Cloudbridge, aptly named

We've been here almost a week now, and with the conclusion of today's hike we have seen almost all of it.  Coolest things we've seen so far:

two snakes

a Coati (see wikipedia, but more or less a raccoon)

a Hawk

lots of brightly colored birds, including two Motmots, a Cherrie Tanager, many iridescent hummingbirds

Innumerable plants and flowers

some of the wierdest and most colorful insects I've seen

and most recently, leaf cutter ants!

These ants cut sections of leaves that weigh 10 times as much as they do, and then carry them back to their nest to feed to their fungus gardens.  The fungus they cultivate feeds their young.  Crazy!

Here at Cloudbridge there are at least six waterfalls we can see from the trails.  Yesterday we crossed the river, wading up to our shins to see the one farthest away. To get there we crossed a little covered bridge, and a rope bridge:

Our schedule is pretty regular.  We get up at 7:00 (8:00 for Matthew), eat a little breakfast, and go out in the morning when there is still sun.  Around 11:00 it will start to rain, though right now we are in a little dry spell (called veranilla here) so it hold off until later.  We come back for lunch, and then we have the afternoon to read, nap, research, surf the web, and neglect our blog.  It gets dark promptly at six, and chances are it rains.  Then we cook dinner, and hang out with our housemates Leonardo and Despereaux: