Saturday May 4th 2019:- – Travel Day
This is a day I have been looking forward to since my return of my last trip to Costa Rica. Our 29th Trip will start today. Today is the day all trip members will meet at the Hotel Areopuerto, in Costa Rica about a 10 ten minute taxi ride from the airport. Some times some from the group come to CR a week or a day or two before to see the sights or visit friends. I’m the one living closest to Costa Rica but that means I’m going to get to CR first. I have to take a plane from David to Panama City and then catch a international flight to CR which takes an hour and twenty-five minutes. I arrive at 11:49 AM; an hour later I’m at the Hotel. Soon I meet Jay, from Dallas. He has family that will stay in the San Jose area, while Jay finds snakes for a week. A while later Terry came in with Robin, she’s the gal I heard about on Trip 25, 2017. Terry was on the trip and talked a lot about his girl Robin, she would like this and that ever we came across a snake. He was right, and she turned into a pretty good Herper, pretty quick. The rest of the group came in until we were ready to go to bed. But we still had one more coming tonight. That was Uwe, on a 19 hour trip from Germany. He should arrive at the Hotel about 2:30 am and will share a room with Jay. The rest of us will meet him in the morning.
Sunday: May 5th 2019
As it turned out, two of our Herpers are at the Arenal Lodge already. Peter is coming with us for his 17th trip with CRHA, and we are glad to have him again. Pete knows a good deal when he see one. Also, Jeremy a first timer with us is already at the lodge. He sent me a photo of a Halloween Snake he found and 2 Dark Wood Snakes. Our cars arrived around 8:30am it takes time to get all drivers signed up to drive the rental cars. We were on our way around 9:30 with a 4 hours ride in front of us. In our last hour we stop for a bath-room break and a chance for anyone to buy Rubber Boots which is some protection from snake bites when we walk the fields. We drove by the Arenal Volcano and could only see the bottom of it with the clouds covering the rest. Finally we get to the gate and have a few minutes with the gate attendant before we started our 3 kilometer ascent to the top. We got to the top and parked in the far side parking lot. I had reserved all the rooms on this side of the Lodge as usual. I went to the desk and got our keys and started handing them out. Next stop, lunch, where we introduced ourselves to Pete and Jeremy, the early birds. Soon the talk was about the Lodge and the bedrooms; everyone was impressed with the lodge. We had only one problem today – the heavy rain. Usually I take everyone on an hour hike to get them use to their new environment; that would have to wait. We made our hike a little later, we saw some frogs, some interesting big birds (Crested Guan) , wild-looking insects, etc. We had our dinner around 6 pm and right after that we get our gear on for this night’s walk. I drove down the hill to pick my friend and our guide, Miguel. Just a while after we left the Lodge, Aiden spotted the first snake of the night; it was a cloudy Sibon. Aiden is 16 years old and is accompanied on the trip by this mother Janet. Aiden is also 6 foot 4.5 inches just might give him a little advantage looking for arboreal snakes, We’ll see? Our luck changed after a light shower and the clouds disappeared and you could see some stars. I said to myself this could turn into a perfect night for herping. We did pretty good for the first night: 6 Eyelash Vipers, 1 Fer-de-Lance, 2 Speckled Racers, 1 Giant Parrot snakes, 1 Costa Rica Coral Snake, 1 Banded Coffee Snake, 1 Halloween Snake, 1 Calico Snake, 2 Lichen Snail-eater, 3 Cloudy Snail-eater, 1 Prawn Snake (Water Snake), 1 NO ID Snake, 1 False Fer-de-Lance, 2 Checkered Coffee Snake for a total of 25 SNAKES!!
Monday: May 6th 2019
At breakfast all in our group were excited about all the colorful birds at the feeder. The staff always bring fruits like bananas and cut-up papaya to the two feeding platform. Out come the cameras and everyone asking what is that what is what one. When they ask me, I say that one is a Blue Bird or a Brown Bird or a Yellow Bird. Soon no one is asking me about Birds. Birds are Pete’s bag; he knows his Birds and he is happy to have the audience, which sometimes includes me. Once we got back to our table, the talk was about last night. Everyone seemed to be quite amazed by the number of snakes we found and the fact that we found 14 different species. I went to my room to do my every day Pilates, then I got ready for our Monday walk out behind the Lodge. I opened the doors and walked outside on to the patio I walked to the end and looked around for a snake, and much to my surprise, there was a Eyelash Viper. I could have reached over and taken him out of the Cana de India plant he was on.
I’m pointing at him, about 10 inches from my finger. I let all our group come in for close-up photos. An hour or so later, I got a photo from Jeremy he found an Eyelash Viper crawling around on his patio of his room.
Sometimes you don’t have to go far to find snakes; they just come to you. The clouds came in the and rain came down heavy. So our walk would have to wait for another time. A while later the rain stopped ; at that point Pete and I decided to work an area close to the Lodge. The sky looked like the rain could start again any time. We went to 2 or 3 spots and the rain held off, one spot had a pile of dirt covered with a tarp, we got a Reticulated Ameiva these lizards are common around the Lodge. At another spot we turned over a few banana leaves and Pete came up with a nice looking Red Coffee Snake. We were happy with that and we headed for lunch. That afternoon I found out that Jeremy found 2 Speckled Racer 
yesterday that he forgot to tell me. I understand with all the going on the first day in the field. I have a time just getting everyone’s names right. I told the group how I learned the hard way about Speckled Racers. On Trip 3 back in 2002 our group just arrived at our Hotel and had lunch. We went to our rooms and got our snakes hooks, etc and ready for a walk in the woods. Before we even got to the path, a snake move in front of me and I reached down and grabbed him in turn he grabbed me. Out came the cameras and I hold up the snake for photos but my hand was covered with blood. I didn’t want pictures with all this blood. I hand the snake to Peter who I just met for the first time. He got bit right away and start bleeding. It turned out that Speckled Racers have an anticoagulant in their saliva. And believe me, it works. When I see one these days, I still grab them; but I try not to get bit. Jeremy caught two both were a good size much larger than the one that bit Pete and me many years ago. We had only found one dead one at the Lodge in all our trips here before, so coming up with two of them was really good luck and not getting bit made it a perfect catch. If he had taken a bite from both of them, he may have bled for a week. We worked a pasture that night and came up with a record number of Fer-de-Lances Four (4) I believe is the most ever encountered in one day on any of our trips. Plus 6 Cat-eyed Sn, 4 Cloudy snail-eater and one No ID. That’s like a snake that we only see a tail going into the bush and we can’t ID the little we saw. I’m a little bit disappointed with only 14 snakes for our second day in the field. But we have time to make up for it. Let hope we do!!
Tuesday: May 7th 2019
Tonight we are going to start out in the Citrus Grove area. Three or four years ago we used pretty good with the Eyelash Vipers here, but the last 3 or 4 times we worked this area we came up with a big zero. I said to myself if we don’t get something, this will the last time we work it. It is now officially off my list.
I first picked up on this when we had low or no product. The only change is that the citrus developed a fungus on the trees. But, this in my mind I said this should not stop the snakes from using the trees as a place to live. So we left the grove and went to individual trees in the field. Soon we noticed that the edge near the fence had been cleared for my best guess , a road. We followed it for a while until it moved in to the forest. That was a big change since I was here six months ago. Soon we started seeing snakes and more snakes as we went on. But I didn’t see one I should have. It went like this. Robin caught up with me and said “Jim, I just found my first snake! Well, she was excited so I asked her what kind; she I believe it was a Blunt Headed Tree Snake. We were both having a nice, exciting conversation and were not paying attention like we should been doing. Terry came up and said “look at that big Fer-de-Lance”. 
I looked and he was pointing to the side of the road. Robin and I had walked by a 5+ foot Fer-de Lance. If we had been 12 inches to our left, we would have stepped on him, which would have resulted in a strike. It took me 10 to 20 minutes to stop thinking how close we came to having a real bad night. It’s a good thing I now had my mind where it should be, because there was another Fer-de-Lance right on the edge of the clearing, I saw and called Fer-de-Lance, just 31 minutes after the close call. The second FDL was a bit smaller but a good 4 feet. Tonight was a little different because in addition to the snakes we were finding, we were treated to a special treat, we found a Purple Caecilian. This one was the second one I had seen alive. Every once in a while I would see a dead one on the road after a rain. I am going to tell what my herp book said about them: Caeciliidae (7 species) Blind, fossorial and limbless, all members of the order look like a giant earthworm. The small eyes are capable of sensing only light and dark. Glands in the skin produce mucus that contains toxins to ward off predators. These burrowing amphibians rarely surface but are occasionally seen at night during rains. Caecilians feed mainly on earthworms. As Caecilisans occur only in the tropical regions, many people from other parts of the world do not know about them.
We also got nice photo of a Blunt Headed Tree Snake that was eating a frog. Finding a snake eating in the wild is different from your pet snake at home. Over the years that when the snake has caught something, it is more interested in eating the pray item instead getting away.
We ended the night with 10 Eyelashes, 2 Fer-de-Lances, 6 Blunt Headed Tree Snakes, 1 Cateye Snake, 1 Red Coffee, 5 Cloudy snail-eaters. Total 25 snakes for the day!
Wednesday: May 8th 2019
We are going a boat tour today on the Rio Frio which is a 3 to 4 hour drive; the bus will pick us up soon, and we will be on our way. I usually don’t go but since everyone in our group wanted to go. I said I would go with the group and I enjoyed the day. We saw some iguanas, caimans, many, many birds, but the highlights was seeing the Brown and Green Basilisk run across the water. Very cool!
The crew were very knowledgeable about the animals we did see and would sometime talk in detail about them. After dinner we were out on a trail, Miguel spotted another FDL this one was in the 3 to 3 1/2 foot range we got some pictures and we also found a nice Eyelash Viper, followed by a Annulated Cat-Eye Snake, the first one in a long time and the first one at the Lodge. We were a little tired from the boat and car ride. Terry found a nice Brown Spot-belly Snake; we only find this guy every now and then. A baby Specked Racer, like just out of the egg, like 5 inches. We ended the day with only 12 snakes, but we had a nice time on the Boat.
Thursday: May 9th 2019
At breakfast all of our group seemed happy with a great positive attitude, which surprised me because of the fact that we only caught 12 snakes yesterday. I know they can bounce back, but the question is , will they? I’m betting they will, but time will tell! At lunch no one had any snakes to report. As we ate lunch, the rains came down real heavy. Our weather pattern for the past few days has been raining during the day and clearing night. We did get a nice sunshine more and we took advantage of it for a photo shot.
I’m hoping for the same pattern for tonight, we have a lots to make for yesterday’s poor production. When we went to dinner, it was still raining pretty hard. When we finished dinner, the rain has slowed to drizzle. We went to our rooms, got our gear, and put our boots on. The rain had stopped as if on cue. My attitude went from hopeful to “Yes We Can Do It!” We got on the trail behind the Lodge and we were half way to the bottom. Before someone yelled Snake! I believe it was Owe. When I got to see the snake, I was surprised. This snake was only found once before on Trip 24 – back in Nov, 2016. That night I was walking by myself when I saw him on a tree limb. He was about 30 yards away and it was high grass that I had to make my way through. He must have seen or heard me because he start moving. I put it in high gear and got a hand on him before he disappeared into the grass. I looked to see what I had in my hand. I was a baby Parrot Snake. I had not ever found one this small. I was very happy with my find. That was a new species for that trip. The next day I read in my Snake Book that my catch was Bronze-striped Parrot Snake. And the snake was a fully grown adult Snake. They max out at 2 foot long which it was. So, tonight we have our second one. At that point things start going our way. For the night 4 Eyelash Viper, 2 more Fer-de-Lances, 1 Blunt-headed Tree Snake, 5 Northern Cat-eye Snakes, 1 Giant Parrot Snake, 2 more Bronze-striped Parrot Snakes, 1 Costa-Rica Coral Snake. 9 Cloudy Snail-eater. The come-back kids Came Back: 25 snakes for the day. We are now at 101 Snakes for the trip. Record set by Trip 28 is 122 snakes. Our current Trip 29 could Tie them with 21 snakes tomorrow or set a new record with 22 snakes tomorrow.
Friday: May 10th 2019
Today is the make it or break it for a new record. 22 Snakes today will become the new record. Today is our last field day and we have to keep that in mind. Every snake counts! We already have a 101 snakes under our belt which is a milestone becoming the 5th Trip to be over 100 snakes on a trip. The plan was to go to Red Frog Mountain (My name) to night which requires driving the cars 20 minutes more or less to a different mountain close by; sometimes we find red and blue Dart Frogs there. The first 2 or 3 times we did good there. Then on one trip there we only got 1 snake for the night there. Next time we got 15 there. Tonight we will see, remember we are looking for 22 snakes. So I’m hoping for a great night there. We’ll see? Tonight we have an extra Herper; she works at the Lodge restaurant sometimes when they have a big crowd. Her name is Annette, she also is the daughter of Norman, the restaurant manger, I’ve known Norm since the first time I came to the Lodge.
Friday night dinner is always special because it’s our last night together as a group. Left to right: Aiden, Janet, Terry, Robin, Pete, Jim, Jay, Jeremy and Uwe.
Because we had another passenger in one of the cars, we had a little problem, Jay came to the rescue he said he would ride in the trunk. And he hopped in. We got there and started the hunt; five minutes go by and nobody called snake! Fifteen minutes and no body yelled SNAKE! This is not the way I wanted it to go. By a half hour we had a cat-eye, not good enough! Pete and I started back a little early. We got to cars and waited 20 minutes for the rest to get there. The guys had decided to walk all the way back to the Lodge. I said great! I will drive one car back and someone needs to drive the other back. We went back to the Lodge and worked the area around there. We did find a couple of snakes. When the walking Herpers got back, they had done good but everyone was not back yet and others were going to keep herping. I’ll have to wait until morning to get the final count. I drove Miguel down to the gatehouse. We caught a Coral Snake on the way down, like I said Every Snake Counts!
Saturday: May 11th 2019
I’m up early on Travel Days so I can enjoy breakfast and start packing. Getting everything in the cars is often a problem and I like to be on the road by 10am. Today I have asked everyone what snakes they found last night. I got the info and total it all up and we came up with 117 Snakes; we missed setting a new record by 5 snakes. We were on our way by 9:30 one car had to have a suitcase in the back seat which made it a little tight. We have a rule that if you bring more than one suitcase or a big suitcase if it can fit in the trunk. It rides on your lap when we are traveling. That car worked it out so it did have to ride on anyone’s lap. If you come on one of our trips ,pack light. One thing I have done on the last two trips is have a navigator; the road is straight away until we get to San Ramon. I have a 50/50% of making through San Ramon without without a problem. The navigator job is getting us through without a problem using his GPS. This trip we went right though without a problem last week, but not today! Jay was the navigator today and he chose Waze as a GPS navigator system. This program took us a way I would have never dream of going. Next I will put in a landmark which will be the San Ramon Cathedral which is on the main street through Ramon. It will solve the problem. Once we get back on the Autopista, we will program to the Hotel Areopuerto that will have us off the Autopista with a left, it will keep us on that road for 20 minutes that a right turn on that road for 10 minutes than turn right again for 10 minus and then we are on the access road to the Areopuerto. And that how we got there, where we are now pulling into the parking lot. One I thing want to say about it being a nice hotel and all that, but more important is on their property they have two or three mango trees that reach to the clouds. And today a big ripe mango fell from the trees as I walked by, I was on it as if it was a snake. SO! it you decide to come on one of my trips and like mangos like I do, remember the mango season is in May.
Another Trip in the old Snake Bag!!
Jim ~~~
SNAKES FOR TRIP 29
Micrurus mosquitensis Costa Rica Coral Snake 3
Leptophis nebuosud Bronze-striped Parrot Sn. 3
Leptophis ahaetulla Giant Parrot Sn. 2
Leptodeira septentrionalis Northern Cat-eye Sn. 23
Leptodeira annulata Cat-eye Sn. 1
Imantodos cenahoa Blunthead Tree Sn. 9
Drymobius margaritiferus Speckled Racer 3
Coniophanes fissiders Brown Spot-belly 1
Bothrops asper Fer-de-Lance 10
Bothriechis schlegelli Eyelash Viper 22
Banded Coffee Sn. Nina maculate 2
Red Coffee Sn. Nina sebae 1
Dark Wood Snake Ninia psephota 2
Halloween Sn Pliocercus euryzones 2
Calico Sn. Oxyrhopus petola 2
Lichen–colored Snail-eater Sibon longifrenis 2
Cloudy Snail-eater Sibon nebulatas 27
Prawn Sn. Hydromorphus concolor 2
False Fer-de-Lance Xenodon rabdocephalus 1
TRIP 29 TOTAL NUMBER OF SNAKES ~~~ 118 ~~~