Our Fifteenth Trip to Costa Rica
July 10th to 17th, 2010
First Day (Saturday July 10th. 2010)
A few days before my departure for Costa Rica Herping Adventures 15th Trip, I was looking over my flight itinerary. What was I thinking when I booked this flight? I had a lay over in Miami for two and a half hours, but I’d still be in Costa Rica around 4 PM. I had forgotten that last year I went on Jet Blue direct from Orlando to CR non-stop. Well, that was last year, back to reality. I had no problems at Customs. And once outside I jumped into a cab for a five minute ride to the Hotel Aeropuerto. I would be the only one in our group staying there the first night. The other members of the group were already in CR: Pete had been there for a week already and Kevin and Sue had come in two days before me. Once I was settled in, I called Anne using my MagicJack to let her know I made it safe and sound. Then I headed for the restaurant and ordered an Imperial while I looked the menu over. I usually drink non-alcoholic beer, but when I’m in Costa Rica, I drink Imperial. I have not found any non-alcoholic beers in CR, but the truth is I haven’t looked very hard. I had a great meal with fish tasting delicious. I told the waiter how good it was and he told the chef and he came out talked with me. We talked about the changes in Costa Rica. I told him my first trip to CR was in 1973, and he said he was just a little boy at that time.We had a nice conversation and I told him I was tired and headed for bed.
Second Day (Sunday, July 11th. 2010)
Breakfast was included with the room; they served a buffet style breakfast, so I grabbed a plate and dug in. I have the car being delivered at 9 AM and now had some time to kill, found my Sudoku book and spent the next hour solving puzzles. I checked out and waited in the lobby. In a few minutes the car showed up. We did the paper work and I was on my way. Early in the year Costa Rica opened a new highway from San Jose to Caldera on the Pacific coast. The car rental guy gave me directions to get on the highway. He said I could pick it up at the Turrucares Exit and told me where to find it. I had never even heard of Turrucares much less ever been there. Well I’ve been lost in CR more times than I care to remember, one more won’t hurt. I found it and asked a guy walking along the street how to get to the entrance to the highway, and he pointed the way. A couple of minutes later I was driving on the new road, it was great. Rather than going over or around the mountains, they cut the highway through them. Being the rainy season, the road was getting a test by Mother Nature. There had been some mud slides that had been fixed and some they were working on. Even with the slow downs for workers, I still saved at least an hour over the old route and I felt much safer. When I arrived at the Villa Lapas and entered the lobby, I found Pete there waiting for me. This was the eighth time that Pete had joined me on a trip with Costa Rican Herping Adventures. I asked Pete where Kevin and Sue were? He said they had gone to their room and would be back shortly for lunch. I told Pete I would drop off my stuff in my room and be back for lunch. When I returned in a half hour , I saw Kevin waving to me and beside him was Sue, his beautiful wife. This was the fourth time Kevin had joined me on a trip and Sue’s first trip. This was the first time Sue and I met; she and Kevin have been married for a little over a year or so. Well it was sure nice to be in the company of old friends at the Villa Lapas once again and a special bonus to have Sue with us. Pete had been in CR for a couple of weeks before the start of our trip and did a couple of nights road cruising up in the Guancaste area and came across only three snakes. Kevin had been at the Villa Lapas for 2 nights and had come across 2 boas and 2 sibons. I wished they had done a little better. But we had never hunted here in July in the middle of the rainy season. So this would be a test that we all had been looking forward to. We had a great lunch and the food was up to its usual high standards. As always, it was great to talk to the staff and see my long time friends at the Villa Lapas. After lunch we decided to cross the river and hunt the trails. When we got to the bridge, the stairs up to the bridge had been removed and the bottom of the bridge had been cut out. What the hell is going on? I asked. Pete said he had asked and was told that it was because of liability issues. As far as I know, I was the only one hurt on those bridges. You can read about that mishap in 2008 by clicking on Costa Rica Trip 13 and read the Highlights. The hotel did cut an area and changed the flow of the river enough so we could get to the trails we hunted before. But because of recent rains, the path way was wet and muddy; it was a pain getting there. We did not catch anything and only saw a couple of lizards and one dart frog. On the way back I opted to to walk across the river rather then deal with the mud again. After dinner we checked around the restaurant and found 5 cat-eye sankes. Then we hit the road, Pete and I in one car and Kevin and Sue in the other. Once we got on the Costanera Highway we slowed down for the road cruising. Kevin and Sue were ahead of us by 20 minutes or so; finally we saw them coming from the other way. I asked them if they had seen anything, their answer was no. I said neither had we. I said let’s ride up to Dominical. Pete wanted to wait and go in the late afternoon and work the area until late at night. Kevin want to go now. We were only 15 minutes from Parrita at this point after another 20 to Quepos. For several months I had known that new road from Quepos to Dominical had been finished and I was anxious to hunt it. I had driven that road several times many years ago when it was a dirt road with more pot holes than I care to remember. By the time we got to Parrita. it had started to rain. By the time we were making the turn at Quepos, it was really coming down in buckets, making it hard to see. A while later we saw Kevin coming from the other direction. We stopped on the road and it was the same as before; neither of us had seen a thing. I had built up my hopes over the past few months that we would do real good on the newly finished road. Zero was hard to take! The rain had not let up, and it made driving conditions stressful and tense. It took a while but we made it the Dominical, no luck. We headed back as we got back to Quepos, Pete said, “Jim, you’re driving too fast for the conditions”. I looked and said I’m only going 40 Kilometers an hour which is 24 MPH. He said in these conditions it’s still too fast, what if a cow was on the road? You couldn’t stop in time. I slowed down a bit, but not much. I was thinking about a soft bed. It was a long ride back; we got back close to 2am. The next morning Pete brought up our road trip and my driving again. He said we were going too fast. I disagreed saying 24 mph was not a problem even in that rain. Pete said it was 40 mph, not 24; he said on that car the speedometer was in mph not kph. Well, I’ve never rented a car in CR that was in mph, but I wasn’t sure it if was or wasn’t. I told Pete I’d check it out. I did and he was right. 40 mph in that rain was not safe, I apologized to Pete. Pete and I have been friends since the first trip he came on in 2002 and I wanted to stay friends. Safety is a goal on every trip and with the animals we come across, and being on the road at night we all have to be extra vigilant at all times.
Third Day (Monday, July 12th. 2010)
The four of us after made our way across the river to the trails on the other side. We did not do any better than we did yesterday. Again we saw a few lizards, some birds, but I don’t remember even seeing one dart frog. That night we found 7 cat-eye snakes around the hotel and one sibon (snail-eater) road cruising.
Fourth Day (Tuesday, July 13th. 2010)
This was our day to go to Carara National Park. We do it almost every trip; on the very first trip I caught a small croc 3 to 3 1/2 foot range. Each time we go back I hope to catch another one. It hasn’t happened yet. When we purchased our tickets for the park, a guide told us the water was very high in the lagoon. It’s about an hours walk back to the lagoon down a trail that is also used as an access to the highway for some farms’ trucks that are behind the park. Usually you have to walk 10 or 15 minutes before encountering water on this trail; this time it took 2 minutes. The deepest we got was 24 to 30 inches; with all this water we hunted the trees very carefully for snakes. When we got to the lagoon, the water was the highest I had ever seen it by far.
It came up to the wood fence. Many times we go around the fence down to the water, which would be 7 or 8 feet lower than the fence. We saw only one croc and it was a big one. With this big guy hanging around, the smaller ones better stay away or get eaten. Pete is an excellent animal imitator. So, of course he starts imitating a baby croc. The big guy took it for about a minute before he started blowing air through his nostrils and raised his back out of the water. I would estimate his length to be 12 to 14 feet, maybe longer; his width was probably a little more then 3 feet. He and Pete put on quite a show for us. I was amazed how long he could keep blowing for over a minute with just one breath. On the way back to the car, we heard some monkeys and macaws but didn’t see them. Back at the hotel we had lunch and spent some time in the pool. Later we walked the river edge and found no snakes but we did see interesting birds. That night we walked around the hotel and only came up with 3 cat-eye snakes.
Fifth Day (Wednesday, July 14th. 2010)
Today after breakfast we hunted around the hotel and trails again no snakes, but plenty of lizards and birds a few other worth a photograph or two. We drove into Jaco for a little shopping and lunch. Jaco is a tourist beach town that attracts lots of surfers. That afternoon we took Sue down to the crocodile bridge; we didn’t stop as we usually do on the way in on the first day. Sue got to see what the big ones look like and get an idea what we in encountered the day before in the park.
After dinner we drove up to the Skywalk and planned to hunt down to the third bridge, then walk the path to the road and back up the mountain to the cars. We have done this a number of times and found several snakes, lizards, insects, bird roosting in trees and mammals and sometime nothing of interest. But even if we get nothing on interest, I just love being out there because you have the feeling of the possiblity of seeing anything that rain forest may have living in that area. Tonight was special for me because while scanning the path ahead of me for fer-de-lances and then checking the trees for eye-lash vipers, I didn’t pay enought attention to the ground. I walked into a line of army ants that were using the pathway just like me. Once I felt the first bite, I saw they were all over both of my feet. I saw they were ahead and behind me. I ran the path in front of me keeping my eyes on the ground until I did not see anymore on the path. I stopped and used my hands to beat them off and then moved ahead a few steps because these just keep coming at you. This has happened to me a few times before and is aways very painful and something you don’t want to experience. The others, seeing what was happening to me, just ran though them and didn’t get bit. Finally Kevin spotted a small cat-eye snake in a tree and got some pictures.
Sixth Day (Thursday, July 15th. 2010)
Today we planned to leave the Villa Lapas in the afternoon around 3 PM and drive to Dominical. Nearby we will visit Parque Retilandia which is owned by Quetzal. He’s been in Costa Rica for 14 years and has a large, beautiful reptile park. The park is well stocked with herps in natural like displays. Pete and Kevin both have known Quetzal for some time; I knew of him but this was my first meeting with him. We got a tour of the park and breeding room which housed some newly hatched Bushmasters. After visiting with Quetzal for a while, we drove back into Dominical to a restaurant. The timing was good because it was just about dark and by the time we finished it would be dark for a half hour and we could hunt the road all the way back. We drove the area between Dominical and Quepos twice and then headed back to the Villa Lapas; it was a little over two and a half hours drive. We found a Boa and a Cat-eye Snake both DOR.
Seventh Day (Friday, July 16th. 2010)
Today was our last day in the field and our hopes were high to add a few more snake to our tally. We were going to some private property to hunt. We have gone to this property a few years and got 2 Road Guarders and a mud turtle. Today our target snake was Neo-Tropical Rattle Snake. Our guide was to be the care taker of the property, who had seen two rattlers a couple of months ago. They were clearing a field and he heard them before seeing them, I wish we had been there then. Clearing a field is a lot different than walking through it with grass and weeds four feet high, but that’s what we had to do. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear or see any. We walked around in the area that is always kept clear but has rock piles. I found a couple of anoles and a skink. Kevin found a colorful frog he wanted a picture of, but he lost sight of it. He called us all in to help him find it but we had no better luck than he did. We did some road crusing that night and found 2 Fer-de-lances both DOR.
Travel Day (Friday, July 16th. 2010)
We all got moving pretty early and met for breakfast, enjoying it the last time this trip. I paid the tab and we all headed back to our rooms and packed up the car. A half hour later we were getting on the new Autopista going to the car rental near the airport. One big problem with the Autopista is they didn’t build an exit directly to the Airport. You can take the exit to San Ana and work your way through Belen and if you’re lucky or know the secret route, you’ll come out by the Airport. I tried it 3 times and came out once OK; the other were, of course, disasters. So I’m getting off before Santa Ana at an exit I know. It may not be the shortest route but for me it is the surest. Kevin and Sue were flying back today. They have handle their own rental car, so they dropped off their car and would get a ride to the airport. Pete was leaving tomorrow so I took him to a B &B in Alajuela. I know the owners there having stayed there early that year and recommended the place to Pete. I hung out with Pete for a while. Later I met Anne at the Airport as we have two more weeks in CR. We rented a place in Atenas for a week and then we were going on a tour for a week.
That’s it until next time… Happy Herping ~~~
Jim
Species List
The following is a list of snakes our herpers encountered on our trip to Costa Rica; May 23rd to 30th 2009.
| Species | Common Name | Live | DOR |
| Boa Constrictor | Boa | 1 | 2 |
| Bothrops asper | Fer de Lance | 0 | 6 |
| Leptodeira septentrionalis | Cat-eye Snake (Northern) | 21 | 1 |
| Sibon nebulatus | Cloudy Snail-eater | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 33 | 23 | 10 |
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Last Updated June 12, 2011
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