hike to the waterfalls. Well it wasn't suposesed to be a huge hike but the map was pretty dang horrible so we really couldn't lett. And after we made the hike we tried to retrace our steps on the map and even then couldn't tell where exactly we went. After another day of getting eaten alive by Mosquitos we then headed back to civilization.-ZH out!

Milpe was beautiful.  Slightly drier than Tandayapa.  It's on a road out into the farm fields but the land itself looks over primary and secondary rainforest. The humming birds here were more prolific and were slightly easier to photograph. We were excited to see the Cabeza de Mate (face of a badger, body of an otter and a long tail), the wooly possum, and the agouti....a bonus to all the other wildlife we saw.  The accommodations were luxurious with huge rooms with windows that overlooked the forest.  The lodge itself has 3 stories so you can see the humming birds on the lower level and then climb mid canopy to see the tanagers and the top floor to be above the canopy.  We hiked the cascade trail which followed a small stream that allowed Zoe to dunk herself  in each pool.  We did not make it out to the large river but we hope Angie returns and sends us photos.  It's supposed to be impressive!  The last day, the sun came out and was perfect for photographing.  Myles and Zoe had to drag us to the car.  KS

Zoe discovered that her spirit animal is a toucan because it clumsy and drops its food half the time and then gets angry at the bannanas and throws them on the ground.

Zoe's hummingbird tounge

Kims hummingbird drinking at flowers

Kim's currious humming bird

 Kim's vibrant humming bird 

Picture titles courtesy of Zoe (^.-)