Puntarenas, Costa RIca National Park!

Wednesday December 26, 2012 (Boxing Day!)
Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Today we hiked through Carara National Park,  50,000 acre rain forest.

It was just Finny and Mom today,

as Leo and Dad both stayed on ship to fight off a bit of a cold. 😦

Its name, Carara, means alligator -and we saw a LOT of them!

It has three different ecosystems, the dry and wet forest and the ,amgroves, which a like swamps. We were led by an experienced naturalist guide who pointed out all the indigenous wildlife and beautiful flowers.

The birds were magnificent. We saw a Magnificent (that is part of its name:) Frigate bird, which was tough to shoot

a Slaty-tailed Trogon

a Squirrel Cuckoo and the very very rare … Great Tinamou bird in the underbrush, which our guide, having done this for over twenty years, has never seen before.

The external root systems of most of the trees was fascinating and quite beautiful. There were stilt roots which are thinner and roomier and look like stilts and buttress roots which like … Buttresses.

Because the soil is so shallow this is the way the trees grow and brae themselves.

The Strangled Fig tree was the biggest we saw

The Agouti is a weasel looking rodent that jump runs. We saw it but could not capture it on camera. Is was true of many of the creatures. We saw a Two-Toed Sloth through our guide’s binoculars. It was huddled between branches in a bug lump. The Sloth only comes sown from its tree, which is usually a Trumpet Tree, once a week to go to the bathroom. It digs a hole and goes in and ten buries it so no predatory animals can smell it.

Insects and more insects oh my!!!! There were a lot!!!!

Finny actually ATE a termite!

(ewwww and uggghhhh). The ones with an orange back are edible and taste according to him and others like minty carrots.

We saw many termite nests and a HUGE wasp nest.

We also the Jesus Christ lizard (yes, really) which runs on water!

We saw a Maiva Festiva lizard

two bigger iguanas

a baby crocodile and many bigger crocodiles.

And, because Finn had to pee we walked off the path a bit and when he had finished, we spotted a Tarantula sider

which the naturalist confirmed!!!!

Safe Travels!

JKLM

🙂

Next: Nicaragua