With the macaws, toucans and parrots

These past two days we have been really isolated, so no TV, no phone, no internet, nothing but rain forest.
We drove from Fortuna to Pital, which was a really nice drive. Nice, I say, because the road was paved. It is also so interesting to see the many different kinds of homes along the way. Some of them are so pretty, it would be nice to have such a home in such a beautiful area. And it´s nice being here at Christmas time, because everyone is starting to decorate their homes. Here in Costa Rica, people put up their Christmas trees outside, on their porches. Some people have porches so huge they are almost like another house in itself.

From Pital, we drove 30 kilometers on a rough gravel road, which could have been a lot worse, but it was very slow going anyway. We passed tons of pineapple fields and several fields of yucca plants. It took us almost 2 and a half hours to get to the Laguna del Lagarto Lodge. This lodge is so far away from any town of any size and it´s not easy to get to. For some reason there are no signs on the roads here, not even on some of the big highways. We had to stop several times to make sure we were going the right way or to ask which way to go, or even to double-check the name of the town we were in. But once we got to Laguna del Lagarto, it´s worth all the uncertainty of the drive there because it's like being in paradise here. It is definitely worth the effort to get to this lodge.

It was very hot when we got to the lodge, and we were kind of beat after that long hard drive, so the first thing we did was rest in our room for over 2 hours!! A nice rain fell while we rested and it just felt so peaceful.
After we got up, we walked to a bench they had facing a lagoon, and from this bench we watched at least 20 Scarlet Macaws coming in to roost on the nearby trees. We also saw parrots fly over periodically, but never saw them too well.

Supper is served here at 6:30, so at around 6 we made our way to a table on their nice deck. As we sat there reading our bird and Costa Rica guide books, we noticed the table behind us was becoming covered with shiny black beetles. Slowly but surely more and more beetles kept falling on that table. We dubbed that table the "beetle table". We eventually moved from the table we had picked to eat at because some were starting to fall on our table, too. Then, while sitting at our NEW table, Guillermo gets up and comes over to me and quietly brushes a beetle that had been on my blouse and I wasn´t even aware it was there!!! It must have fallen on me when we were at our old table.
We had a good dinner, and no bugs at our table. The food was good, the wine was good, but their food portions were way too huge for us! They had served us a huge lunch, and now this huge dinner, so we had to let them know that we don't eat that much. Fortunately, the next few nights, food was served buffet style, so that made it easier to take as much or as little as we wanted.
At night, from our room, we could see click beetles shining their lights on and off in the trees. Our room was nice, because one whole wall, facing the forest, was nothing but screened window, so we had a really good view to the outside.