Looking for wildlife…

We make up some lunch and head off into the sunny morning to the “children’s rainforest” which claims to offer the chance to walk in the forest and see all the wildlife closeup. I guess we go there with too high expectations and we are mostly disappointed.
As we arrive we are semi-greeted by a fat and apparently mad American woman wearing a sweaty yellow T-shirt. She turns out to be the warden and has clearly gone mad for living here with no one to talk to. She talks to herself as much as to us. We pay our entrance fee, collect a little map with interesting places marked and head off.
As Alan remarks what we proceed to do is nothing special, it is just a walk in the woods. It doesn’t even feel much like a cloud forest or tropical reserve. It is just fairly ordinary looking plants, trees and mushy leaves underfoot. I let the cynic in me come out and we laugh about the place. The concept of the project – a non-profit making way to save valuable cloud forest and keep it for endless generations to see, is an enviable one. But I can’t help feeling the cloud forest is an ecosystem best left protected and unseen. It is not a major tourist attraction in itself. All the animals and birds clearly know where the paths are and avoid them no matter how quiet we are.
So, disillusioned, we tramp back out and move on. The experience of Sky Trek was more spectacular, if only because you could become immersed in the forest itself. On our way back we stop at the “Butterfly Garden” which is definitely worth a visit. Having never really paid these creatures much attention, I am pleasantly surprised how their huge number of species so well demonstrate Darwinian principles. It is very interesting and informative to see.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 31st, 2004 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Central America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.