Our Tenth Trip to Costa Rica
May 6 to 13th. 2006
First Day (Saturday 05/06/06)
My flight didn’t leave Miami International until 8:35 PM. With the daylight saving time that would put us in Coast Rica on the ground around 9:00 PM, CR. time. I met Billy at the gate an hour before boarding. His flight to Miami arrived earlier in the day before noon, so he had most of the day in Miami. He made a good choice by renting a car and driving to Metro Zoo to spend some of his time, but he was disappointed because Metro Zoo has no snake display. Well, I told him there was a good chance he would be seeing some by this time tomorrow. Finally we boarded and enjoyed an uneventful flight to CR. We arrived at the Hotel Irazu by 10:00 PM. The bar was rocking, super loud music, strobe light, smoke and booze. I walked around the bar hoping someone would recognize me and call my name. I had three other Herpers that arrived from St. Louis a little after noon. Bill and I made our way to the desk to check in. I got their room number and called from the house phone, no answer! Bill and I went to our room and got settled in, then headed for the bar. The music was still too high but with a cerveza it was a little easier to take. Around midnight I told Bill I was heading for my bed, and he said he would be around later. At 2:50 AM the phone rang, and someone told me I should come to the lobby. I asked who are You? He told me he’s Boogie and I needed to paid him $40 for transportation. I told him NO, I didn’t know him, nor have I done any business with him and I’m damn sure not coming to the lobby or giving him $40. He said the money was for my friends for their transportation to the hotel. Call them, I said, and hung up. 3:30 the phone rang again, and he said “you didn’t come to the lobby and pay me. I need some sleep, but I have to get paid first”. You can imagine what I said to him as I hung up and unplugged the phone. About that time Bill came in with a smile on his face. Enough said!
Second Day (Sunday 05/07/06)
Now for the rest of last night’s story. The guys called around 6:30 AM and said they stayed in their room last night. I asked them about Boogie. That turned out to be the reason why they didn’t answer my call last night. They thought it was Boogie calling again. He called them until 4 AM. Boogie was their taxi driver from the airport, and he made friends with them on the ride from the airport. At some point Boogie must have run out of money and tried to get some from his new friends. He most likely needed a fix or something. Of course the guys had already paid for the cab ride. How he got my room number no one knows or at least admitts too. I told the guys to meet Bill and me in the restaurant for breakfast. Next we rented the cars, packed up, and headed out to the Villa Lapas, our headquarters for the rest of the trip. Like all of the trips we stopped at the bridge over the Rio Tarcoles to see the largest congregation of Crocodiles in Costa Rica. After fifteen or twenty minutes of picture-taking, we were again on our way. Soon I was driving down the steep entrance to the Villa Lapas. As we got out of our cars, I heard someone calling my name. It was Ian and Pete coming down the side of the mountain. They, along with Kevin, came on the May Trip last year. They came a couple of days early this year and were already settled in at the hotel. They already had come across a few snakes, including two Fer de Lances. I introduced them to the rest of our group. We had arrived on the weekend of “Cinco de Mayo” and our rooms wouldn’t be ready until 3:00 PM. So we had lunch, then unpacked a few snake bags and our snake hooks, and crossed a small bridge into the Rain Forest. Before we even got into our rooms to unpack, we had bagged a cat-eye snake, a four foot boa, and a nice Mexican Parrot Snake.
After dinner we all went road cruising. We had three cars on the road. By the time I showered and climbed into bed at 3:00 AM, we had come across 15 snakes, including a nice Milk Snake. This time I knew I had a group of hard core Herpers on this trip. Would they set a new record for the number of snakes we’d come across on a trip? The best record so far was 65 snakes.
Third Day (Monday 05/08/06)
At breakfast it was decided that Ian, Kevin and Pete would go to Carara National Park and hunt the second trail. I would lead the rest of the group up the mountain. We would start at the bottom and walk to the top; this way gives the best advantage of finding herps. The cruise ship was in at the Port of Caldera, which is only 45 minutes away from the hotel. Three bus loads of tourists were at the hotel for the Sky Walk Tour or to ride the Zip Line. On our walk up the mountain we were lucky enough to meet three different groups of tourists walking down. We had one thing in common with each group – no one had seen any snakes. On past trips we have sometimes met people coming down the trail, but this was like one traffic jam after the other. Well, no snakes, but we did see some dart frogs, lizards, neat Birds and a pair of scarlet Scarlet Macaws high in a tree above us. Once we got to the top, we shot some pictures with the Pacific Ocean in the back ground. We headed down the mountain for lunch and arrived at the bottom about the same time as the group that went to the park. They didn’t find any snakes, but Kevin did catch a small crocodile.
After lunch everyone did whatever they wanted to do, which was take a rest, walk in the woods, go in the pool or hot tub. Ian and I hit the pool, Pete started out with us but opted for the hot tub, and he was asleep in fifteen minutes. After a great dinner we all were back on the road to see what we would see. I wasn’t sure we would see anything that night because it was rain cats and dogs, or I should said frog and more frog. We all got back to the hotel by 2:30 AM and reported in what we had found. That night we had come across 16 snakes, eleven alive five DOR.
Fourth Day (Tuesday 05/09/06)
We had today scheduled for a photo shoot at 10 AM. At breakfast, I made sure that Jonathan, the guide at the Villa Lapas, knew the time and place. He wanted to make sure he was able to photograph our herps. We had several snakes to photograph, and we wanted to get our photos and return the herps to the wild ASAP. As we set up our shot of the various herps, we started drawing a crowd. This happens more often than not. Most of the people who stay at this hotel are wildlife type people, as you would expect with the hotel being in the rain forest. By the time Kevin put his five foot Fer-de-Lance on the ground for photos, we must have had twenty people taking photos besides ourselves. This is fine with me because herp photographing really help make their trip a special one. One problem is it takes forever for them to get their shots. With the hot ones they have to take their shot from a distance with a zoom lens, no close ups. One of the Tico there had a good knowledge of herps. He had guided at a place on the Osa Peninsula and knew most of the snakes we had. He had some interesting stories of his adventures. By now it was time for lunch, and before we finished it started raining pretty hard. Everyone found something to do for themselves; napping was a high priority. Two or three trips ago the owner of the Villa Lapas told me he had moved into a new house and was having problems with his dogs on the property because there were so many terciopelos ( Fer de Lance, Bothrops asper). He asked if I could bring the Herpers over and remove as many as possible. On that trip I had Herpers with very limited experience handling hots, so I declined the offer. This trip was different with the experience level; so I offered to give it a try. He drew me a map to his house. Pete and I decided to make a dry run (in the rain) to the house so we would be able to find it at night. It took a while, but we found it. At dinner there were only a few guests other then our group. Instead of the usual buffet we chose our meals from the menu. Because of the heavy downpour we decided to stay around the hotel that night. It turned out to be a good choice. The rain slowed to a drizzle, so four of us decided to walk in the small river and hunt the banks and trees hanging over the water. We asked Kevin and Ian if they wanted to go? Ian said Kevin was not feeling good and wanted to stay close to the room. We hunted about a half hour when Eric started feeling bad, within five minutes I was feeling it too. We all headed for our rooms. By morning, seven of the eight of us were staying close to the bathroom. We start comparing note on what we eat the night before, we have a variety of different meals the only thing in common was the veggies. Most likely someone in the kitchen staff didn’t put the veggies in the refrigerator. That slowed us down compared to the last few days, but we still came across 6 snakes on the fourth day. And one of the best herps of the trip, Eric caught a nice Yellow Eyelash Viper.
Fifth Day (Wednesday 05/10/06)
At breakfast, which everyone was eating very lightly, I saw Don Jamie, the hotel owner, sitting at his table. I told him that due to the heavy rains the night before we decided to put off hunting his property until the weather was in our favor. I didn’t like the idea of hunting off the paths at night in a place I was unfamiliar with. I asked him to give me an idea what the lay of the land was like. His English was a lot better than my Spanish, but I still wasn’t getting the picture. I suggested that I take the group over there now and hunt, then maybe go back at night. He said no problem; he told me the caretaker knew me since he used to be the grounds keeper at the hotel. So, off we went. One interesting point I would like to make is that although the distance to his house is only 15 miles and a 30 to 40 minute drive, things are different there at his house, which is in a Tropical Dry Forest, than it is at the hotel which a Tropical Wet & Moist Forest. This means different types of herps occur in each area. Of course some cross over into both zones. One notable species would be the Cascabel or Neotropical Rattlesnake (Crotatus durissus). Knowing this had my radar working on full alert. In the northwest part of the country years ago I came across 5 of these beauties all DOR… Upon arriving at Don Jaime house we found the property had been cleared and would be easy and safe to hunt at night. There were several brush and rock piles around here and there. I came across a few anoles and skinks by moving some roof tiles but no snakes. There were eight of us covering a lot of area. One area held some water and one of the guys got a mud turtle. Eric, being young and strong, moved some big rocks and came up with two Road Guarders (Conophis lineatus).
He stepped one of the snakes because he was using both hands to hold the rock up. The snake, of course didn’t like this and bit him on the ankle. After bagging the snake, he noticed his ankle was stinging and was swelling up. Pete came by with his snake bite kit and used the extractor over his wound. This helped; the stinging eased and the swelling subsided. This snake is rear fanged and his bit can cause some discomfort but isn’t known to be dangerous. That night after dinner we went back for another try. The caretaker’s house was dark and closed up. I knocked on the door; it took a while and we were finally let in the gate. We hunted the grounds again with no luck. But on the way back to the hotel Kevin saw what he thought may be a small snake on the side of the road. It was a Lyre Snake; this is a species we’ve never came across in our prior nine trips.
This is a snake found in the Tropical Dry Forest, so it really made the extra trip worth while. We got back to the hotel and made plans to hunt the usual road for a few more hours. I told the guys not to be out too late because we had early morning plan for tomorrow. Ray, Mark and Eric got back to the hotel around 4 AM, about an hour before sunup. Their effords helped bring our count up to 15 snakes for day 5.
Sixth Day (Thursday 05/11/06)
I woke up around 5:30 and got out of bed immediately; knowing we had to be at Playa Herradura at 7:30 to meet our boats for hunting Sea Snakes today. And it was my job to have everyone up, fed and ready go by 7:00 AM. I had a feeling this job wasn’t going to be easy. I walked around all the rooms we were in and knocked on the windows with my door key, which made a nice loud noise. I yelled, ‘get breakfast now or forget it and be in the cars in an hour or you’ll miss the boat.” I didn’t know at the time that three of the guys had road hunted until 4 AM. I was amazed that by 7 AM we were all in the cars ready to leave A half hour later we were on the beach waiting for the water taxi to take us to the boats. Ray, Eric, Mark and I were in one boat; and Ian, Kevin, Pete and Bill were in the other. We had run about ten minutes when we found a wind or current slick and started trolling it. We moved along slowly for about ten minutes, and the captain put some baits in the water to see if any fish were interested. Five minutes after that I spotted a Sea Snake. The captain stopped the boat and reeled in one line while I reeled in the other. Eric was on the bow with the snake bagger (which I had removed the snake bag and replaced it with a net) in his hand. When the captain came around with the boat, Eric made a try and missed, but the snake didn’t dive. He stayed on top of the water and swam away from the boat. This time the captain backed up the boat to the snake. Then he grabbed the net away from Eric, leaned over the side, made a try, and came up with the snake in the net. He had a big smile on his face, but I felt like pushing him overboard. He’s used to doing everything for tourists he takes fishing. I thought he was only trying to help, and if I yelled at him, it may ruin everyone’s days, so I said thanks we’ll get them from now on. I hoped there would be more, but you never know. I gave the net back to Eric, he said next time he’ll have to pry it out of my hand. Well, it was a great day; we saw 8 Sea Snakes all together in our boat and caught 7.
The other boat saw 17 and caught 5; they need a little work on their technique. But we couldn’t have been any happier; everyone had caught at least one Sea Snake this day. Before we got back to land, we had let all the snakes go back into the sea. And in the Tradition of the Sea, I, as Captain of this trip, declared them all the honorary the title of “SEA HERPER”. We made it back to the hotel a little before lunch was closed out. We sat around after lunch to discuss our adventure at sea; it was quite an experience. Soon everyone was looking for a little nap time – the sea and the sun sure take it out of you. A few hours later after a nap I talked to Bill, who didn’t waste his time sleeping. He climbed the mountain and near the top he came across a troop of 12 to 15 monkeys on the Sky Walk bridge. Bill was at one end, and the Monkeys at the other. Bill said he just sat down and mimicked the monkey’s actions. He said he mimicked picking bugs out of his hair and eating them. Well, Bill has long hair, so I’m not sure he was faking it. Anyway, the monkeys must have liked the way he acted because they didn’t spook and they got pretty close to him. When he turned around to head back down the mountain, they followed him down for three more bridges. We went back on the road that night but made it a short one. We did come across 5 more snakes that night making a total of 30 for day 6.
Seventh Day (Friday 05/12/06)
This was our last day for hunting, and all the herpers knew we had beaten the best record of 65 snakes as the most snakes seen on a Costa Rica Herping Adventures trip. Pete said we can break a hundred. We were at 91 on Friday morning. I knew if our luck held and we had a good day, we would be over a hundred. We hunted around the hotel trails in the morning. After lunch the guys wanted to drive into Jaco for a little shopping. The night before, Kevin, Ian and Pete found an area near Jaco that held a little water, and also saw some eye shine. We decided to check it out; it turned out to be a large field with a bunch of horses in it. We could see the marsh area kind of in the middle, and we made our way in and spooked a bunch of large green iguanas. We found no caimans or crocs as we had been hoping for. After that we went to Jaco for shopping and back to the hotel. After dinner we set out for more road hunting.
(Sitting: Kevin, Pete & Eric.Standing: Ian, Mark, Bill, Ray & Jim)
As it turned out, we came across 4 snakes for the night, 5 short of our 100 goal. We all came in a little early – I think we all had just run out of gas. We had all hunted hard right from the get-go. We had set a new record of NINETY-FIVE snakes, consisting of 18 different species. We were all very happy with that. I wonder how long that record would stand? These guys were all talking about doing this trip again next May. If they do, this record may only last a year.
Until the next time.
HAPPY HERPING!!!!
Jim
The following is a list of snakes our herpers encountered on our trip to Costa Rica May 6th to 13th 2006.
| Species | Common Name |
Live
|
DOR
|
| Boa Constrictor |
Boa |
6
|
3
|
| Bothriechis schlegelli |
Eyelash Viper |
1
|
0
|
| Bothrops asper |
Fer de Lance |
6
|
5
|
| Conophis lineatus |
Road Guarder |
2
|
0
|
| Corallus ruschenbergerii |
Tree Boa |
1
|
0
|
| Drymobius margaritiferus |
Speckled Racer |
0
|
1
|
| Epicrates cenchria maurus |
Rainbow Boa |
2
|
0
|
| Imantodos censjoa |
Blunt Head Tree Snake |
3
|
4
|
| Lampropeltis t.stuarti |
Milk Snake |
1
|
2
|
| Leptodeira septentrionalis |
Cat-eye Snake |
9
|
5
|
| Leptodrymus pulcherrimus |
Streak Snake |
0
|
1
|
| Leptophis ahaetulla |
Parrot Snake |
3
|
0
|
| Leptophis mexicanus |
Mexican Parrot Snake |
1
|
0
|
| Oxyrhopus petola |
Calico Snake |
1
|
2
|
| Pelamis platurus |
Sea Snake |
25
|
0
|
| Sibon nebulatus |
Snail-eater |
4
|
4
|
| Mantilla armillata |
Black-necked Crown Snake |
0
|
1
|
| Trimorphodon biscutatus |
Lyer Snkae |
1
|
0
|
| TOTAL 95 |
67
|
28
|
This list doesn’t include the numerous other forms of reptiles and amphibians we came across on this trip.
My Herping Adventure in Costa Rica
Hi Jim:
Thanks for organizing another GREAT trip!
I look forward to them once or twice a year and they keep getting more productive.
This trip the Pacific was cooperative and we saw bigger and more sea snakes than ever. Also seeing 3 types of boa doesn’t happen often, and I lost count with the variety of frogs and lizards. Each trip adds new Herps to my life list, and the milk snake was outrageous along with the variety of other serpents.
I was glad the 2 Florida Red necks, Ian and Kevin, were along again. Always a lot of fun to be successfully hunting something with them, and Kentucky Bill set some sort of endurance record in several fields. Ray, Mark and Eric proved that Missouri is the show me State, and they did it with their very hard and productive hunting…Thanks again!
You showed the nights, days, fields and jungles are fun and very productive once again….
Best Pete
Last Updated: July 1, 2006
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