We didn’t hurry from there, but then drove off to another unknown road where we simply pulled over

and listened and photographed our brains out. I was taking notes like mad; David was photographing
everything that moved. A bicyclist was on his way up – and not one togged out in racing gear, but just a
local citizen!!

Then we went to a well-known place like ours called Paraiso Coliebries, where they have hummingbird
feeders and many plantings. It was interesting how hilly it was, how many varieties of fuschia, succulants,
and lovely colored bushes it had,

3 Mr. Q at nest3 Mr. Q at nest

3 Mr. Q at nest

and how the gardeners were digging around each plant to make a sort of tub to catch the rain, I guess.
The thrushes were having a field day digging in the fresh dirt.

At last we had lunch there – Jean just a strawberry salad, and David another trout meal, and Jean tried
the Aguadulce con leche that Wendy that suggested – as a hot drink, because it was pretty chilly all
morning. Still IT DID NOT RAIN until we were having lunch – the Fell effect, John? It was a miraculous day,
even though it was probably 2 hours shorter than Michel had first outlined – but we saw it all. Oh, on a
non-birding note, we found a squirrel that excited Michel – a Montane squirrel – which he said was quite
rare.

We stopped at a famous coffee shop, Miriam’s Quetzals, to have a coffee and to photograph the birds on
her feeders and fruit trees. Very tasty coffee – Copey – which is a proud local coffee – so we bought
some beans. Michel is a local young man, so virtually everyone waved to him as they passed.

Finally back to home base,

4 Mrs Q with lizard4 Mrs Q with lizard

4 Mrs Q with lizard

we retrieved our clean laundry, David complained nicely about the gate, and was promised a boxed meal
tomorrow, and then we set about the onerous task of downloading and identifying 380 photos.
Correction, he reminds me that HE did that while I took a much-needed nap. We tried to wander down
to the stream but the mist turned to drizzle and then to rain, and it’s been raining since then – and now
it’s 7:30 as I type. In fact we decided to just eat our left-over queso fresca and crackers tonight and not
even go to the restaurant.
We know you are all EAGER to hear how many new life-birds we photographed today??? 19!!! The new
ones are named (so that David can take them over to his lifer subdirectory). The unlabeled photos are
just ones we thought were too pretty to omit - some birds and some plantings. Lucky you, there would
have been more but the small camera had a memory card issue. Fortunately David brought a spare.