Costa Rica June 2008

Here are some great photos from my latest trip.

This first set is the view from our hotel:




Here are some of the cute critters we saw:

Here are the monkeys that ran around out hotel all the time. There were also howler monkeys in the jungle but they never came into view - although you could here them periodically throughout the day and night. We had some that would start howling around 3am everymorning. Oddly enough, after I figured out that it wasn't a dog being beaten (yeah, thats what a howler monkey sounds like) it didn't really bother me much.



Iguanas were everywhere around the hotel. They liked hanging out at the bar where people might drop pieces of tomato. Since I strongly believe that all tomatos are evil (unless processed into BBQ sauce or ketcup) I happily shared mine with the critters. They made me nervous when they ran around though, because I was afraid I'd catch their tails under my rocking chair. I think all bars should have rocking chairs.

When we took a tour of Manual Antonio National Park, there was a part of the beach that was thick with Iguanas and Spiny Tails. They were beautiful and amazing. I forgot my camera that day, so none of those pictures.





If you look really close here you can see slices of leaf. These are being carried by leaf cutter ants. There are all over the place and amazing to watch but difficult not to step on.




Pretty poisen dart frogs! Oddly enough, if you take them out of their native habitat, they aren't poisonous anymore. Apparently their diets create the toxins that make them poisonous. Hmmm, maybe I'll get one for my nephew some day, hehe.

This is a bird eating snake. I don't know if it has another name or not - but that is what our guide called it. I liked its tiny non-viper head. It was very long and graceful but the light was bad in the rainforest, so this is really the only good pic we got.

The above photos are of the 2 toed sloth and the 3 toed sloth. Can't remember which is which. Both sleep high up in the trees and the blond one has an unpleasant disposition.

Monkeys Monkeys Everywhere!!!

There aren't any caves in Costa Rica, so the bats sleep hanging from trees! You can't tell from the photograph, but they are about 100 feet up the tree. Our guide had a wonderful telescope that we could utilize to take close up pictures with. Nearly all the guides had them and it allowed us to get photos we wouldn't normally be able to get.




This is a South American Agouti. It's basically a giant rodent. They are cute and quiet and forge for nuts. About the size of a pit bull, but less cuddley. We saw one about 6am from our balcony before the rest of the resort was active. This one Tina photographed while we were hiking in Manual Antonio.




Sleeping snake. Don't remember what type it was, but it was pretty as long as it stayed sleeping up in the tree!







Here are some pictures of some of the great activities we did!

I love zip lining!!! My friends were terrified for about 5 minutes until they discovered the total coolness that zip lining is. Nothing better than flying 300 feet above the canopy on a zip line!

Rappelling down a waterfall is much more difficult than it looks. We did two waterfalls. The first was the "practice" at around 300 feet. The second was much more difficult at around 500 feet. I'm glad I did it, but unless I learn to rappel well on dry land, I probably won't be trying this again.