We took group pictures before boarding the bus to the cloud forest. It was the first long drive we had on the trip and it felt a little somber. We were able to hop out for a few minutes before a lunch reservation. The landscape reminded me some of areas in Tennessee.
The restaurant wasn’t quite ready for our large party, there were two other large parties there and walking through the restaurant to the back patio immediately let me know why. Hummingbirds. People were set up with their tripods and cameras with arm-long lenses to capture the beautiful birds. The back patio was actually an overlook into a gorge where migrating hummingbirds live until their return north. We saw at least three species and there were a few times I thought I was going to be impaled by a zooming hummingbird. They are so fast and agile. A friend was able to capture a slow-motion video of them.
We could have sat there for hours, but we went inside and had lunch and then hiked the trail adjacent to the property. It was so lush and green. I held a beetle. We boarded the bus back to San Jose and said our goodbyes.
