Too rainy for... the rainforest?!

Yup, apparently so. We were supposed to go on a rain forest tour today but the road was closed/washed out/flooded because of the rain we've been having since Monday. (That's right, every day so far.) So we switched our field trip with next week's and headed to a volcano cloud forest instead. So after a 1.5 hour ride over QUITE dodgy roads we arrived at the top of the volcano... only to discover that it had just closed because of the rain... we were in a cloud and there was nothing to see. Not even in the cloud forest. Great.

So our three buses headed back down the hill (look out stray dogs, pedestrians, and motorbikes!) to what was going to be our second stop of the day, La Paz Waterfall Gardens. It is a zoo meets rain forest meets waterfall hike... pretty dang neat. Even if you are getting soaked the entire time...

Well hello there, toucan. (If you can't tell, this is right up my alley)

This guy finally awoke to scratch an itch... slowly.

Very curious hummingbirds
Yup, definitely tropical out here.
Small but poisonous

Waterfall #1 in the distance... very brown due to all of the rain.

Enjoying the view

Too close!! Stop the spray! Not that we could get any wetter at that point, anyway...

Disappearing into the clouds... really neat.

At the end of the hike we were told a shuttle would take us from the bottom back to the entrance of the gardens. It was actually a bright blue school bus that appeared Harry Potter-style and whisked us up the scary road (partially collapsed from an earthquake last year... I'm amazed anything other than ATVs that make it up!) and disappeared just as fast as it came. Weird. But we were thankful we didn't have to hike back UP the rain forest paths!

So yes, we are still getting rained on. But on the plus side, we did have almost the entire place to ourselves. Volcano trip is reschedule to next week and the original rain forest trip is completely dependent on whether or not the road gets fixed! I guess this is rainier than normal for this time of year.

Tomorrow we're heading west (Head west, young man) in search of some sun, some zip-lining, and perhaps some turtles. To Brasilita we go! Only a group of 6, so it should be much easier to manage.

As for the academic aspect? Ah yes, I am supposed to be learning something... lectures are interesting - given by tons of different local experts on various topics. I should be doing research for my paper on eco-tourism right now... the end of this trip, I mean, class, will come too soon, I'm afraid!

!Pura Vida!