Trip 26
Nov 11 to 18, 2017
Day 1 Saturday: Nov 11, 2017
Just arrived in Costa Rica and the plane is pulling to the gate. Everyone on the plane is now standing and pulling their carry-ons from the overhead racks. Like everyone else I am ready to get off the plane and get on with my business that brings me to CR. As I am moving with the group from my plane, I remember this time last years when I had a 1 ½ hour wait just to get my passport stamped. As I turned the corner to go into Immigration, I was shocked to see there is only a couple of hundred people ahead of me instead of couple of thousand like last year. I was very thankful for this, twenty minutes later I was in a cab on my way to the Hotel Areopuerto to meet the of the members of Costa Rica Herping Adventures, Trip 26.
Each trip has people coming from wherever they live. Today we have a Herper coming from Holland. All the rest are coming in from the USA. I checked in at the desk and was told that Barbara was all ready checked and was out at the pool. I dropped my bag in my room and went to the pool to meet Barbara face to face. Barbara wisely came into CR yesterday after 20 hours travel time. We sat by the pool and talked about herping. I asked how she got started with herps and was not surprised that she had interest as a child like almost all of us do. I said that I have met a few that got interested in herps as adults mostly because their children had an interest in them.
I had a couple more Herpers coming in the next hour, so I went to the reception area to wait for them. Pretty soon a taxi pulled and a couple of guys got out; I recognized one, Dan. Dan’s from Lomira, Wisconsin and this will be Dan’s third trip with me. Dan introduced Bryan Johnson and said they had met on the plane. Well this is going to be interesting I knew Bryan was coming in from Fredericksburg, VA. Both had flown into Atlanta for the second leg of their trip to CR. They happened to be sitting next to each other on that flight. Dan asked Bryan if this was a trip to CR or did he live there. Bryan said he was going to CR for a Herping trip with Jim Kavney. Dan said so am I. Let see what, are the odds?????
A little later Jeff came in from Medina, OH. for his first trip with CRHA. I have one more late tonight, and that will be Paul, from Phoenix, AZ. All Herpers except Dan will be on their first trip with Costa Rica Herping Adventures.
2nd Day Sunday: Nov 12, 2017
It’s about 5:30 am and the sunshine is coming in the window. Time to get up and do my Pilates, a 25-minute routine that I have been doing since 2005. I went to the restaurant for a cup of coffee or two and then had some gallo pintos (rice & beans) and then tropical fruits. Finally, all our group got to breakfast, I told them I expect the cars to be delivered between 8:30 and 9:00. By a little after 9am I am on the phone about the cars. The cars got there a little after 10 am and I am not happy at all. But I have been using this company for several years. Our future with these guys is up in the air at best. Time will tell! We are on our way 3 to 4 hours to go. We make one stop on our way for rubber boots. I found over the years that rubber boots are best for the type of herping we do at night. Finally, we get to the little grocery store that also sells boots. We are off again with an hour and a half to go. We drive through La Fortuna and I know we will be at Lodge in a half hour. I pull into the gate and the guard recognizes me and lifts the gate and up the hill we go. It’s approximately 3 kilometers to the Lodge and up-hill most of the way. The first trip up this road is a little more then just a ride in the country. It is fast with plenty of hair pin turns, so hold on tight. We get to the top about 1:30pm about two hours later then our regular time. I’m wondering it we missed lunch. I talked to the head waiter and he said “Jim, for you it is OK”, we will feed you. I gave out the room keys and told to everyone to drop their bags in their room and go to the restaurant. As I was still walking around getting everyone to lunch, the manager came up we shook hands and he said, Jim I have a little present for you. I went with him and he took to a of the work shops here we found a snake this morning and saved for me. Of course this made me the last one to lunch, but I have some thing to show them. I walked in with an Eyelash Viper in a small container. Everyone pulled out their cell phones and camera to take photos. I told them to hold off the photos because as soon as we finish lunch we would take the snake and set him up in a tree for photos. On all trips the first thing I do after lunch is to take the group into the rainforest for a hour and half walk. This area has a cobble-stone path through the rainforest, and sometimes we are lucky enough to fine a snake there in the day time. But we will have one today to photo, thanks to our friends at the lodge. I took the Eyelash out of the container and put him into a snake bag then into my backpack. The first couple of days I spend quite bit of time just getting the Herpers to know their way around the grounds. Once we were on todays trail, I found a tree with a limb just a little over head high that I could put the snake on and everyone would be able to take their close-up photos without any one in the back-ground. This was a small snake around 18-20 inches long. I took him from my backpack and shaking the bag got him into one corner and laid him on the ground then moved the snake down until he was in a very small corner. I untied the bag and grabbed the corner without the snake. Using my hook on the corner with the snake, shaking it so the snake would fall to the ground. Well, he did not fall out the open end of the bag. This was a simple and safe plan, why didn’t it work? I always check my bags before I pack them to make sure there is not anything inside that the snake can get wrap around. Well the next plan was to turn the bag inside out. And there was the snake with him mouth closed around the other corner of the bag. 
Boy, this guy is a challenge! We worked slowly get him to open his mouth and slowly worked the bag off his fangs. We put him into the tree and took our photos. An hour later we came back to the tree, we looked high and low but could not find this Eyelash again. He had enough of us. We saw no other snakes on our afternoon walk that afternoon.
I got a call just before dinner my friend Miguel called and said he was down at the gate. I told him I’d be down to pick him up in five minutes. It took a little longer then five minutes, and that turned out to be a good thing. Because Miguel started up the road hunting, as I approached I could see his headlight moving on the side of the road. As I pulled up for him to get in, he held up his bag and I could see he had found a snake. Our group was all ready sitting at our table. I introduced Miguel to the group and he joined us at the table. Soon we were back at our rooms getting ready for our first night hunt. I showed the bag Miguel had put in the car. I didn’t know what he had but I knew it was not a Cat-eyed Snake. I open the bag and looked in, I told everyone to get their camera out you’ll want a photo of this one. I put the bag on the ground and pulled the bottom of the bag up and out came a nice size Costa Rican Coral Snake. 
We got some quick photos because everyone was ready to hit the trails. As we were finding more snakes to add to our list and photos, I noticed Miguel take out his cell phone and call home, he was excited and speaking very fast in Spanish to his wife. One of his words stuck in head, I knew the word “Terramoto”! Earthquake was the translation, but I felt nothing, I saw nothing move. Years ago I was fishing in a lagoon. I looked up at a single house where two big dogs were hollering and they run thought a screen door of a house built up on stilts a couple of hundred yards from from us. The dogs ran down the stairs into the jungle that was all around us and they were still hollering. Next people ran down the stairs screaming louder then the dogs. They just made it down the stairs when the house was shaking from side to side at least 2 to 3 feet from one side the other, every tree in my vision was moving back and forth. In the little John boat we were fishing from we could not feel any of the earthquake. It was unreal seeing the whole jungle shake and not feel the shaking. I question if I was dreaming? No it was real. Later I read the earthquake was a big boy 7.2, with a lot of damage to Costa Rica. I talk to Miguel and he was very concerned because Volcano Arenal was in close vicinity. His wife called back a few minutes saying he saw on TV that the center was near Jaco a five hour drive from where we were at that time. What Miguel saw at that time and I and all ours that were there did not see was just one tree shaking back and forth. How that happened I don’t know but it happened. Miguel knew there was an earthquake when it happened by seeing the one tree shake. I was very impressed and still I ‘am. We had a pretty good night and have a total of 14 snakes for the day. 6 Eyelash Vipers, 5 Cloudy Snail-eaters, 1 Cat-eye snake, 1 Blunt-Headed Tree Snake and 1 Fer-de-Lance. Three of our group were a little tired and went back to the Lodge early that the rest of us. And they found the Fer-de-Lance coiled in the middle of the road where you turn into the Lodge enter.
3rd Day Monday 13 , 2017
We all met for breakfast around 7 to 8 am and talked about last night and the snakes we found. I told everyone that we would meet at my room at 9 am. For a hike behind the Lodge there is a trail down the hill and if you stay on the trail it is about a 2-hour hike. Our trip going down hill was easy going and un-eventful, no snakes, but we did see a group of Holler Monkeys in the trees to our left side going down. 
These monkeys are usually in the trees on the right side and they can be heard and rarely seen. This is my seventh trip to the Lodge with a group and this is my first time seeing this group hollers. On the way down I noticed the growth in the last six months since I was here last. I feel that it that it is over grow and we had no access to trees we might have looked into if it was not so hard to get too. We got to the Rancho with a view of Volcano Arenal and Logo Arenal. The lake was easy to see but the Volcano was surrounded by clouds. Before we left we got a group picture at the Rancho. 
Bryan, Dan, Jeff, Paul, Jeff, Jim & Barbara
On the way back I took the group the old building they use for processing Macadamia nuts 30 or 40 years ago. The building had been fix up and repainted. Then they turned into a museum with lots of photos of the time they were work hard to make macadamia nuts into a major industry of Costa Rica. It took several years to finally come to the conclusion that the nuts did not product well in Costa Rica. I remember back in the last 80’s and early 90’s was the big talk of the macadamia nuts being the next major crop and a lot of people invested in it. They did a nice job with their museum and it is quite a good place to spend a few hours reading some of the history of CR at that period in this area. We made it back up to the Lodge dropped your gear in our rooms and headed to the restaurant for lunch after working up a nice appetite. We had no group plans until after dinner so everyone was on their own, I suggested they walk around and keep your eyes open. I wanted to check an area that I usually hit once or twice per trip, hoping to get lucky again. I was on the path walking when a hummingbird flew straight for my face and stopped a foot away. He turned flew away then from another direction he was back a few inches from my face. I said to him OK, I get it you don’t want me here. I turn around and walk back to the beginning of the path. I wait a few minutes and start back on the path 2 minutes later he was in my face again. I still don’t know what was going on but that little guy has a lot more willpower then I do. I found another path to hang out there looking all round up and down trees with no luck.
That afternoon one of our group had found a white-nosed Coatimundi which he said was a great experience finding this animal in the jungle.
I had been watching the weather all afternoon, we were having lots of low hang clouds by 5:00pm I was certain we would have rain tonight, not if but how much. After dinner it was pouring we all had our rain gear on and we were down at the end of the rooms weighting for the rain to stop or slow down. Waiting is never any fun when you want to do something. After a haft-hour of painfully time we were all getting antsy. I keep saying just wait until slow down a little, right now you can find anything we try on the last trip I experience the same thing. I ruined two head-lamps trying when you look up the rain is hitting your eyeballs so hard you will stop looking up into the trees where you would expect to find a snake. A couple of the guys gave it a try and they were back in fifteen minutes. Someone walk around the side of the building which has a 24 inch over hang and found a Blunthead Tree Snake. So after people were walking that 50-60, foot path to the black of the building. Do that we found a Cloudy Snail-eater and a Cateye Snake. Three snake in the pouring rain before the rain slowed to a light shower. We worked the back yard of the Lodge and brought our total for the night to 17snakes. 5 Cat-eye Snakes, 1 Blunthead Tree Snake, 7 Cloudy Snail-eater, 1 Eyelash Viper in the hedge, 2 Green Parrot Snakes and 1 Calico Snake. 
The Calico Snake was found by Jeff he called me over and said Jim I think I have a Coral Snake pinned here at the bottom of the hedge. He was down in the rute(Spelling) area and I could not get a clear view of him. So, I said keep him pinned until I can get me Coral Snake gloves on. Once I had hold of him I was able to turn him over and I saw a solid colored bellied I knew it was not a Coral Snake, the coral’s bands go complete around the body of the snake. (Note: the red band is touching the yellow band. Like in red touch yellow kill a fellow. Not so in this case. (In the tropics tread all red, black yellow/white banded snake as HOT until you know for sure)
It looked from the beginning of the evening that the night would be a bust. But with a little waiting we turned it into a great night. Once we got started I hear Snake! Snake! Every five minutes and it sounded real good.
4th Day Tuesday: Nov 14, 2017
Awakening early to find the weather cloudy after the hard rain last night I was hoping these clouds would raise in a few hours and give us a nice sunshiny day. But first thing first number one for me is always platies. Next breakfast and meeting with our group members we will talk about our good luck last night. I was feeling a little off and my throat was getting a little sore. I when to the kitchen and got a few packs of salt and gargled it. The rain from the night before must have got me so I may stay in tonight. During the days our Herpers found two snakes, a Red Coffee Snake
Red Coffee Snake
and a Hognose Rainforest Pit Viper. 
I did stay in for the night but our group did come up with another Red Coffee Snake and another 
Hognose Rainforest Pit Viper, 2 Cat-eye Snakes, 6 Cloudy Snail-eaters, and 1 Eyelash Viper. I caught a good nights sleep. 13 Snakes for the day!
5th Day Wednesday: Nov 15, 2017
The day started off with a few less cloudy then we been having once the sun came up we had some sunshine and a pleasant day and it look good weather wise for the night. The nights first snake was a nice size Coral Snake. The area we started in is usually productive, so with my figures crossed we started working the field. Within ten minutes someone yelled Snake! And we headed that way with our cameras. Then we covered the field and move to a path by some huge bamboo groves. Walking the that was 4-foot-wide path I heard Barbara yell Snake! It was the largest Eyelash Viper of the trip. She was the third or fourth herper in line so two or three missed the chance to spot one. Miguel was leading the parade and from the number of snakes he spots it was amazing that he and the other missed that one. It was on top of a small branch about chest high two feet out the path. But it happens to all if us from time to time. Sometimes I spot several snakes and one trip not long ago I only spotted one snake for the whole trip. We found 9 Cloudy Snail-eaters, 3 Eyelash Vipers, 1 Cat-eye Snake, 1 Coral Snake. Total 14 for the day!
6th Day Thursday: Nov 16, 2017
Sometime after lunch I was come back from a walk in the jungle when one of the workers came up to me about a bequer (pronounce Baker in English). I ask him where is it? He pointed to the door next to my room. Well I was confused and he keep pointing to the door, so I knocked on the door and asked Bryan did he know anything about a Boa? He waked in and came back with a snake bag. I said tell what happened. I thought the work me to catch the Boa, but Bryan already had him bagged. 
So our first snake of the day start with a 5-foot Boa. Yea!!
That afternoon Bryan, Barbara and I drove into La Fortuna. I wanted to check on the work be done at Miguel father property in the middle of town. He is working on a plan to turn a part of the property into a tourist attraction with a restaurant. There are several species of animals on the property including herps. He pointed to one tree and there 4 or 5 Green Iguana in that one tree.
Also Sloths but none were home at the moment. So, Miguel said let get in the car and I’ll show you some, a few minute later we were getting out the car to the first one around the neighborhood, he had 3 places where we saw Sloths. It was an interesting little side trip. That night we worked 2 different areas and found 4 Eyelash Vipers, 9 Cloudy Snail-eaters, 1 Blunt-headed Tree Snake, 2 Lichen-colored Snail-eaters. That made 17 for the days and bring our trip total to 75 snakes.
7th Day Friday: Nov 17, 2017
At breakfast I started talking about the fact that we were at 75 snakes with the possibility of making it to 100 for the trip. If we were lucky enough to find 2 or 3 snakes during the day we would have a chance of a really good night, we could be at 100 for the trip. We only have 6 herpers on this trip now we usually have 8 and some times I have as many as 11. Once a herper has been with me a couple time and they want to go on a fully book trip I will try to fine a way to bring them along. And the fact that we have twice found 25 snake in a single day. I my book we can with a little luck do again. Looking back to Trip 20 we had 8 Herpers and we we did 66 snakes for the trip. Trip 21 we had a total of 4 Herpers for the trip and going to Friday night 45 snakes and needed 22 snakes to beat the May trip. We made up our minds that we could beat them. Why not our 4 could beat their 8 because we would work harder. At the end we did not beat we only found 21 snakes the last night but we sure did tie them. Our time had come to see if we could reach a 100 snakes for this trip. We were going to Red Frog mountain a place we usually do pretty well. We got thought the gate and were on our way. Usually within 10 minutes I hear someone yell Snake! I said to myself it been a long time with no one is finding anything. A half hour into this place and no snakes. Another 30 minutes and I spotted an Eyelash Viper in a tree. Finally, 1 snake. 
We worked a road we never pay attention to before, no luck. Time to head for the Lodge on the way back the other car spotted a Coral Snake on the road but was long gone before anyone could get to him. Two snakes for the days. Bring us to 77 for this trip. No record but we have a great time!!
Travel Day Saturday: Nov 18, 2017
We had our breakfast as usual and everyone was busy tipping our waiters and leaving tips for housekeepers. Pretty soon we would be on our way back to the Hotel Areopuerto for a good night sleep and our flights back home. Our trip was made in around 4 hours. During the evening we had our dinner together as a group. Some of the group had early flights other later in the day. My flight was leaving around noon and I would be home around six.
And Trip 26 would be in the old Snakes Bag of Memories!
Jim ~~~
Our Species List for Trip 26
Bothriechis schlegelii |
Eyelash Viper |
16 |
Bothrops asper |
Fer-de-Lance |
1 |
Imantodes cenahoa |
Blunthead Tree Snake |
3 |
Leptodeira septentrionalis |
Northern Cateye Snake |
9 |
Micrurus mosquitensis |
Costa Rican Coral Snake |
3 |
Ninia sebae |
Red Coffee Snake |
2 |
Porthidium nasutum |
Rainforest Hognose Pitviper |
2 |
Oxyrhopus petola |
Calico Snake |
1 |
Sibon longifrenis |
Lichen-colored Snail-eater |
2 |
Sibon nebulatus |
Cloudy Snail-eater |
38 |
Leptophis ahaetulla |
Giant Parrot Sn |
2 |
Boa Constrictor |
Boa |
1 |
Total Snakes for Trip 26: 80