Today was a transit day, departing La Quinta Sarapiqui Lodge, for Arenal Volcano Inn, to the northwest, approaching, but not yet crossing, the continental divide. Along the way, we made two stops.

The first of which was at a souvenir shop near a river. The shop was not the attraction so much as the many iguanas that were nearby, some sleeping, some active. Here’s a link to the web gallery.

Next, we stopped at Ecocentro Danaus, a biological preserve, where we saw more wildlife, including: more exotic birds(including a Baltimore Oriole), butterflies, exotic flowers, agouti, caimans and baby caimans.

Here is a link to the web gallery.

Here is a link to just the butterfly garden web gallery.

For me, the highlight was photographing a Rufous-tailed Jacamar. Our guide, Mario, spotted this tiny bird way up in the trees. It resembles a humming bird in shape and size. As I was trying to capture the bird, it flew off. But before I could put my camera down, it was back and eating its prey. I realized it was hunting. It would fly off, and about 1-2 seconds later, it was back, munching on a fly. So, I waited for it to leave, and snapped the photo when it returned. I was rewarded with the image at the top of this post. This video, at the 0:58 mark, shows just how fast the hunt is over.