It’s our second day here Bosque De Paz, and so far we’ve been extremely impressed by the hospitality and activities here. The owners and staff a both friendly and accommodating, the food (albeit being a fixed menu) is delicious and we couldn’t be more fascinated by the sheer amount of flora and fauna we’ve seen just by being here for a day and a half.

We enthusiastically booked ourselves onto bird-watching hike this morning, so at 5:30AM we were up with the dawn chorus, making a bee line for the tea and coffee before we head out. We were met by our guide, a European guy in his late 20’s who was packing some binoculars and a very impressive field-scope - as the birds in the reserve are quite tiny by and large, this device was superlative in picking them out from a mass of branches, isolating and magnifying them so you could see them as clear as day.

Interesting as it was, as photography enthusiasts this walk proved to be a bit fruitless - without a high power telephoto lens and an eye like a hawk, it was virtually impossible to get anything resembling a decent image with our limited equipment (with the exception of one young hummingbird who was more than willing to sit an pose for us). We did manage to see at least ten different species of birds within 2km of the reserve, which was worth the trip in itself.

We made it back to the lodge just after 8AM, and after breakfast we spent the rest of the day either sitting in the garden taking photo’s of creatures that happened to wander into frame, or on one of the reserve’s many walking trails.