The look on the faces of the coffee tour guides was one of incredulous delight. One guide has been doing night tours and nature photography for ten years and this was the first time he saw an ocelot in-person in Costa Rica.

I was accompanying our friends on a tour of Don Juan's coffee finca with Brandon when a breathless guide came rushing in to tell Brandon about the cat he had seen resting in one of the trees. I called Jim at home to come with the camera and he was able to snap these pictures ten minutes later. The cat stayed for hours. I think he managed to get a little sleep.

Meanwhile a mother motmot was a bit annoyed because we were blocking the way to her tunnel nest. I put my ear to the hole in the cut-side of a small hill and could hear the babies' unearthly cry. A guide spotted the Blue-Crowned Motmot parent nearby with a cricket visible in it's mouth. The guide said the motmots can build a nest as deep as two meters into the side of a cliff-edge.

After the babies grow and leave the nest, she said, it is common for a tarantula to move into the miniature cave, as it is just the right size.