Cindy Southgate's Travels

February 18

Today we went on two different tours. The first tour was a daytime rainforest walk through some of the trails on and around the property. We had Kevin as our guide for both and no one else signed up so we ended up having a private tour.

The rainforest here is very lush. We enjoyed the walk but only saw a few animals – some lizards, geckos and frogs. We found these mushrooms growing on a tree stump.

Most of the trail was maintained but there were a few very muddy sections. The rainforest gets more rain so it doesn’t really dry out.

These holes are likely being used by a mother Agouti. They hide their young in small holes to protect them from predators while they’re out searching for food.

It’s not surprising to see so much variety of plant life while on one hike, because Costa Rica has over 9,000 different plants that are endemic to the region, as well as many other plants found in central America.

The locals often refer to this Rootspine Palm as a “walking palm”. This tree used to be at the side of the path but it has used its branching roots to move out into the path where it will receive more sun.

We stopped to see one of the Caimans that live on the resort property. We took this picture through Kevin’s scope.

After our tour we had lunch and then headed to the pool to relax and read. We spent most of our reading time in the gazebo to avoid getting too much sun.

At 7 pm we went down the path, past the pond to the main building for dinner. The food was always enticingly presented.

After dinner we got dressed for our night hike. We had to wear rain boots to protect us from possible snake bites. On our way down I spotted this large Cane Toad. The females can grow to 9 inches long. They are carnivorous and very poisonous, carrying enough toxins to kill large mammals and even humans. Their eggs as well as tadpoles are toxic as well.

We met our guide Fernando. For the next two hours we would be hunting for nocturnal creatures. We really wanted to see a Fer de Lance, one of Costa Rica’s most poisonous snakes.

We spent the first part of the tour exploring some tall bushes not too far from the main building. Here we spotted our first Glass Frog of the evening. They are very tiny – only 3 cm long. The female lays her eggs on the underside of a large leaf and the male protects it. During the day he urinates on them to keep them moist.

We saw many pairs of Glass Frogs mating as well as a few Red-eyed Tree Frogs. Fernando pointed out what he called a “kissing bug” along with a Wandering Gecko.

As we were crossing a small wooden bridge, Fernando finally spotted a Fer-de-lance. It was lying down in the creek bed and very hard to spot. This photo has been enlarged quite a bit to make it easier to see.

We were surprised to spot a second one – this time just off to the side of the path. We snapped a picture and moved on.

The Heliconia plant is quite stunning with its vibrant pink flowers. They are the perfect nesting site for Hermit Hummingbirds.

I searched through my “Plants of Costa Rica” book and couldn’t find this plant but I thought it was very interesting.

It was close to 10 pm by the time we finished our tour, so we headed right back to our cabin to sleep.