Trip Report- Married and Jungle(ish) Herpetology Adventure

[Md 25v]

I have been married (legal commonlaw) for quite a few years but never had the ceremony or a real honeymoon, but after 12 years we figured it was time to do it right. We went to the gulf of Papagayo on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica for a week for the wedding and then we went to the Arenal volcano region for two weeks of tours and hiking. I won't waste space on the WSS forum with resort pics but I will say that everything was great.

We initially planned on taking 6 tour days and four hike days but we ended up extending our stay to have 10 hiking days. I'm a Biologist and my wife assists me in the field whenever she has time so we decided to try to check out some different areas for reptiles and amphibians and planned our hikes accordingly.

Day one- we left the pacific coast in the evening and left behind this sunset as we got into the transport.

In the morning we went to work at the wildlife rehab center "Proyecto Asis" and helped with the care of some injured wildlife. There were a lot of animals but two of them stood out to me and Kristen. The first was the Kinkajou named Benjamin. He tried to climb on my head and showed me just how big his claws were.

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The other "favorite" critter was the sloth and it's baby that were almost ready for release. Kristen got to feed the sloth and I can't remember the last time I saw her that happy. The three toed sloth (B. variegatus) is her favorite central American animal.

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Trip report to continue in a few minutes when I upload more pics. I'm just unpacking my camera gear.

 

[Burton Harruff]

Looks and sounds like a good time. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

 

[Md 25v]

This is the view of the volcano that we lived 1.2 km away from.

We went on a really nice canoe trip the next day. It started with a 2 hr ride to the Canyo Negro followed by a ride on a large boat to cross the river to the place where the canoes were kept. The boat was crowded with people that were just traveling down river. This is us on the boat.

There was a cormorant guarding the canoe for me to make sure it would be safe. It actually took some convincing to get him to leave the canoe.

This is the river:

While canoeing the river we saw a two toed sloth hanging upside down along a tree trunk

And we saw many Ininga, a strange bird that I had seen before in Fl.

And there were plenty of Caimen

This one was very tolerant of me. I got out of the canoe and was able to walk within 5 feet of him to get this shot with my small point and shoot. The guide was a bit nervous but let me get close after reminding me that I had signed a liability waiver.

More in a couple minutes, currently uploading next set of pics.

 

[Mentor]

Brilliant pics! Thanks for sharing, and congrats on the celebration.

I look forward to the next batch!

All the best,

- Mike

 

[TheGame]

Awesome pics! Glad to hear you had a great time. :thumbup:

 

[Md 25v]

Bad weather started rolling in over the volcano so we headed home and stayed in for the night.

I noticed a bunch of house geckos running up the walls so I caught one for some pics. I know the lens is foggy but there was NO way to fix it. A few seconds after wiping it would fog again.

The next morning I put him on a leaf out front for a better pic.

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While I was releasing him I noticed that one of the small vines was moving and had a head. We have our first snake of the trip.

He had a really cool threat display. He gaped his mouth to display the blue inside.

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More in a minute, uploading pics...

 

[Md 25v]

After playing with the snake for a while we headed to the hot springs for lunch about 200 yards from our room. The were a ton of black rock iguanas at the resort.

One was a permanent resident of the restaurant and the staff named him Pepe. He had a damaged lower jaw and they said he doesn't forage. I think that's because everyone "including us" gave him lots of treats. We fed him pasta and pineapple.

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The babies of these iguanas are green and they littered the grass and walkways. Here is one eating a flower.

more pics in a minute....

 

[Md 25v]

I was walking home from the hot springs and found a Cane Toad. I tried to put him in my pocket but he wouldn't fit. I decided to reverse wrap some cordage to make a "leash" for him so I could take him back and tie him up out side over night.

Here is the Leash

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I brought him in after taking the vid and handed the leash to Kristen without telling her what was on the other end. She is NOT afraid of toads like the video looks. She didn't want it to pee on the bed (or on her), which is a very valid concern with them.

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Now for the good stuff. Onto the four day jungle hike!!!
We hired a guide to take us out for three days (ended up staying one day more) and our goal was to find some bluejean dart frogs. I love poison dart frogs and the bluejean (Pumilio) is my favorite. On the ride to the place where the treck would start we stopped for lunch at the "Iguana Cafe". Named for it's many lazy freeloading green iguana's. They walk up to you expecting fruits and treats.

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more in a minute.....

 

[fishshooter]

Man! Congratulations and GREAT pics and videos. Looking forward to the next round of pictures.

 

[TNRat]

Outstanding photos. Can't wait to see more.

 

[Md 25v]

Lunch is over, back in the truck to continue on our way. But whats this... a central american road block.

Rain is rolling in and it's time to start hiking. We double checked our tarps and headed out.

This is how awesome our guide was! he spotted this Amaeva lizard by the tail under this leaf.

Here is what he looked like after being scared out from the leaf.

I followed him for a minute and he caught a big cicada!

The sky opened up. The forest was really dark even though it was mid afternoon. Everything was soaked and the the forest floor was literally flowing around our feet with squishy mud.
FIRST EYELASH VIPER!!!
Sorry for the all caps but this one's a big deal for me. There was a torrential downpour. I had Kristen and the guide hold a tarp over my big camera and took the best pic I could get during this storm.

We caught a bunch of frogs but this one stood out to me because it was hard to identify. It was Leptodactylus bolivianus. I thought it was L pentadactylus but then I noticed the black thumb spurs were wrong so I decided to take a gps reading of where I got him and take him home for proper identification.

We hiked down to a stream and saw a very mature male Basilisk.

I tried to get close but he jumped into the stream. I found him a minute later when he was climbing out.

More in a minute, uploading more pics.....

 

[dipbait]

Wow, what camera do you have?

 

[Md 25v]

Caught a baby iguana down by the stream

Then we found a tarantula in a hole. Our guide was funny.

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I almost bumped my head into this while trying to catch an Amaeva.

There were many iguanas in the treetops. On the steep hillsides you could be ten feet to the side and at the same height as a 50 ft tree.

One big male was down on the ground. He was pushing 7ft in length

There were lots of bats hanging on the trees during the daytime.

There were more sloths

And lots of monkeys

More in a minute.........

 

[Md 25v]

Every plant wanted to stick you with some sort of spike or spine

That makes navigation pretty tricky in the low light under the canopy

In the openings we saw many waterfalls, over fifty in all.

I don't know the birds down there but they were very colorful

random butterfly

Next really cool herp. We found another eyelash viper. This one was more brown but it wasn't raining so it was safe for me to manipulate him for photos.

More in a minute, uploading pics.........

 

[Md 25v]

SUCCESS!!!
This is what I was looking for! We finally found a group of dart frogs and I even caught one! I know that the pics are not sharp but the fog on my glasses should explain why.

Night fell again. and it was very wet.

Morning sunrise when we woke up. There was a big electrical storm and it left the morning sky orange.

More in a minute, uploading pics.......

 

[Md 25v]

By the way- those frogs are not that dangerous to handle if you don't have any scratches on the hand you touch them with and then wash that hand thoroughly with dish soap before touching any other part of yourself.

Everywhere we went there were lots of leaf cutter ants. Here are some ants we saw on our hike.

And here are some vids of the ants by our cabana

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On the way out we crossed through some nat park land where I found this frog. I know now he is Hyla microcephela but I had no idea at the time. I couldn't take him back because he was found on protected land and they are very strict about that.

There is a nice lightening storm in the background while I'm shooting this vid under a tarp.


More in a minute

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[mtnfolk mike]

WOW... those are some amazing pics... congrats too..:thumbup:

 

[Md 25v]

We finished our hike and went home to the cabana. I heard a bunch of cane toads calling at a pond. I caught half a dozen of them before the mosquitoes got the better of me.

I ended up getting poisoned by one of them, full story in the video.

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Many of them had ticks. I'm not familiar with ticks on amphibians but it was very common down there.

I thought the adventure part of the trip was over but a 5:04am the volcano decided to wake us up. The whole room was shaking and there was a nice puff from the volcano. This is the view of the event from front door.

I decided to head down to the cantina for breakfast and was greeted by my favorite iguana.

Then, unfortunately, it was time to pack up and go. I'll post more pics later, maybe tomorrow, but right now I'm just gonna take a break and relax. It's been a 19hr day of travel between trucks, boats, and planes and I'm exhausted. I got a great machete and leather sheath as a gift from our guide. We got along great for the 6 days we were together and he gave us his address and phone number and said that when we go back in a few months he and his wife would take off and we could all go hiking/camping together.

 

[Joezilla]

Dude, that is so weird. I had almost the same experience when I got married and went to costa rica!


http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=706101&highlight=rica

 

[Md 25v]

Wow, what camera do you have?

Small point and shoot is a canon A720is
SLR is a Nkon D70
Lenses are a Nikon 70mm macro and 300mm 2.8VR lens