Hiss ‘n’ Things, LLC.
Our Eleventh Trip to Costa Rica
May 5th to 12th, 2007
First Day (Saturday 05/05/07)
My flight left Miami International at 12:45 PM; this made it easy to get to the airport from the Keys without a lot of traffic and time to spare. After going though the usual maze, I finally made it to the gate and was greeted by Danny. Danny had gone on a trip with me 3 years ago, and he had already met up with Greg, another member of our group. I introduced myself to Greg and we all sat down and got acquainted. Danny came from Norfolk, VA. and Greg from Louisville, KY. we chit-chatted for 20-30 minutes talking about herps. I said I had better look around and see if I could come across Melissa. I had no idea what she looked like, but hoped she would be able to recognize me from pictures on the web site. I walked around the gate area and no one hooked me with a snake stick, so I figured she hadn’t reached the gate yet. I rejoined the guys, and a few minutes later, up comes Melissa. Not much later we were seated on the plane. For some reason we had a 40 minute delay leaving the gate, this being only the first of the delays we would experience that day. When we landed in Costa Rica, it was raining pretty hard; the rainy season was right on time. As we walked to Immigration, I saw the line was stopped way before the door into the room where we would normally have a 10 to 15 minute wait for processing. It took us an hour just getting to the door. Once we were through with Immigration and Customs, we made it outside to find our bus had just left and it would be 25 minutes to the next one. After we had waited about a half-hour, I found the hotel rep and asking what the problem was. He said there had been an eight car pile-up on the Autopista. He called the driver, who said he was past the pile-up and would be there in 10 minutes. Finally we were moving. We went by the pile-up in the North lane, but a short time later we were stopped by an accident in the South lane. It had just happened and we were close; as we went by, we could see a guy and his motorcycle under a bus – he didn’t look good. We got to the Hotel Irazu and checked in. I told everyone there was happy hour at the bar from 5 to 6 PM and I’d see them there, then we’d find a restaurant for dinner. I checked at the desk, and another couple with our group, Rich and Madaga, had already checked in. I called their room and they would meet us at the bar at 5 o’clock. After three rounds of Imperial beer, the “Happy Hour” was over and we were all happy, funny how that works. We walked to a nearby restaurant where our host was a transplanted Canadain who owned this place for 17 years. He was funny and kept us enterained during the meal which everyone agreed was good. When we returned to the hotel, there must have been 200 people at the bar watching a soccer match involving the home team – it was wild. I said goodnight and headed for my room; these herp trips make for long nights. Tonight I needed my rest.
Second Day (Sunday 05/06/07)
I woke early and used the internet room to send an e-mail, then walked to Danny’s for a free breakfast, compliments of the hotel. Melissa was already there and I joined her. Next came Greg and Danny, both big boys with an appetite to match. Finally Michael from Chicago showed up, his plane came in around ten the night before. We met him now for the first time. We all gathered a short time later at the car rental office at the hotel. An hour or so later we were on our way to the Hotel Villa Lapas, our headquarters for the rest of the trip. The two hour trip was uneventful except for some ooooo’s and aaahhhh’s at the breath taking scenes through the mountains. We stopped as usual at the bridge over the Rio Tarcoles to see and photograph the Crocodiles that live there. After a ten minute drive we pulled into the Hotel Villa Lapas, my home away from home in Costa Rica. Waiting for us there was Pete, Ian, Kevin and Chris. All had come in a couple of day early. Chris was the only first timer of the four; this was Pete’s 6th trip with me and Ian and Kevin’s 3rd. Introductions were made all around; we had 11 in our group, all hungry for some herping. The early arrival group of four had only come across 5 snakes in 3 nights. That didn’t sound good at all, but with 14 more eyeballs looking, it was time for a change. But, Kevin did catch a Tamandua crossing the road one night. After a welcome lunch we went across the river to hunt the trails. We split into two groups: Pete leading one and I the other. We walked slowly checking the ground and the trees, there was a million places they could be. We came across some dart frogs and some lizards but no snakes. We went back to the hotel to rest up a little before dinner and cruising the roads at night. About an hour later when Pete’s group came back across the bridge, I asked what had they found. Like us they had encountered some dart frogs and lizards, but they had also caught a snake. What kind I asked? I was surprised by the answer: Pseustes poecilonotus, Northern Bird Snake.
Six years of hunting this area, and this is the first live one I have seen. We did find a DOR a few trips ago. It’s aways great to add a new species to your list, believe me it doesn’t happen very often. After a great dinner we set out in three cars to see what we could see. That night we got live 3 common Boas, 1 Fer de Lance, 1 Rainbow boa, 1 Blunthead tree snake, 2 un-ID snakes one got off the road and one in the bag. DOR we found 2 common Boas and one speckled racer. As a bonus Kevin and Chris caught a 3 foot Caiman. We got in around 2AM.
Third Day (Monday 05/07/07)
The first thing this morning was to see the unidentified snake that Rich caught last night. I didn’t recognize it, but Ian got up bright and early and found it in Snakes of Costa Rica by Alejandro Solorzano, in my opinion the very best book on Costa Rican snakes. It turned out to be a Southern Bromeliad Boa (Ungaliophis panamensis).
This snake ranges on the Caribbean side of the Country with only very limited sighting on the Pacific side. I never expected to find one, and we were all very excited to get this one. This morning after breakfast we would climb the mountain with the Skywalk Bridges. We would start at the bottom, climb to the top and back down again. We didn’t find any snakes, just dart frogs and lizards, but we sure did find a lots of people. We found at least four groups with 15 to 30 people in each group. The hotel caters to the cruise ships that come into the Port of Caldera, and they get a lot of people coming for the Skywalk and the Zip Line. After our climb we had lunch and hung out around the pool. The climb will take it out of you, and if you’re not in shape, you feel it. If you are considering taking this trip, I would recommend an exersise program a couple of months in advance. On the road that night we came across the following live sankes: 1 Common Boa, 3 Fer de Lances, 2 Tree Boas, 2 Blunt Head Tree Snakes, 1 Cat-eye Snake, 2 Sibons, 1unidentfied snake. DOR 2 common Boas, 2 Fer de Lances, 1 Blunt Head, 5 cateye snakes, 1 Oxyrhopus petola, 1 sibon. Kevin and Chris caught another Caiman,
this one a 5 footer crossing the road.
Fourth Day (Tuesday 05/08/07)
In the morning during breakfast it was decided that today would be a great day to go to Quepos and visit Manuel Antonio National Park. Manuel Antonio is the most tourist visited spot in all of Costa Rica. It starts with a beautiful seascape and beaches and once inland a short distance it become mountainous. It has many habitats in a very small space. At the beach front are many Spiny Tailed Iguanas, Basilisk and Ameives. Walking the trails in the park, you will come across Howler and Capuchins monkeys along with sloths and many types of birds. It’s a pretty long trip to get there so everyone seems to make a day of it. We all got together again at dinner, each telling their favorite part about the day trip, some very interesting sightings. One about a monkey jumping on a tourist’s leg when he was trying to get a close-up. The guy almost killed himself trying to get away from what he thought were deadly fangs that could sever his leg. Very entertaining for our group, monkeys can be a barrel of laughs. Later we hit the road again to see what the night held in store for us. It’s about a thirty-five to forty-five minute ride to the area where we start doing the serious road cruising. On the way over we saw the car that Pete, Chris, Kevin and Ian were in pulled into a driveway off the road. I figured they had found a snake already. I told Melissa and Greg they must have seen a snake and the driveway at the right time because on this small mountain with lots of curves, it’s just too dangerous to stop for snakes. Later we found out they had a flat tire. We had just got to our hunting area when my stomach let me know it wasn’t happy. There was a gas station about 10 minutes away, I headed there at a fast speed, the snake would have to wait. The stop at the station helped for a while, but things headed South again. I knew I had local med’s back at the hotel that I knew would stop the problem. But we were an hour away, I floored it, we had to stop at a restaurant on the way. Finally back at the hotel, I said I was sorry but I was done for the night. Melissa and Greg decided not to go back on the road but would hunt around the hotel. Greg caught one of his targeted species he had for the trip. A Smoky Jungle Frog, which is a big South American Bull Frog.
And Melissa took a picture of two Red-Eyed Tree Frogs in amplex, laying three clutches of eggs. We didn’t get as much as last night but here is what we got live on the road: 3 Fer-de-Lances, 2 Rainbow Boas, 1 Stuarti Milk Snake, 3 Ca.t eye snakes. DOR: 2 Fer-de-Lances, 1 Tree Boa, 2 Cat eye Snakes, 1 Sibon. It was very interesting coming upon the milk snake. They first spotted eyeshine, and it was a possum on the road. He had something he was trying to hold on the road; that of course turned out to be the milk snake. Kevin ran up to the possum which didn’t back off, he wasn’t giving up his dinner. Kevin, being a big muscular guy, after some effort, managed to over power the possum and take sole possession of the Milk Snake,
who was not harmed by the possum at all. I just bet he was also very happy to be in a bag rather that the possum belly, talk about timing.
Fifth Day (Wednesday 05/09/07)
After a long day trip yesterday everyone was content to hang around the hotel this morning and maybe go into Jaco in the afternoon for a “T” shirt or two. A few days before, one of the Hotel Guides, Mario was telling me about a trail I never explored. This trail had been cut a couple of years before. They had some project in mind, but it never went anywhere. I asked the condition of the trail, he said fine. I got the entry from him and left it at that. Well, this might be a good day to explore. I told some of the guys about it and asked if anyone was game to give it a try. Michael, Rich, Magda and Melissa all said let’s do it. We all got our gear and started out, our challenge was walking up the driveway to the hotel. It must be at a 35 to 40 degree angle. Thank god it was only a couple hundred meters. We were all reaching for our water bottles when we reached the top. The trail was right across the street, but I could hardly make it out. The jungle takes back from the minute it is cut. This trail had not been used for quite a while, and it didn’t look very promising. I climbed up a clay-gravel bank; the path was noticeable but over grown. I climbed up again to a new level, then down into a little valley, I want to get around the small mountain to see if it opened on the other side. Finally I made it but it didn’t open; the trail got thicker. Time to forget this baby. Of course it was harder getting down than climbing up. The bank would give way and gravel would run into my sandals. After we made it back to the road, I had another idea. We headed back to the bottom of the Skywalk. There, just left of the path there’s a valley leading back to a small waterfall. A few years ago Pete and I had walked it one day. It’s very picturesque with its own wild natural beauty, I knew they would love it, if I could get them in there, but it was totally overgrown. It was a steep 7 or 8 feet down to the bottom. I looked and looked for a way that made sense. Finally I climbed into a water run-off on the side of the road and used my snake hook to clear the way, so I could see where I was putting my feet. When I got to the drop off into the valley, it was still a 4 or 5 foot drop. I figured the guys would be OK, but the girls I didn’t know. Well, they hadn’t been stopped yet, let’s see how they would do. Down I went, when I got to the bottom, off I went around tree and vines in the water from a couple of inches to a foot or so. I heard them moving behind me, so far so good. Once I got far enough under the canopy there was not much weed and vine as the part with direct sunlight. This was where it gets really, really pretty. I slowed down and hunted around looking everywhere; there could be a fer-de-lance anywhere in here, but we didn’t come across any. Finally we got to the waterfall. and it looked great – water coming down hard and fast. I thought about our return trip, knowing the Skywalk trail was only 40 to 50 feet about us. I thought about the risk of climbing it. No problem if everyone made it to the top and no one fell – a broken leg back here would be no picnic. I climbed up a few feet just testing the footing. I asked if anyone was a mountain climber? Rich stepped up, climbed up higher than I was by a body length, then up came Michael, then Magda, Melissa was a little hesitant, but finally made her move. Rich held out his hand and help her up to his level. I moved across the rock and he gave me a hand up. We did about three times, and we were on the Skywalk trail. We walked up to the first bridge not seeing much. But the way down Melissa spotted a Poison Dart Frog that had a Tadpole on its back. This was an incredible find because the tadpole was black as was most of the frog’s back. But she saw him nevertheless. We took some photos and headed down the easy path to the hotel. When we got back, we found Greg and Danny in the pool; it looked very inviting. Danny was quite excited because he had found a big fer-de-lance under a fallen trees just after crossing the river and had mark the ground with a couple of X’s. He gave us the layout of what to look for. Off we went to get a look. We met Pete coming back, and he gave me better directions. We got there and found the X’s but couldn’t find the snake. I went back to get Danny but met this Australian that someone tolled me had filmed Danny pulling it out from under the tree to get an idea of the size. He came with me and showed me the exact spot. Of course there was no snake. We looked all around the area, nada. I got on my belly and with a small mag light looked back up under the fallen tree another he has back as far as he could get. Looked to be a 3 to 4 footer. I left the light on him and everyone was able to get some great shows of him. Everyone went back to their rooms for a hot shower and a little rest before dinner and road cruising. That night we found live on the road: 2 common Boas, 4 Fer-de-lances, 1 Rainbow Boa, 2 cateye snakes. DOR 1 fer-de-lance, and 1 Blunthead tree snake. As a bonus 1 red-cheeked mud turtle.
Sixth Day (Thursday 05/10/07)
At breakfast I suggested that today would be a good day to go to Carara National Park. The park has two trails the main one where you buy your ticket. The other is harder to get to and not real safe to leave your car, but this is the one we wanted to go to because this one has crocodiles, some the size we may catch for a few photo ops. The fellow selling the tickets said we’d be better off driving to a restaurant two kilometers beyond the entrance and walking; at least the cars would be safer there. I thought that was a good idea, but I would stop and let the guys off so they wouldn’t have to walk the extra distance. That extra walk later would kick my butt. We walked in and saw several Ameives and sub-adult spina-tailed iguana change from green to brown. We hunted the ground and trees for snakes but didn’t have any luck. We finally got to the place that led to the small lake. As we got to the water, we started spotting crocs. Some had some size to them but not over six feet. Ian, Chris, Pete and Kevin were over here three days before us, and they had seen a ten-footer in this lake, so we made sure we knew where we were stepping. I managed to get close to a three-footer but my foot was turned at a poor angle to make the grab. I took my eye off his eye to look at my footing, he went, and the opportunity was lost. That gone, I noticed that between myself and where he had been were vine with thorns. I guess one way or the other if I had made the grab, I would had come up bloody whether he got me or I got him. We worked the water edge in three or four spots, saw a few more but no shots at them. We walked on but I was drained. I finally at on the ground in the shade. The rest moved on but came back when I didn’t follow. I had been drinking water on a regular basis all morning, but I still felt weak. Little did I know I was coming down with something. Rich gave me some trail-mix that had some M & M’s in it, and that was enough to get me up and moving. On the way out we came upon a stand of banana trees with ripe bananas. Rich, Magda and I were ahead of the others; we saw an animal come down the banana tree turn and look at us then moved off into the jungle. It was black, about two foot tall, body length about 30 inches and tail another 30 inches. I had never seen a of these animals before. As it ran, I thought it looked like a cat of some type but Rich said no it wasn’t in the cat family. He had seen its picture in a Central American Mammal book, but he couldn’t remember the name of it. A week or so later Rich emailed me with the name. It was a Tayra, (Eira barbara) a member of the Weasel family. We got back to the highway and I asked Greg to go get the car, which he was happy to do. We rested around the pool the rest of the afternoon; no one suggested going back to the park to do the other trail as we had planned on doing this afternoon. The pool was nice and easy. This late in the trip everyone was feeling a little beat. After dinner 2 of the 3 cars went on the road but before leaving I suggested we spend an hour or so on the skywalk. We would park at the top and make our way slowly down to the third bridge, then cut back to the road on the secret path. I would drive my car leading the way and Magda would follow me. We made our way up the dirt road going slow and hunting our way up. When I came to the parking area which holds only 3 or 4 cars, I pulled in and made a turn back to the road so I can back in. There is a curve right there and backing out could be real dangerous because no one would expect anyone backing out at night. I should have told Magda my plan before we left, but of course I didn’t remember until I got there. She pulled in and followed me close. There was a truck behind her I didn’t know was there. When his light hit me, I backed up fast, hitting Magda. She backed up trying to avoid me. Well, I just damaged two of my rental cars, not good. But, what is done is done. My car has bad scrapes and Magda’s car has a big dent in the bumper, scraped worse than mine and the fender was rocking in the breeze. Enough, I said. Let’s go find some snakes. We hunted very slowly checking the path first, then the edges, then up the trees. Walk a couple of steps and you could hunt the same tree from a different angle. Some areas the trail is cut into the bank, this creates over time cut-outs in the banks with holes under the bank, tree roots hanging down and very snakey. Looking in a hole under the bank wash out I saw a tail moving at a slow crawl. What I could see at the tip of the tail was black and white bands two set of them, maybe the last inch and half of the tail, I looked in the next hole and saw a red band next to the white band, Coral Snake I yelled. I put my snake hook on him but the ground was soft and he crawled away into a hole. In went my hook as I tried to hook him and pull him out. I tried again and again and again, pulling a ton of dirt out but no Coral Snake,
Rich had his stick into the bank also, but no luck. I finally put my snake stick in all the way as far as I could reach and there was still more room to go. We gave up on the coral snake and moved down the trail looking even harder to make up for missing the coral. We started to go across the second bridge when someone picked up an eye-shine and yelled possum and shined the light on the cable supporting the hang bridge. One look and I said that’s a prehensile-tailed porcupine; he was in the middle of the bridge so he was at the lowest point and he could not move very fast. Melissa had her camera out taking pictures, I told her to go by him and take her pictures from the front. He was a male and from where we standing that was about all you can see as he tight-rope walking the cable. Melissa was a little reluctant to going around him, I told her again and she said “he won’t shoot his quills at me, will he?”. No, no they don’t shoot quills. Another old wives tale debunked. Melissa got some good shots of the critter. Then we went back to the cars and headed out to the highway for some more hunting. That night tally went like this; Live on the road: 1 rainbow boa,
1 cateye snake, 1 coral snake. DOR 1 common boa, 1 fer-de-lance, 2 rainbow boas, 1 blunthead, 3 cateye snakes and 1 parrot snake.
Seventh Day (Friday 05/11/07)
Last night at dinner I told everyone to have had breakfast and be ready to leave the hotel by 7AM. because today we would be hunting for Sea Snakes and do a little fishing until we found them, that is if we are lucky enough to find them. Pete, Ian, Kevin and Chris were going to fish for roosterfish which are found near the rocks and beach area. We arrived at the beach right on time at 7:30 and the water taxi was there ready to take us to our boat. It was a little windy and quite overcast, this is not what I would like to see. We went out a good ways, the captain put four lines in the water and we trolled. There were six of us on the boat plus the captain, and we had plenty of room. No snakes, no fish for the first two hours, then Magda said she thought she saw one. The way she described what she had seen made it a 50/50 chance that it was or wasn’t a sea snake. Since no one else saw what she saw, and we all looked around behind the boat and saw nothing, I thought that she had probably not seen one since she had never seen one before. We kept trolling and looking for another hour os so, and guess who spotted one that we all saw without a doubt was a Sea Snake. Magda said ti looked just like the one before; this one we were able to catch and bring in to the boat. There was a lot of pressure to catch this one because our half-day trip was almost up and we needed something for pictures. A little while later our captain spotted one and Michael was able to make the catch. We were finally able to hook up a couple of small dolphin, and Melissa and Magda did the honors of bringing them to the boat. Both fish were too small for us to take, so we released them. We got back about the same time as the other boat, and unfortunately they had no luck with the roosterfish, but did see one sea snake.
We made it back to the hotel in time for a great lunch. Everyone was kind of exhausted from our early morning adventure, so we rested up a bit since tonight would be our last night on the road. After a little rest I wandered out and was talking with Rich and Magda. Magda suggested that we use something she had learned from a mechanic to help the cars look a little better and maybe not have as much damage. She suggested we rub all the scratches down with finger-nail polish remover. She also explained it wouldn’t remove the paint. Being less than your average mechanic, it didn’t make sense to me, but I said ok, let’s try it and see what happens. She got her finger-nail polish remover and a towel and Rich started rubbing the scratches on my car, which was the least damaged. After 5 minutes, I couldn’t believe the results. The scratches were almost invisible. I said, “I’m not going to admit to any damage to this car because as I see it now, there is none. ” Magda said we should work on the other car. I replied that it would be impossible since the other car had a huge dent the size of a softball in the bumper, plus all the scratches. She said Let’s try anyway and see what we can do. Not long after there were no visible scratches, but the dent was still there and it couldn’t be hidden. There was some construction going on and we borrowed a hammer and a two-by-four to see if we could knock the dent out. We slugged and slugged on it to no avail. Magda, the brains of the operation, suggested we take the front end off. I looked at her like she had two heads. I said – You’ve got to be kidding! We lifted the hood, and she said – See these little connectors – all we have to do it get them apart. I completely ruined one with a Swiss army knife. Finally we figured out that by slipping a blade under a little head and lifting it about a quarter inch, the connector came right out. After removing five or six of these, we were able to drop the front end on the ground. We tried beating the dent out again from a different angle, but no luck. Rich kept after it and put pressure with the palm of his hand and it finally popped out and looked as if nothing had ever happened to it. When both cars were returned, the verdict was “No damage!” After a big dinner we all went on the road, hoping to make it a real big finish, but in reality, we were all so pooped that we couldn’t keep up our level of enthusiasm. We did, however, manage to find one fer d lance and one blunthead tree snake live on the road, and one boa and two cat-eye snakes DOR.
Standing: Jim, Pete, Michael, Greg, Chris, Madga and Rich.
Sitting: Melissa, Danny, Ian and Keith
Travel Day (Saturday 05/12/07)
We all had different arraangements going back to San Jose. Michael, for example, has to take a taxi at 4AM to get him to the airport in time for a very early flight on AirMexico. If you ever plan on taking one of these trips, it really pays to make sure that your flights don’t leave early on the day of departure. Rich and Magda stayed an extra 3 days in Costa Rica, so they didn’t return with us. Our return was not without a little extra adventure. We were detoured off the main highway, and it got kind of wild. Fortunately, however, there was a line of traffic all heading back to San Jose. Unfortunately, a big truck in front of me wasn’t going to San Jose. At a turn he went straight and I followed him. At this point, I had a feeling that I may have made a mistake, but in the rear view mirror, I saw the whole line of traffic following me. About a quarter of a mile up the road, the truck stopped, a gate opened, and he proceded into a warehouse. I made a U-turn, and once I did, everyong else started doing the same. I was laughing so hard, that everybody I looked at was laughing just as hard as I was. And that’s the way it is in Costa Rice: everyone would rather smile and laugh than get ticked off. It was no big deal; it only put us back five minutes in the big line of traffic. After we got back on the highway at the very top on the mountain on a curve, we were cut down to one land of traffic, as a mudslide had taken away the other. Just another little inconvenience, but we all made it back safe and sound. We dropped off the rental cars, got the van to the airport, got on the plane, and just thought about the wonderful time we had during the past week.
Can’t wait to do it again!
Jim
The following is a list of snakes our herpers encountered on our trip to Costa Rica May 5th to 12th 2007.
19 Different Species.
Last Updated June 8, 2007
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