Quetzales y bosques nubosos

Just south of Santiago town, the road heads up a ridge at the base of the Atitlán volcano. At the top of the ridge is Mirador el Rey Tepepul and on a clear day, the view of the town and lake below is magnificent. 

On the other side of the ridge, the slopes descend from the highlands (about 1500m elevation) to the Pacific coast. The dry lakeside slopes shift suddenly to green cloud forest – a jungle of bromeliad clad trees and larger than life tropical plants: ferns as tall as trees and four story figs.   

I’ve had the chance to walk through this misty magical forest twice now. We were invited first to join a group of other families with children for a moderate hike which included berry picking and spontaneous games of tag when we stopped to rest.

My next trip was with a birding group. They were on a mission to see a resplendent quetzal and had room for an extra hiker.  I was out the door by 6 AM and by 730 (drive and hike included) we’d spotted a rare courting pair thanks to Ronaldo, our quetzal whisperer guide.  The males (of course) are the gem-stone colored beauties with flowing tale feather plumes. There is something unreal about these birds, not just their brilliant coloring, but also their fluffy, round heads with big black eyes – they look like a cartoon drawing of a bird, or an incredibly cute stuffed animal.  They are the panda bear of the bird world. 

On our way back we spotted a Northern emerald toucanet poking its beak out of its hole in the tree home.  Apparently toucanets eat quetzal eggs right out of their nests, and this makes perfect sense if you are a toucanet...but they lose a few cuteness points in my book for that behavior. 

Stay tuned for more stories of caminos around the lake.