Editor’s note: Our host in La Fortuna, who was a great source of information on the area, highly recommended a tour with Giovanni.  He said that Giovanni had an almost magical ability to spot animals, and that no one had ever failed to rave about his tour.  So we signed up, even though it meant leaving at 5:30 am!  We thought the price tag was a little steep (that pesky “per person” thing again), but when we saw what Giovanni was doing — preserving his own little section of the rainforest from development, reforesting it, and developing a path that will be handicap-accessible and tailored to the blind, we actually ended up making an additional contribution.  And, we certainly got our money’s worth.  When our morning tour had ended, Giovanni saw how much the girls loved the sloths.  So he told us he’d meet us again in the afternoon and take us to a place where we could see babies up close and touch some iguanas.  He led us on a drive about half an hour away and delivered on both promises!  Giovanni told us he thought Lanie should be a tour guide, since she loves animals so much.  And now, on to Lanie’s review:

Introduction
Mom booked a tour.  It was from a guy who made paths in his own reserve.  In the big reserves, the animals avoid the paths because of all the people.  We woke up early to see the animals.  Here they are!

Toucans
We saw about 5 toucans.  They were so colorful!  Our guide called them froot loops.  We saw two different kinds together.

Blue jeans frog

Blue jeans frog (Strawberry poison dart frog)
They are venomous.  The are small with blue legs and a red middle; that is why it is called the blue jeans frog.

Red-eyed tree frog
They are small.  They are green.  They look like Monty.  (Monty is a stuffed animal that Lanie bought at the women’s craft cooperative store in Monteverde.)

Sloth
We saw 6 sloths in the morning.  They were really fuzzy.  Later we even saw a baby!  We saw a three-toed sloth and two-toed sloths.

Basilisk lizard

Basilisk lizard (“Jesus Christ lizard”)
We saw a big green lizard.  It is a basilisk lizard.  They can walk on water.  The one we saw was in a tree.

Sloth again
In the secret part of our tour we pet a baby sloth.  Our guide looked in all sorts of small trees, then he found the sloth.  It felt like a stuffed animal.  It was so fuzzy!  It moved and we left.