Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Monday 19 August 2013

Monteverde cloud forest


A night time walk in the Monteverde cloud forest with an experienced guide called Ricardo has proved to be one of the highlights of the trip thus far. It started with a DVD presentation about the work of the biological station and then Ricardo led the four of us into the forest along well made trails.




known as the 'owl' moth for obvious reasons

As dusk descended and despite the heavy rain, the forest came to life. Stick insects blended in with bushes to be almost invisible; nowhere near as invisible as one insect, which took us several minutes to find even though it was right in front of our faces.



spectacular trees with epiphytes
 
Ricardo, a gentle giant and a Quaker with a calm, reassuring and gentle manner enjoyed watching our sense of astonishment! His passion for the forest was so evident and a joy to behold.


a variety of caterpillars

this nasty millipede sprays cyanide!

Bright green scarab beetles, assorted moths. A possum, several birds and a roosting hummingbird all under branches to shelter from the rain.

a sloth just lazing around

Star of the show.......a large armadillo which totally ignored us such was its desire to find earthworms. It actually ran around our feet studiously ignoring us..........we stood like statutes barely breathing. This was an upfront, up close encounter with nature.

so many different beetles

stunning hummingbirds

coatis scurry across branches
More stick insects, some frogs on epiphytes and then to cap it all an extra.....a little detour to the hummingbird place down the road. Here they leave out feeders for these little birds but as Ricardo has discovered, hummingbirds aren't the only creatures that like a drop or two of the sweet nectar.



At night when hummingbirds go to roost.......the bats come out to play......and feed.......swooping like aerial acrobats....flitting through the dark and into the torch light glow on the feeder, barely stopping to take on nectar before swooping back into the anonymity of darkness. Who says bats can't see!!

plants are so well designed with clear channels to shed water


many trunks are covered in miniature forests of mosses

and tiny delicate ferns
 
 



 

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