We started off the day with a lecture on the biodiversity of Costa Rica. Costa Rica has one of the most diverse number of species in the world. There are many reasons for this. One is that Costa Rica is located in what they call the belly button of the Americas. It is equally distant from Costa Rica to Alaska as to Costa Rica to the tip of Argentina. For example, there are over 12,000 species of butterflies and moths. After the lecture we went into the rainforest to visit an animal preserve. It is illegal to keep a wild animal in Costa Rica. The animals at this preserve were ones that were injured, or for some reason cannot be set loose in the wild again. At the preserve, we saw beautiful flowers, birds, butterflies, snakes, monkeys, and big cats. After all the animals, we went for an interesting hike down into a gorge to see waterfalls. It was an exhausting, but incredible day. The kids finished the day by playing Marco Polo in the swimming pool. We did not get rained on today.

Here are my pictures of the flowers.

Here are the birds.

The butterflies.

More animals.

Other pictures from the day.