Butterflies and bats, 2 of the 4 most important pollinators

 So can you guess the other two most important pollinators on which we depend? Hint: they all start with the letter "B". *

I slept pretty well except for the maldito perro barking until very late. 

In the morning I didn't try to find the group to join them for breakfast as I had some unpleasant interactions last night at our pizza dinner and I am done! Two weeks is obviously too long for a tour. Road Scholar may be in my future.

While most of them spent the big bucks for another adrenaline pumping activity (ziplining), I walked to a café I read about, Choco Cafe, and had a version of huevos rancheros with the usual gallo pinto.

Then I walked a half hour, mostly uphill and then on a difficult road, to the Monteverde Butterfly Garden.

I saw a cooperative garden along the way and stepped in to see it.

"Lesson's motmot or the blue-diademed motmot, is a colorful near-passerine bird found in forests and woodlands of southern Mexico to western Panama."

At the butterfly garden I was the only one waiting for a tour. The young man, Antony, at the reception desk thought I should take the tour in English. It turned out he grew up going to the Monteverde Friends School though he couldn't explain why they sold their cheese factory to a multinational company a few years ago. 

My guide, Andres, was very nice. Being the only one on the tour IN SPANISH I could ask many questions and when I couldn't understand something his English was handy. 

Nice stained glass. In the bathroom!

When I left Daniel and the whole group minus Carolin were on their way ti do a hike very near the butterfly garden. I've been having a good day without them and decided to continue that way. They did get in one of their inside jokes about it being "beer o'clock". Well, I guess you had to be there (oops, I was and I don't get it).

So I walked 40 minutes to the Bat Jungle. I was told the next tour (at noon) was going to be in German and English and that next tour all in English wouldn't be until 3:00. Bummer! But she made a phone call and the tour was only in English (but the chat was all in German; there were 11 of them).

Kelly gave a very good tour (and I learned a bit of German)

  

         A baby bat

*The other two most important pollinators on which we depend are birds and bees.

"Wherever flowering plants flourish, pollinating bees, birds, butterflies, bats and other animals are hard at work, providing vital but often-unnoticed services. About three-fourths of all native plants in the world require pollination by an animal, most often an insect, and most often a native bee. Pollinators are also responsible for one in every three bites of food you take, and increase our nation’s crop values each year by more than 15 billion dollars."