Got up to the paramo today first thing in the morning. We were way above the clouds, and the sun was shining. Other mountaintops were like islands in the cloud-ocean, one of them smoking with volcanic activity. Our guide, Jenny, looked Norwegian but was born and raised in Costa Rica. Her parents moved there from Michigan. She and her siblings grew up bilingual and were homeschooled, and they spent so much time talking to each other that they developed their own family-specific accent. In English and Spanish. She spoke either of her languages super-fast and bubbly, and seemed to know every plant on the paramo. The walk included lots of stories about what she did with this or that plant as a kid (eating unfamiliar berries, breaking off stalks for sword fights).
We went into the oak forest in the afternoon, slippery and full of Spanish Moss. I walked a bit by myself, enjoying the rare quiet and seeing how many more animals are about when you are one person rather than 10. Tomorrow we’ll get the chance to mist-net birds; it will only be my second time ever. Should be exciting.
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