Our Twentieth Trip to Costa Rica

May 3rd to 10th, 2014

Day One ~~~ Saturday May 3rd, 2014

Trip 20 is about to begin and I find it a time to reflect how this happened. It’s has been 14 years that I have been enjoying taking Herpers to Costa Rica and making new friends. Here how it all begin. Prior to starting these trips, my wife and I came to Costa Rica almost every year, the week after Semanta Santa (Easter). We would always go to Playa Tamarindo, rent a little cabina for a month, and enjoy fishing from the beach and rocks. It took us two years to figure out how to catch fish with some consistency. One night after seeing a fellow tenant in another cabina with a small Boa, I talked to him and asked where he found it. He found it on the road on his way to the cabinas. After that conversation I got real interested in road cruising like I did when I was a teenager. At night we would generally go to one of the few restaurants in Tamarindo and take time to enjoy the sunset and dinner. Well, my wife would always get into a conversation with other couples visiting CR. I would soon get fidgety because she could talk until midnight and I would want to hit the road. Then she would notice that I was about to bust and explain why I wanted to get on the road. Half of the time they would say they wished they could come along with me. Most of the time I would offer an invitation to them, I didn’t mind company because my wife did not like road cruising. She would rather read one of the thirty books we would bring to CR each year…. Fast forward from the mid 90’s to 2000; by then I had been breeding snakes and lizards for quite some time. I started the Florida Keys Herpetological Society and kept it running for nine years. In the beginning of 2001, I had decided that I was going to organize a Herp trip to Costa Rica. I started to figure out all the details I would need to make a successful trip, finally coming up with a few different possibilities. February of 2001 my wife and I left for a week in CR to try out these possibilities. As it happened, we were driving by Carara National Park. I saw a sign near the park that advertised a hotel; I had been seeing if for years. I decided to investigate that hotel. After a half hour of walking around the hotel grounds, I knew I had found the location I had been looking for my first trip. I contacted the manager to work out the details, after much dealing back and forth we had a workable plan. On May 1, 2001 the first trip happened with more success then I dare hoped. I made 16 trips at that location. Now trip number 20 is starting, for me it started yesterday. I flew in from Panama on Air Panama, where Anne and I have been living since January 29th and will be until we go back to the States June 3 rd . I stayed in a B&B last night in Alajuela, and I’m now pulling into the Hotel Aeropuerto. This hotel is our collection point for all members of Trip 20 to meet when they come from the SJO airport. As my cab pulled to the door, Pete was there to greet me; he was the early bird and had been in CR for week doing a little herping and birding in the upper Guanacaste area. The birding was successful. This is Pete’s 11th trip with Costa Rica Herping Adventures (CRHA) and he knows his way around CR as well as I do and better in some areas. Pete and I are sharing a room tonight and we got talking while I was unpacking. I figured I better go to the lobby to see if anyone else had showed up yet. Sure enough Bob and Robert, both from Florida and their first trip with CRHA, were there. Also there were Dan from Wisconsin, first trip; Jason from Kentucky second trip. All were talking about their various herping experiences in the middle of the lobby, and Pete and I joined in. One of the great things about the trips besides the herps is the experiences each member brings to the table. After an hour or so I suggested we go into the restaurant and sit at a table. A while later I was in my room doing pilate’s when someone knocked on the door. It was Mark coming to let me know that he and Donna, his wife, had arrived from Pennsylvania for their fourth trip with CRHA. This is always a brief moment of relief to know that all our team members arrived safe and sound, on time and ready to go. We all had dinner together and as you would expect a little more herp talk. A couple of the guys tried a little herping around the hotel without any luck. A couple of years ago the group I had then did spot a banded coffee snake at this hotel.

Day Two ~~~ Sunday: May 4th. 2014

Our 3 cars arrived at 8:30, the inspection and paper work were done, and we were on our way by 9:30 with a 3+ hour drive ahead of us. We arrived at the Arenal Lodge at 12:10, less than 3 hours, which is the best time I have ever made. It is great drive there on Sunday as the traffic is very light. Except for two short (10 minutes) occasions I had no one ahead of me. On some drives I had a heavy big truck leading a parade of ten or fifteen cars or fog and the trip takes 4 hours. Today we caught a break. Soon I was passing out keys to our rooms. Bob asked me if he could have a room with two beds. I ask why he wanted two beds. He said he was rooming with Robert. He was relieved when I told him Robert had his own room. Our first order of business after unpacking was lunch. After that I found Miguel who is the guide who would be with us as much as possible because he loves herping and is very good at it. Our first hike was the hotel jungle trail which covers both secondary and primary forest. After maybe five minutes I saw an Eyelash Viper (#1)

, a nice green one in vines up close to the tree he was in. A short while later I found another one; this one was predominantly brown Eyelash (#2), we were off to a good start. We finally got down to a little stream and I started turning over rocks where last November’s trip we found 5 small snakes eggs in the mud under a rock. I looked at those rocks every day until we left the hotel, hoping they would hatch and hang around so we could see the species, but it didn’t happen. We spotted another Eyelash (#3) before getting back to the hotel. Robert didn’t make this hike because he had an old herping friend living nearby in CR who had come to visit him. After lunch they did a little herping on the other side of the hotel and came up with another Eyelash (#4 no photo) themselves. Meanwhile back on the trail I happened to spot a Canopy Anole high up a tree; it was on a dead branch and his head silhouetted against the sky, an easy spot. A while later we can across a pair of Motmots, which are a fantastic looking birds. We stayed with them for ten minutes trying to get the perfect picture, which in the rain forest is very hard to do. One of them had a lizard in his mouth, which the other wanted so they didn’t pay much attention to us. We headed back to the lodge to relax a little. It worked out well because it started raining,;it was not a heavy down pour but a gentle rain for a half hour. I was hoping it was enough to bring out the frogs and snakes. This is just the beginning of the rainy season but in the past week the area did have a few heavy down pours. We met for dinner around six and were out on our night hunt by 7. It didn’t take long for us to find 4 Cat-eyed snakes. We were still in the lodge’s garden area when I believe Bob spotted our first Coral Snake

of the trip. Next Mark found a Banded Coffee Snake.  A while later we found a juvenile Northern Bird Snake. This snake was closely followed by 2 Red Coffee Snakes

 spotted by eagle-eye Mark, who was specializing on small snakes tonight. Next was another Eyelash Viper (#5), followed by another Coral Snake. This Coral Snake caused a little problem for Pete. Pete had a pair of leather gloves for handling Coral Snakes. When the snake was spotted, he put his flashlight on the ground and put on his gloves. When he picked up the snake, it slipped from his grasp and hit the ground causing Pete to take a step back, hitting the flashlight and knocking it into the dark hole. Pete bagged the snake and said here is my flashlight? We all looked around on the ground around us, no light. Next we started looking in the ravine next to the road someone finally saw it about 30 to 35 feet down there was no way to climb down there at night. The light was off so it would wait until tomorrow. Then things died down for an hour or so. As we were working our way back to the Lodge, we found a Calico Snake, the next two snakes were both Sock-head Snake, found about 20 minutes apart. This was the best single day record for CRHA in all our trips except when we had a day finding 25 Sea Snakes, plus some others snakes. Sea Snakes are very hard to find but when you get lucky and find them and stay with it for a while you can find a number of them. This was a great way to start the trip, and remember we were driving and eating lunch for the first half the day.

Day Three ~~~ Monday: May 5th. 2014

After last night the talk at the breakfast was non-stop. Everyone was excited and ready to start the day and see what was in store for us. Would it be like yesterday? Time will tell. We had bagged just two snakes for pictures this morning, and that was our first order of business today. We took pictures of the first Coral Snake we found last night and the Sibon for positive identification. Just before lunch Miguel came in with a Giant Parrot Snake for us to take pictures of. We took several pictures so we could tell the sub-species of parrot snake we had. After lunch we hunted a fence tree line where we had done well the trip last November at night, but today we got skunked. We crossed a field to a trail into the forest. About ten minutes later Miguel got a call saying there was a large snake in a pile of bricks. Mark and I left the group to go and look for it. It took us about 15 minutes at a fast pace to get to the brick pile but we found him. He was all dark, about to shed ; I guess that why he was in the brick pile. The snake turned out to be a Bird Snake a little over 5 feet long. While walking by a building we saw aHarlequin Beetle, which is quite a piece of work and very pretty. That night we started out finding some Red-eyed Tree Frogs and then came upon a Sibon nebulatus and 1 snake that made it into the brush before we could ID him; we looked but did not find him. We also walked a fence lines that we had walk the day before and found nothing. Last trip in November of 2013 we walk it at night and found 5 Eyelash Vipers. We are now walking it again and I was expecting to do good on the Eyelash again, it didn’t turn out that way but all was not lost. We spotted a Cateye Snake about 20 feet off the ground with a lizard in it mouth and a coil around the lizard’s body. We started taking pictures and I guess maybe the light caused the snake to drop the lizard right down by my feet. I picked him up and took a good look at him. I had never seen this species before it turned out to be Anadia ocellata ~~~Bromeliad Lizard.  Another first for a spices for CRHA. We also did managed to find 7 Cat-eyed Snakes for a total of 11 snakes for the day, not bad – not bad at all.

Day Four ~~~ Tuesday, May 6th, 2014.

The talk at the breakfast table was pretty positive; we were starting our 3rd day in the field and we had already found 31 snakes. Jason was talking about a visit to the Arenal Hanging Bridges and everyone seemed to want to go. So we set a time, and a short while later we were on our way. The bridges are very close to the Lodge, one mountain to be exact. But we have to drive down to the highway to get there. The place was a little pricey $24 ahead, Dan and I got a senior discount $5 off. The trail is 2 miles and takes 3 hours +/-. We split up at a short cut; Pete, Bob & Robert went one way and the rest on us the other. The first thing I saw to get my attention was a Broad-billed Motmot, which a very colorful medium-sized bird with a long tail that flicks back and forth like a pendulum. He landed on a rope on the trail making an easy photo shot. A while later I saw a small group looking at a tree just below us. I knew they were probably looking at an Eyelash Viper (#7). Sure enough that was it. Soon we arrived at a sign saying Puente Tercipelo (Fer-de-Lance). Not long after another sign saying Tunnel Mano de Piedra (Jumping Pitviper Tunnel) I think we were definitely in the right place. One of the guides told me they had a Fer-de-Lance on the trail yesterday which they removed for the safety of their guests. We walked for quite a while without seeing anything of interest to Herpers. I finally I spotted a Strawberry Dart Frog (Oophaga pumilo) I was the only one since the rest were either in front of or behind me. So, I just took a few photos because it had a find green moss background. An interesting item is the mountain that the Lodge in on has no Dart Frogs, but this one does. We finally came to the bridge which is highest from the ground and has the longest span. It’s quite the deal being out there in the middle of the bridge, then stopping and looking at the jungle from that angle. That night Miguel was taking us to some trail he had never hunted before but it looked very good for snakes; plus some of the workers have seen them there. So we rushed off because we had to be there before 6 at which time they closed. Robert and Bob were off hunting a trail and they didn’t know that the closing time was moved up from 7pm to 6pm. I thought we would have to shelve it until tomorrow night, but they showed up a couple of minutes later and off we went. It cost $10 each to use their trails. Soon we were walking though a type of cane grass way over our heads. Then it started the rain, not real hard but enough to get wet in a short time. I stopped and put on my poncho and then plodded on. I was getting tired and my back was killing me. Once we were past the cane grass, the going got tough quick, very rocky and going uphill. It was about then that I noticed I didn’t have my snake hook in either hand. Bad news! I yelled to those ahead of me that I was going back to find my snake hook. Mark said he would go back with me, I figured that it was back in the cane grass and I remembered hanging it in a small tree next to the trail. After a while I had to stop and rest because my back was hurting so bad which is very unusual for me. Mark said he would go and find it for me, I was very grateful. After 5 minutes I started walking toward Mark, and in a few minutes I could see his light shining, I called to him and he said he found my hook. When he got to me he gave me the hook and a real small snake that he had found on the path. It had been stepped on by one of us. It was about 7 inches long and a light red color. Leave it to Mark to find the smallest snake ever for CRHA, the last trip Mark was on he found the largest snake for CRHA a hefty 7 foot 8 inch Boa with an attitude. I found Mark’s small snake to be a Mexican Wormsnake ~~~Anomalepis mexicanus. I decided to go back to the car because of the way I was feeling. Mark suggested we find Miguel and see if it would be closer to go ahead instead of going back if we were much more than half way; I sure did not want to go the long way. We were more than half way but it was a long trek out. We saw some marine toads, some Smoky Jungle frogs, and found a ground nest of some nighthawks with 2 chicks. But, no Snakes!!

Day Five ~~~ Wednesday: May 7th. 2014

As soon as I sat down at the breakfast table, Mark told me that when he drove Miguel to his home in La Fortuna. He, Miguel and Dan found a Fer-de-Lance

on the road and were able to catch it and they brought it to the Lodge for photos this morning. This was good news because everyone was hoping to get photos of a Fer-de-Lance before the trip was over. At the altitude here, beginning at 2,550 feet, we do not see the numbers of Fer-de-Lances we did at sea level. We saw two others (DOR), but this was the first live one and I’m glad they brought it back for photos. He will be released tonight. Everyone had a good time at the photo shoot. After the photo shoot we were going to an area on the property that was a casualty of the 2008 economic turndown. It was called Amazonas de Arenal; they got the entry gate and guard house completed and a couple of road in before the crash. Now most of it is a pasture for horses these days. We planned to hunt this morning. I was walking in the field and noticed two horses grooming each other. I took a shot of the horses and noticed later it showed part of the development which had the huge fountain water fall system which would be holding a ton of snakes today if it was working. We worked the area pretty good and came up with zero snakes. After lunch I got a call from Miguel saying he just got a call from someone and I should go right now to the laundry area and ask for Walter; he had just seen a big Boa. I was just about there when I saw Pete, and I told him to come with me and about the Boa. We found him pretty easily and he was a big boy. I put my hook on him and he pulled back I had to climb over a pile of logs and brush nearly splitting myself in two. I handed my snake hook to Pete; he was in a better position to control the head than I was. I grabbed the tail and tried lifting him as high as I could. Pete finally grabbed his behind the head. About this time Pete was yelling he had ants biting him on each leg. He was trying to beat them off his legs with one hand while trying to control a feisty 7 foot Boa with the other. I climbed back over the logs and was able to get hold of the Boa while Pete was getting the ants off him. It all happened in a few minutes, but they were very intense minutes. But we had a snake to be proud of catching. The word spread amongst our group about the Big Boa

and we set a time for our second photo shot for the day. We all had a chance to hold this guy for a picture. I keep referring to him as big, although he’s not when compared to snakes we breed or see in a show. But when you are catching a wild one in the rain forest, it just not the same as a big tame one we are used too. If this one was to get a bite on you, you would hurt for a week. Once I had the Boa back in the bag. I put the bag in the back seat of the car and rolled down the window so it would not be hot in the car. I wanted to make sure we didn’t forget to release him tonight. Our plan for tonight is road cruising. As we were getting into the cars, one the guys said Jim look at your back window. I shined my light on the window and noticed all the dust and all the sudden I saw the Boa coiled up around the headrest on the back passenger side. I open the back door and notice the empty snake bag on the seat where I left it split at the seams. At least I was happy that my knot held. Getting him out of the car was almost as hard as catching him the first time. Once I got his head in control, the hard part was getting him off the headrest. I was taking up most of the backseat and that made it hard for someone else to get in and un-wrap him. But now the next project was to get him off my arm and into another bag. Now we had to release the Boa and the Fed de Lance. I had a place on the way down picked out; it’s on a curve where the road splits and becomes a two lane road for a short distance. This way if a car is coming up or down on the road, they will be able to past our 3 car caravan. The Boa was a bit of a problem; he wanted stay on the road and I wanted him to head into the jungle, I turned him around two or three times before he got the message. The Fer de Lance was no problem; he headed right into the jungle. Bob, Robert and I were in one car and we headed for La Fortuna. The other two cars went the other direction with about 10 minutes space between them. We saw a Cateye snake and a DOR coral snake. One of the others got a Cateye. The third car got 2 Sibons.

Day Six ~~~ Thursday: May 8th. 2014

 

At breakfast there was talk about going to Cano Negro as a day trip. Anyway Bob, Robert and I decided to go for a river walk. The rest of our group had gone on a tour to Cano Negro, a bus picked them up just after breakfast and they would be gone most of the day. When Robert was in Costa Rica before, he remembered a river that could be accessed from the main road in front of the Lodge. We drove for a while without finding what he remembered. But we did find a river with enough room for me to be able to safely park the car on the side of the road without losing it. There was no easy access, so I just started the climb over, under or around anything in my way down to the river. Each of us just trail blazed our way down. Once we were there, it was not too bad along the river edge. We had to cross the river from time to time when this side or that side ran out of bank. Several times I walked inland 40 or 50 meters to check out the interior. Any where you looked there was a possibility of a snake being there. It was a perfect environment for all types of snakes. I was expecting to see something just about everywhere I looked. But luck wasn’t with us at the moment. I would love to do this hike at night, but being there at night meant a slip and fall was very likely. We finally got to where the river runs into Lago Arenal with Volcan Arenal in the background. Bob and Robert made it all the way to the lake. I kept hunting the close to the river-jungle area; it looked very promising to me. Bob and Robert started heading my way; when they got to me, they told me that a short way down at the lake shore there was a paved road to leading to the highway that would be an easy walking to the car. That sounded good to me. We walked though some knee high grass and soon we were on the paved road to the highway. Once on the highway we expected to see the car around the next bend in the road. Twenty bends later we finally saw the car. We hoofed it at least 1 or 2 kilometers. But I was perfectly happy because I had a chance to turn over bunches of big leaves maybe 18 to 24 inches across. I figured at least one of these leaves had a snake coiled under it. Well, wrong again! We got back to the lodge about lunch time. The afternoon passed kind of slow with some of our guys enjoying the pool and hot tub. But, I got lucky while out hunting around the lodge. I walk into the stable area and found an Ebony Keelback Snake a little over 5 foot long. This was another first of this species for CRHA. Around 4 pm Mother Nature smiled on us and sent us a half hour down pour. That was a good sign that I had been hoping for. Finally the group that went to Cano Negro returned and they had a great time. They saw some Caiman, Green Iguanas and a load of Birds. After dinner the plan was to hunt around the lodge and the road down to the gate below. We started off the evening with a Red Coffee Snake, next we spotted 3 raccoon in a tree. Robert and Bob had motion activated cameras which they had set out at night to see if any mammals came along. They did catch one animal but the picture was not clear they were not sure if the animal was a coatimundi or a raccoon. With these three guys in the neighborhood it looks like their question is answered. Soon we found a Brown Debris Snake; a little while later we found a juvenile Calico Snake. Then along came another Costa Rican Coral Snake, plus another Debris Snake. Then two snail-eaters and six Cateye Snakes round out the evening. What a difference a little rain makes.

Day Seven ~~~ Friday: May 9th. 2014

Friday morning breakfast time we were all setting around the tables trying to figure the best strategy to find some more snakes today, in the daytime. We decided to go over the pasture and work the trees; we know there are snakes there – it’s just a matter of finding them. Day time is much harder than night. Most snakes are not out in the daytime and they wait in or under something for the cover of night. As we started into the field, Jason spotted a bird of prey in a tree in the distance. It happened to be sitting on a naked branch and was silhouetted against the blue sky. As we walked closer, Jason started taking pictures – he has a tripod and a three and a half foot lens. He could take a photo of a bird on the moon with that baby. Later he identified a Gray Hawk. We walked a long way hunting the trees that had Bromeliads in them looking for eyelash vipers. Pretty soon the guys started back to the Lodge. I stayed in the field and kept looking. I found a small bird nest with 2 eggs in it. Later I found a small stream with running water trickling in it and plenty of jungle all around it. Looks good for a Fer de Lance to me. But after a half hour I gave up and headed back to the Lodge and some lunch. Miguel said this afternoon he was going to cut a path from the pasture land down to the small river back up to the other side facing the Lodge. That night we went back into the same pasture land and had a little better luck. We found 2 Eyelash Vipers in the same fields we had covered that morning.. After we looked along the road down to the gate, we found 2 more snail-eaters and a Debris Snake. A little while later I found one of the most interest things I have ever come across in the jungle. This was a snail with a 3 to 3 1/2 inch shell; when he was moving he was about 9 inches long with a pattern almost like the scales on a snake. He had a black line down the center of his body with light blue antennae. He was moving over the wet road collecting what ever nutrients he could from the moss on the road. I had never seen or heard of this type of snail in all my years visiting Costa Rica. I’m glad I didn’t miss this one; it was a real unexpected treat. The snail turned out to be Eugladia rosea.

Last night group shot: Standing Pete, Robert, Bob, Jason Sitting: Jim, Mark, Donnia, Dan

Travel Day ~~~ Saturday: May 10th. 2014

Today we were having our last breakfast at the Lodge, and I wanted to be on the road for San Jose by 11 am. We had finished eating and were returning to our rooms when Miguel showed up holding a snake bag. He said he was passing the cabinas on the lower level and caught a Rainforest Hognose Viper. We had been looking for one of these all week and Miguel saved the day. He also saw another Keelback over there but he did not stick around. Well, of course we had to get pictures of this new find. Miguel also called a friend who had a Jumping Viper and offered to bring it by so we could see it and take picture. We found one on the last trip in November, 2013,but were out of luck this trip. Well, taking photos will usually draw a crowd and this was no exception. The women from the laundry room came with their cell phones to get picture to show their family and talk about these insane gringos with snakes. Next they wanted to take pictures of our group, and a couple of minutes later everybody gathered up and they had Miguel take pictures with each of their cell phones. Next we are all passing our cameras to Miguel so we could get our pictures too. It was a lot of fun and laughs. We were now on our way a few minutes before 11am. But, Bob and Robert were going with Robert’s friend and his wife who stayed at the Lodge last night. Everything seems to be going along fine time wise. We were now in La Fortuna and I was approaching the only ALTO sign I have to cross in this town. My brakes go all but a half inch to the floor, not a good sign but I stop. I work for brakes a few and they go way down but they hold. We have to fill our gas tanks up at a station a little way up the road. Hopefully it’s just brake fluid or something minor. I think about that for just a second and I know there nothing minor about brakes. I pull up behind a car getting filled, and I’m thinking I’m going to hit him but the brakes stop just in time. I’d rather be working with big Fer de Lance than driving this car right now. I fill up and tell the guy there my brakes are almost on the floor. He looks at the brake fluid and tell me that’s all he can do; he has to pump gas. I go and look for the jefe; he pointed to a place where a bus is pulling out of. I go over and this guy points to another place, I go over there explain my situation and he will have a look at it. I have found a genuine mechanic in only 3 tries. This is a minor miracle; I called the rental company and told them what I was doing with my problem. They told me to call them back if the problems continued. Two hours later I paid up and we were off. The brakes seem fine then a half hour later, they want down again, but I was not driving though these mountains in this car. I call the company told them I was leaving the car and coming back in one of the other cars. He asked me not to leave it on the side of the road. I told him I would take it back to the town I had just gone though. I found a small market and pulled into parking lot on the side. I told the owner I was leaving the car for the company to pick up either today or tomorrow. I got the name of the store, phone number and town, I called Alex and gave him the info. He said he was leaving right away with a mechanic, I told him good luck. I jumped into Mark’s car and Dan went with Pete. It had just turned dark when we pulled into the Hotel Aeropuerto. I went to Receptcion and they ask if I had reservations, I said yes I made them with Candy last week when we were here. Well, they were not in the book and the hotel was full. Candy came up and we talked. I told her last we wanted reservations for tonight and I would confirm the number. Well I didn’t get back to her and she didn’t follow up with me, so it was a draw on the mix up. She would get us rooms right away at a place close by at the same price. She did and it was a great place with the exception of the restaurant prices, they were considerable lower in price but the quality on the food was great!! Everybody but me would be home tomorrow. I have to wait another day to get my flight back to Panama .

Another trip in the old snake bag of memories !!!!

Thanks!!

Jim ~~~

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Species List

The following is a list of Snakes our Herpers encountered on our trip to Costa Rica; May 3rd to 10th 2014.

Species	Common Name	Live	DOR
Bothriechis schlegelii	Eyelash Viper	10	0
Ninia maculata	Banded Coffee Snake	1	0
Ninia sebae	Red Coffee Snake	3	0
Micrurus mosquitensis	Costa Rican Coral Snake	3	1
Leptodeira septentrionalis	Northern Cateye Snake	21	0
Oxyrhopus petola	Calico Snake	2	0
Emulous sclateri	Sock-headed Snake	2	0
Coniophanes fissidens	Brown Debris Snake	3	0
Pesastes poecilonotus	Bird Snake	2	0
Leptophis ahaetulla	Giant Parrot Snake	1	0
Bothrops asper	Fer-de-Lance	1	2
Sibon nebulatus	Cloudy Snail-eater	8	0
Porthidium nasutum	Rainforest Hognose Pitviper	1	0
Anomalepis mexicanus	Mexican Blind Snake	0	1
Chironius grandisquamis	Ebony Keelback	2	0
Boa Constrictor Imperator	Boa Constrictor	1	0
No ID	1	0
TOTAL 66	62	4

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My Herping Adventure in Costa Rica

May 3rd to 10th 2014

Click to read our Herper’s own Story!!

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Good Morning Jim:

I have been on many trips with  Costa Rica Herping  Adventures  and have Herped with you at Arenal before you brought trips there. This indeed has been the most productive. Most of the snakes found on this trip were not road collected, but found in the field both day and night, a means of herping I prefer most of the time and some road hunting was a nice break. The people on the trip where great, no ego maniacs, people who worked with each other sharing their enjoyment of nature and especially reptiles. The food, help and rooms at the Lodge where great a lot better then when I stayed there 20 years ago. Three of the group where wonderful people whom I had done trips with before, in other parts of Costa Rica, great to see them again. The other 3 herpers where great people and I hopefully made lifelong friends with them also.

Hope to see you again soon, Jim!

Hope to see you again soon, Jim!

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My Herping Adventure in Costa Rica

Nov. 2nd to 11th 2013

Testimonial from Robert:

The trip was phenomenal. The accommodations were incredible- we only had to step out our doors to see all sorts of amazing critters! It was worth the money to know that someone had organized everything in advance- all accommodations were handled for us. I only needed to worry about getting a plane ticket- it was a great, worry-free way to travel and see the things I wanted to see.

I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Thanks!

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Last up dated 6/24/14

Thanks for visiting!!