And it was a fitful night's sleep. In the middle of the night, I happened to wake up, and as I was trying to fall asleep, I started hearing what sounded like a mutant rooster crowing. I believe it was just a rooster, but there was something a little odd about its cry: I thought maybe it was some sort of wake-up alarm coming from someone else's room. I got up to find my earplugs (which I failed to find), and then decided I was going to go outside to find out where the sound was coming from. Just as I was about to go out, the sound finally stopped.
So I crawled back into bed, and that was when the water tanks started filling up. In the distance I heard a pump start up, and then one by one the hotel's water tanks filled with hot springs water. Noise, noise, noise. The kind of noise that you'd be oblivious to if you were asleep, but which keep you awake if you have the misfortune to wake up.
Here is the hotel we stayed at. A venerable, century-old hotel that has a cool old-time atmosphere. Just bring earplugs if you're easily disturbed by sounds at night!
We hit the road. From Guanziling, we drove down the Coffee Highway. Along this winding mountain road are numerous coffee plantations. The climate and geography are also perfect for growing poongans (Citrus reticulata var. poonensis), a kind of green mandarin orange.
Coffee plant
Poongan and coffee
We stopped by a nice little coffee plantation by the side of the road, where they had coffee beans drying in racks, and we enjoyed a cup of freshly brewed coffee that had been grown right there on their plantation.
Black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus harterti)
We continued driving down the Coffee Highway. Every once in a while we would see wild poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima) along the side of the road.
The red "petals" of the poinsettia aren't petals at all: they're modified leaves called bracts. Like all plants of the genus Euphorbia, the poinsettia has a special kind of flower called a cyathium. Here is a closeup of the cyathia:
At the end of the Coffee Highway we came across a Buddhist temple. Inside the great hall are three principal Buddha statues. Left to right, they are: Amitabha (the Buddha of the Pure Land), Sakyamuni (Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism), and Bhaisajyaguru (the Medicine Buddha).
There were a lot of interesting plants in the temple gardens. Here's an Agave:
The next thing we did was stop by a traditional Taiwanese village that's in the midst of being restored. Every resident here has the same surname: Zhu.
Afterwards, we continued our drive along some roads where we saw considerable damage from the typhoon of August 2009. Lots of roads were being repaired after he resulting landslides, and some roads, including the Southern Cross-Island Highway (Hwy 20, part of which we drove along), remain closed.
Here's a typhoon-damaged building
After more driving, we finally arrived at our destination for the evening: a wonderful lodging near the town of Maolin run by an Aboriginal family of the Rukai tribe. It's located in an area called the Purple Butterfly Valley (which is not too far from the Yellow Butterfly Valley).
Here, Kate takes a nap in front of the cabin.
The cabin rooms were spacious tatami rooms with space for five people. Since we were a group of four, there was extra room to stretch out. After settling in, we decided to take a look around.
We saw quite a few butterflies in the area around the cabin.
Here's a Purple Crow (Euploea tulliolus koxinga)
The purples are very hard to take photos of with open wings. Here's the best I could do:
Then we took a hike up a lonely mountain road to observe more of nature.
Golden orb-web spider (Nephila pilipes)
Psyche butterfly (Leptosia nina niobe)
Common Sailor (Neptis hylas lulculenta)
Morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea)
A village across the valley that miraculously survived a major landslide pointed right at it
Later we went on a night safari. I'll save the description for Part III.
