I have previously gone into a some level of detail in my Costa Rica Frog Blog, so for this reason I will try and keep this post with new information only, just enough so that you can get to the photos! Costa Rica is an astounding country, I have never seen such an abundance of wildlife in one country. I will definitely be back at some point in my life looking for the wildlife that we weren't lucky enough to stumble across.
The trip started like any other, boarding a plane at Gatwick Airport (Gatwick at this time flew direct to San Jose on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, flights being relatively inexpensive). Not sure this would be the case after the Covid-19 pandemic. 11 hours later... After a very long, tiring journey, we were just about to touch down at San Jose Airport. The plane was about 30ft off the ground, when suddenly the plane pulled upward and started to climb before circling in the sky above San Jose. Turns out, we had picked up a lot of speed on our descent, the wind direction made a sudden and very dangerous turn making it unsafe for us to land. The Pilot was concerned that if he had attempted to land, the plane would over-shoot the runway. Not something you particularly want to hear...
Unfortunately, after circling around and re-positioning ourselves ready for landing (part deux) we were told by the Cabin Crew that an aggressive storm had made its way over and they weren't landing any planes at San Jose. GUTTED was an understatement. Everyone was starting to get very tired, then came the bad news... the plane had to be re-routed to get more fuel, to the nearest destination... Kingston, JAMAICA.... After another hour aboard the plane, and a quick trip to re-fuel (In Jamaica) we finally received some good news. They were once again landing planes at San Jose, the storm had passed! Luckily we then headed back to Costa Rica and this time landed! (only 5 hours later than expected).
Upon landing, we headed straight to Cahuita, Limon. Here we stayed in small chalets, carrying out our own night walks and drives in the evenings, even visiting Cahuita National Park. Our accommodation was Cabinas Tito, within walking distance to the coast and lots of restaurants. As you can see the accommodation was beautifully situated and even the grounds themselves were teeming with wildlife.
A short walk around the accommodation revealed some amazing Dendrobates Auratus (Green and black dart frogs) as well as iguanas, perching high up in the trees and agouti roaming the grounds. A night walk around the area surrounding Manzanillo, brought us the first snake of the trip, a micrurus mosquitensis (Coral Snake), a lovely species of box turtle and a very angry Boa Constrictor. Our daytime hikes meant we bumped into some White Faced Capuchin's, Howler monkey's, Basilisk's, Aracari's, Anole's, two and three toed sloths and a large variety of birds such as woodpeckers, parrots, and hummingbirds.
Our first full day in Cahuita was Spent at the Jaguar Rescue Centre, here we got to witness some of the incredible work they do rescuing and rehabilitating local wildlife. We were shown around by the wonderful Vet and even got to witness him retrieve an injured Common Opossum with young still hidden away in its pouch.
Cahuita is infamous for having a bright yellow Bothriechis schlegelii (Eyelash Viper) which we didn't manage to find, even though they are almost a 'given' we headed north towards Tortuguero, where they were much rarer, but still present, with our fingers crossed. Tortuguero is a series of man made inlets with a small village in the centre. It is only accessible by boat. Being the Caribbean side of the country, the species would most likely be similar to those we had already seen, but there was definitely a lot more that Costa Rica had to offer.
Here we saw several species of snake, Basilisks, Kinkajou's, Spider Monkey's, Howler Monkey's and Military Macaw's soaring overhead. There were also Turkey Vultures, Spectacled Caiman, a Tamandua and even a Mexican Hairy Porcupine (as well as many other animals). It was definitely our most successful night walk, especially for mammals!
From Tortuguero we headed to the mountains of Monteverde. The cloud forests here are much cooler than in most of the country, meaning they are home to a completely different array of species. Our main aim here was to find a very pristine looking bird, known as the Resplendent Quetzal ("Ket-zal"). This bird is the national bird of Guatemala, and is as magnificent as its name suggests. Luckily we booked onto a tour to find this majestic bird and managed to spot 3!
Monteverde literally means "Green Mountain" and is one of the most lush, tropical forests in the entire country. It is home to a whole host of flora and fauna. 10% of the flora here can be found only in Costa Rica. It is home to 2.5% of the worldwide biodiversity, and was such an incredible place to visit. Of course the weather here was much wetter and colder than the rest of the country, but at this point we needed a break from the heat anyway. Monteverde is well known for its hummingbird café which gave us outstanding views of around 7 different species of hummingbird! A walk near the national park at night meant we saw many species of arachnid, snakes, a nine banded armadillo, and even a mottled owl on the hunt. During the day we saw many variegated squirrels, a band of coatis, which included two adorable babies, and a variety of birds including the blue crowned Mot-mot and keel-billed toucan. One night drive in the mountains led us down a dark, dusty road on which a large ocelot ran in front of the car!
After 2 nights in Monteverde we moved West, to the Pacific side of the country. We went to Liberia, Guanacaste in search of accommodation. The reason we chose this location was because it was within an hours drive to a series of national parks. Santa Rosa and Palo Verde being within easy reach.
The scenery at Palo Verde was absolutely breath taking and well worth the climb to the viewpoint in smouldering 40 degree heat. It was the highest point around, so high in-fact that we were joined by American Black Vultures that were taking a break from souring in the glorious skies above.
The marshes around the national park were home to a large number of spiny-tailed Iguanas or Ctenosaurs as they are widely known. We also managed to find a Leptodeira Annulata (banded cat eyed snake). And, although we were too slow to get a photo, we caught a quick glimpse of an American Crocodile. We saw more agouti, and a lone male coati.
Our second day here, we rented a boat with its crew and headed out into the open seas looking for sea snakes. Along the way I managed to get a quick glimpse of a Chelonia Mydas (Green Sea turtle). Then Tom launched himself off the side of the boat, almost ending up overboard, his legs were grabbed by the staff on the front of the boat, as he wrangled in a snake... We found a secluded beach to photograph the sea snake before releasing it back into the ocean. Whilst on this secluded island we were given a great view of a common caracara flying overhead.
Whilst in Gunacaste, Santa Rosa more specifically, we decided to take the 4x4 down a very remote road, perhaps the most remote road in Costa Rica. This 15km stretch led to the most pristine white sandy beach, it was so remote that it was rarely visited. We soon found out why... After getting the rental car stuck, walking for hours upon hours looking for help, and finally paying hundreds of pounds to hire a local farmer and his tractor, 6 hours and a lot of sweat (even a little blood) later the car had been removed from the mud!
From Guanacaste we travelled back towards our final destination, La Selva Biological Station, stopping for one night in Arenal. Beautiful views of the Volcano weren't all that were on offer here, as we managed to find a large variety of frogs and our first Bothrops asper (Fer-De-Lance) of the trip. She was extremely large and very terrifying!
One of my favourite moments of the entire trip was at La Selva, finding these adorable Honduran white bats, they make little tents out of the large palm leaves, you can tell if the bats have made a tent out of the leaves, as they are bent over in this shape with little teeth marks all along each side of the centre of the leaf, so keep your eyes peeled!
I spent a good 10 minutes watching the chesnut-mandibled toucans calling out to one another here. Other animals at La Selva included (but were not limited to) many species of amphibian, snake, bird, chestnut-mandibled toucans, squirrels a collared Peccary, military macaws and other species of bats, such as the vampire Bat.