Day Eight: Lions and Tigers and Snakes, Oh My!

Chestnut Mandible Toucan

Hi everyone! My name is Amanda and I am a junior at St. Mike's from Warwick, Rhode Island. Today was our first full day in Selva Verde and we saw so much!

Our day started at the glorious hour of 7am where we had breakfast with toucans! The lodge set up a small platform for the birds and left bananas for them to eat. We all got great pictures of the Chestnut mandible toucan and the Keel-bill toucan.

Keel billed toucan

Breakfast was waiting for us inside the restaurant. (Nothing like rice and beans, scrambled eggs, toast, and a cup of Costa Rican coffee.)

We met our guide Alexander right after breakfast. Little did we know, there was wildlife waiting for us  right outside the restaurant. Alexander found a blue jean frog (aka strawberry poison dart frog). We also saw the black and green poison dart frog.

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Black and Green Poison Dart Frog

Blue Jean Frog

After another quick sloth sighting (which basically looked like a giant fuzz ball in a tree) we crossed the bridge over the Seraquipi river into the rain forest.This was no Monteverde cloud forest folks. Selva Verde is a true rainforest: hot and humid, lots of palm trees, few epiphytes (plants that grow on trees or other plants), and not so many vines. It was a huge change from the overcast 65 degree windy weather we had at Monteverde. But of course, the hot sun and humidity did not stop us from having a great hike. We saw lots of cool birds, an ocelot paw print, more frogs, and took a group photo in a 300 year old zora tree.

After crossing over the bridge again and exploring the botanical garden, we came back in our mud-covered boots for lunch.I discovered that cold blackberry juice is the perfect treat after hiking for four hours in the rain forest!

Then after the lunch, the boys stuck by the restaurant to do some bird watching.The girls went poolside to cool off, read, and tan. After a while the boys decided to cool off and play cards by the pool. We had a brief poolside encounter with some iguanas and basilisks (which are much smaller than J.K. Rowling described).

A Basilisk

After the pool I took out my field notebook and worked on plant and animal identifications. For this class we have to take pictures and identify some important plant families and animal species. We also have to give an oral report on our favorite organism. Just before dinner Kate gave her presentation on the Resplendant Quetzal, (which we saw here in Monteverde) and Jared gave his report on the basilisk (which we all saw during our hike that morning).

A few people got a surprise before dinner when they saw this guy by the path!!!!

It's a fer de lance, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world! I'm literally terrified to walk anywhere without scanning my surroundings now!
Dinner was full of chatter, laughing, and sending e-mails to home (we have limited wifi here). After a while we decided to go outside to see if we could find any animals. I found this red-eyed tree frog by a small pond!

The red eyed tree frog is Patrick's chosen organism, so he will have to give his report soon. My organism is the white- faced capuchin monkey. We haven't seen them yet but maybe we will get to tomorrow on our boat ride down the river or during one of our early morning bird walks. I hope we get to see one before our trip ends...the are only a few more days left!

Hasta luego!
Amanda