Highlights Trip 16

Anne and I have been in Costa Rica 79 days; we came in a little early for the trip. I have done just a little herping until now. We stayed in Puriscal for a month. Puriscal is a medium size town in the Central Valley and is very mountainous. We stayed at an elevation of approximately 3,000 feet, nights you need a jacket if you go out and a light blanket for sleeping. In Puriscal we came across a few snakes. First was Stenorrhina degenhartii, the Southern scorpion eater DOR; this was a first for me on this species. We had caught a few Stenorrhina freminvillii, the Northern scorpion eaters near Carara National park years ago. I did not bring my CR snake book, so I had to send out a few emails to ID it, Thanks! Pete and Alex. Next, another scorpion eater DOR, this made me get out for a little road cruising that night. The roads looked snaky but the problem is you are making sharp turns up and down the mountains. I only drove 8 kilometers and back and called it a night; it's just too dangerous. Later that week we came found a 4 foot Boa DOR less then 400 meters from our driveway. Just a short time before we were scheduled to leave, our landlord set up a meeting for me with a friend of hers that's a bug guy, an entomologist, and owns 80 acres of land on a mountain. He has an interest in herps too. I spoke to him on the phone and we set up a time to visit his property. He came by the next morning and we followed him for an hour and a half over a pot hole filled gravel road. This property was ideal for all forms of wildlife. We saw a tree with a hole near the canopy, and a baby scarlet macaw stuck his head out for a short time and gave us a look. The parents were out flying around looking for food. Finally I caught a small litter snake, the only other herp I saw that day was a dart frog. The next month we spent in Atenas, and I found one Boa around 3 foot long. He had a leaf sticking out of his mouth I reached up to grab the leaf and he grabbed me. Kindness sometimes doesn't pay. The next part of our trip we were going to stay with a friend of mine from the Keys. She has a house in Hermosa with a small casita in front where we planned to stay and take small trips from there. Our first side trip was to the Las Caletas on Drake Bay on the Osa Peninsula . The place was nice and we had a good time and met some very interesting people. But no snakes. Next we headed to Puerto Jimenez which was 3 hours away. When we arrived and checked in to Cabinas Jiminez, the manager informed us that our friend Pete was already there and was out and about bird watching. Pete is a close herping friend who would be joining us on the Costa Rica Herping Adventures 16 th trip. Pete is an excellent naturalist, birder and herper, and this will be his 9 th time with me. Anne, Pete, and I did some road cruising from Puerto Jiminez to Rincon and found one snake that we couldn't immediately identify. I finally figured out that it was a mangrove cat-eye snake, only the 2 nd time that I have come across one in 11 years. It was larger and a different color phase than the previous one. This one was a nice orangish-red with black spots, and I considered it an excellent find. That night we saw a northern cat-eye that had just been hit by a car. The next night while doing a little cruising, we found a northern cat-eye fully in-tact. The next night, Pete and I walked in a small shallow, crystal clear river. We found several prawns (a fresh-water shrimp with claws), and Pete found a limb sticking 8 or 9 inches out of the water with 5 sleeping basilisks sleeping on it. Pete saw an eye-shine up the river and walked to it and spotted and caught a nice 3-foot caiman. And that is all the herps I saw prior to beginning the 16 th herp trip~~~

Our trip is actually beginning now as Anne and I pull into the Hotel Aeropuerto. We got there around noon and our first arrival was scheduled for 1:45, and that would be Skip and Jackie. The previous day, I had decided to pop off a last minute email asking that I be notified if anyone had any problems that would affect their arrival. Well, I got one. It seems that Skip and Jackie's plane took off on time, and almost immediately the pilot announced that they had lost one of their hydraulic systems and they would have to return to the airport. Then the captain said that they shouldn't be concerned about all the lights on the fire trucks, as that was just a precaution. They had to be towed in because the plane had no steering. Somehow, with a lot of effort on Skip's part, they got another flight that would get them to San Jose at 8:40 PM They were the last to arrive; everyone else made it on time. We had dinner together around 8 PM an hour and a half later we were all sawing wood. Except a couple of the girls they talked to 2 AM I was told.

Everybody enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel, we packed up, and waited for the delivery of the rental cars which were supposed to be there at 9AM and got there around 9:30 – pretty good time for Costa Rica . We set off in a caravan of 3 cars and 15 minutes later we got on the Autopista del Sol, which saved us about an hour's travel time over what it would have taken just a couple of years ago. We arrived at the Villa Lapas, checked in, put our bags away, and enjoyed the first of what I knew would be many delicious meals here. AT 2 o'clock, we met in front of our rooms and set out for a hunt of the trails by the river. It was very hot. We were not on the trail more than 10 minutes before Pete spotted the first snake of the trip – a Bird Snake in the roots of a tree hanging off the side of the river bank. His head was sticking out of a hole about 12 feet up the bank. Pete came up with a strategy to catch him, but the snake pulled back into the hole before anyone had a chance to make a grab. We started down the trail again a short time later I looked back to see that Ernie was way behind the group and I walked back to see if he was OK. He said he was, but I had my doubts, he did not look good. Ernie is from Minnesota and lives just across the river from Canada (Cold Country). It had been snowing when he boarded the flight yesterday, and here he is in Costa Rica 's heat and humidity just 24 hours later. It was obvious to me that he was not in good enough physical condition to do some of the hikes and climbs that we do on this trip. But he said he was just a little winded. I told him to go slow and I went ahead although to join the group; I continued to lag behind. When I looked back, I saw that he was sitting on the ground so I hurried back to try to him get up. Ernie is a big man and I'm only 140 pounds. It wasn't easy. His color was white, and I knew the heat was affecting him. We walked a little bit to get in the shade, stopped and rested a couple of minutes. He leaned against the cliff and said the he needed his heart medication and gave me the key to his room. He looked stable enough so I took off to go to his room to get his med's. When I got closer to the rooms, I heard voices and found the hotel guide Ronnie and told him that I had a medical emergency and needed help for one guys on the trail. I continued to get his med's. Ronnie was there with Ernie when I got back. Ronnie said that I might be able to get one of the 4x4's up the road next to the river to pick up Ernie. But I had the only key that was available since the 4x4's keys were up in the jungle with the other herpers. Of course my car was only 2 wheel drive, but it had done everything I ask it to do the past 2 1/2 months. Ronnie ran to the bad spots in the road to guide me though. I was able to struggle with the car scraping the bottom and made a 6 point U-turn to get back to the hotel. And I was able get Ernie back down to his room. Once I got him into his room with the air conditioner on, his color began to return, and he said he felt a little better. He had most likely had a heat stroke. This experience has made me realize that I need to emphasize the need for herpers who want to go on my trip to be in good physical condition. After the rest of the group got back from the hike, I found that Jason had seen a Fed-de-Lance but it got lost in the woods before he was able to get any photos. Later that night we did some road cruising and came across a juvenile boa and a blunt headed tree snake, both DOR.

Our plan for the day was to walk up the mountain trails all the way to the top and back, hunting all the way. It took us about an hour to reach the 3 rd bridge. We were about half-way across the suspension bridge when a group of 20+ people with their guide started across from the opposite side instead of waiting for us to get off the bridge. We managed to go belly-to-belly with the others to get across the bridge. We had just gotten off the bridge when another group was coming down the path. At this particular point there was a side path to the road and we decided to walk down that path and let the other group cross the bridge. Then we were going to go back to our original plan and get to the top of the mountain. When a 3rd group came, we decided to pack it in and go back to the hotel – there were just too many people up there, and they were very noisy. The only thing we saw on that trip was 2 dart frogs. We then had lunch and shortly thereafter, I heard that Jason had caught a small Boa on the hotel grounds. Everybody gathered around and took pictures, and we tried to avoid handling him very much because he had an obvious meal in him. The Jason released him in the same area where he had found him. That afternoon Sheri, Jackie, Pete and I decided to walk in the river near the land hoping to find a snake or two. For the most part the water only can up to out thighs but it was running strong in places. Pete and Jackie found some interesting birds. I believe Jackie added a bird to her life list on that walk. We made it almost down to the highway before turning around. Sherri and Jackie found a deeper pool and stayed there. Later at the swimming pool Sherri came up to me and said, "Jim, is a Fer-de-Lance brown with kind of diamond pattern on its back? Yes, I said. Well! we saw two after you guys left! Really, I said, where? Sherri got a big smile on her face and I knew I had been had! Later that afternoon around 5:00PM I said let's go and see if can see the Macaws come in the trees to roost for the night. A five minute drive and we were there. We drove right down to the beach and got out of the cars. Everyone started taking pictures of the sunset and walking on the beach. Within five minutes we heard the Macaws coming, they didn't stop right were we were but landed near by. Jason was able to get a good shot in flight of the Macaws. That night, just before dinner we were able to find 3 cat-eye snakes. After dinner we worked the trails on the other side of the rived and found an additional cat-eye snake. And that was it for day 3.

We were all around the breakfast table enjoying our meal when Ernie joined us and announced that he had seen a 4 foot brown snake up near our rooms. It was moving very fast and he did not make a try for it because he did not know what it was. We deduced from the description that it was a neo-tropical racer. Our hotel is abuts Carara National Park . On the other border of the park is the Tarcoles River . On our side of the river, the land is classified as we tropical wet forest; on the other side the land is classified as tropical dry forest. The result is 2 types of habitat. Certain species do not cross from one area to the other while some will wander into the other area somewhat. Around the hotel on our side of the river, we have many Fe r-de-Lance, some of which will flow over into the dry area for a few miles. We have one snake, however, that never seen in the wet side, and that is the Neo-tropical Rattlesnake. Today we were invited into some properties that have had recent sightings of these Rattlers. Our guide would be waiting for us in front of a restaurant on the Autopista Del Sol. We met him at 10 AM and he took us up to the next exit and stopped in to get permission from the owner for us to look for snakes on his property. The landscape had changed dramatically, and I knew from experience in the US that we were in rattlesnake territory. When we got to our destination, we got out of the cars and Pablo, our guide, said to just look – they could be anywhere. Within 5 minutes, the guide was yelling for me. He had found a snake. I ran over and found him pointing at a Brown Vine Snake on the ground. I picked him up and put him in a bag for photos when we were all together later. 10 minutes went by, and I heard him calling me again. I thought to myself – maybe this is our target snake. It turned out to be a Road Guarder. This one I didn't want to grab because on a prior trip one of our herpers got bit on the ankle which caused same swelling, redness and pain …he didn't feel too hot for a few hours. I used my snake hook to try to pin him and missed – tried again and missed again, and he was lost. Two snakes in the first 15 minutes, and I thought – boy, I like this a lot. We hunted for another 2 hours, and the only things we found was an unidentifiable snake shed. We decided to pack it in, but the Pablo offered to take us to another place where his family lived and had Rattlers on it. Half the group decided to go back to the hotel. Pete, Jason, and I decided to go on the second leg of this trip. This was about a 10 minute drive and we were back to hunting again. We were hunting pasture land that had 20 head of cattle on it. Within a short period, less than 10 minutes, Pete was yelling that he had a Boa spotted. There was a tree that had fallen over and created a hole, and Pete had seen a nice size Boa in that hole. We decided to try to get him out. Pete slipped a snake hook in and caught a coil and pulled him a little way out. I slipped my hook behind a rock that he was under and that got the Boa moving out of the hole. We just let him come. Turned out to be about a five-footer. We took a few pictures, then returned him to his hole. We started looking for holes around the mountain. Pablo found a hole and said there was a tarantula in it. I asked if he could get him out and he said all he had to do was pour water in. He poured just a little water in and the next thing you saw in the hole was a big, beautiful Tarantula. He took one look at us and was back into the hole. Jason used his water bottle to coax him out again and got some great pictures before he went back in. Just before we were going leave Pete came up with another find, a Painted Wood Turtle. After that we went back to the Villa Lapas and took a dip in the pool. After dinner we decided to go to the top of the sky walk and go down to the third bridge and then come out to the road and go back to the cars. I figured this would take an hour and a half and we would be back in our cabinas and ready for bed. Walking the trails, our first spot was made by Jackie. She spotted the Costa Rican Giant Green Anole. This is only the third or fourth time in 16 trips that we have come across this species and we got some very good photos, then moved on. We came to the first bridge with me in the lead. My headlight picked up some eye shine and I recognized the shape of the head as a curious Kinkajou. He was in a tree that was under the bridge but he ducked back out of sight again. I moved my light around and picked up another eye shine in a tree a little further away. It was in a tree, but not close enough to be the same kinkajou. Everyone was trying to get pictures of the Kinkajous, and all got successful shots. In fact a third one came on the scene. I walked a little further down the bridge and couldn't believe what I saw next. Hanging completely upside down on a vine was a Sloth. This is a rare find in this part of the country. They are very few and far between, and to make matters even better, this was a Two-Toed Sloth instead of the usual three-toed sloth. Everybody, including me, was off the excitement meter with all that we had seen. We did some more hiking on the trail and all the talk was about the things we had seen so far. I looked on the edge of the path and saw a beautiful Banded Gecko. I made a grab for it and got it and out came the cameras again. Flash – flash – flash—we were lighting up the jungle. After a half hour or so of no activity, we reached the third bridge and took the path to the left out to the road. Everybody was just about back on the road when Jackie spotted a Helmeted Iguana and Pete yelled – “You'd better bring your cameras back because this one is really special”. The jungle lit up again. As things settled down again, we were almost back to the road when we heard a noise off the path of something moving. Pete said he'd check it out and after about 10 steps Pete asked Jason, who is a professional wedding photographer, if he'd like to get a picture of a big Fe r-de-Lance. Everyone thought he was joking, but he was serious. Then Pete said " Wait, don't anyone come in yet because I can't see him. I don't think he move but I can't be sure". Then he said, "I see him and he hasn't moved. That's the way it can be, you just take your eyes off him for a second and then you can't see him, they blend so well with the forest floor. We took turns walking in and getting within 5 or 6 feet of a beautifully posed 5 foot Fe r-de-Lance. After everybody got their fill of photos, we finally made it to the road with everyone talking about the exciting night we had had. We were walking on the road when Jason yelled “Snake” which he almost stepped on. The snake turned to go back into the forest, so I put my snake hook on it to keep it in place and yelled “Fe r-de-Lance.” After a few dozen more photos, I released it and in another 5 minutes we were in the car heading back to the hotel. My time table of an hour and a half somehow doubled, but we all enjoyed every minute of it.

So far we've had sunshine and light breezes and just beautiful weather, that is, until today. Of course this is the day we had set up to hunt for Sea Snakes. We had to be at the beach at 7 am to catch the taxi boat to take us out to Chino 's boat which would take us on our hunt. All nine of us were ready to go. We hadn't been on the water 5 minutes when I noticed a change in the wind and white caps began appearing. The sky was gray, and the water dark, and I said to myself, “We'll be real lucky to get any sightings today.” Unfortunately, my prediction came true. After an hour of looking, the Captain had a couple of rods put out the back with bait on them. It was bad enough not to see any snakes, but we didn't even get a strike. Everyone was disappointed. After all, how often do hard-core herpers get a chance to catch Sea Snakes. I was totally exhausted and after lunch, I took a 2 hour siesta. Feeling somewhat energized I remembered that we did stop at the bridge to see the crocodiles at the bridge, so next stop the crocodile bridge. This is a BIG tourist attraction in CR. So, somebody came up with the idea of put steel pilings in the middle river under both sides of the bridge. This created kind of a sandbar or I should say mud bar that the crocs now bask on in good size numbers (30 to 40). Everyone was amazed at the size of the bid ones. After that my nap had revived me enough to try to make up for the bad luck with the Sea Snakes by going back and repeating our last night's venture to the sky walk. I didn't expect it to be as exciting as the night before, but you never know. After dinner we took 2 cars and headed up and parking at the gate, we weren't on the trail 2 minutes when I spotted another Costa Rican Giant Green Anole. And that was the last thing worthy of comment, and we found ourselves back on the road walking back to the cars. What a difference 24 hours can make. We were all huffing and puffing going up the hill. Pete, being the gentleman that he is, volunteered to let Jackie and Kathy wait at the bottom while he went up to get the car. He put it in high gear and moved out while the rest of us walked slow and kind of hunted our way back to the car. As he was passing, he stopped and said he'd see us back at the hotel. Sherry asked him if she could ride with him back to the hotel as she didn't want to hike to the top of the hill. She got in and they left. I caught up with Jason and the top where we got in the car and started heading down. Jason yelled – “Fe r-de-Lance.” I stopped the car and Jason said the snake had gone back into the bush. I told him that they sometimes stop once they reach cover and to go to the spot where he had seen him go in and wait for me as I had to move the car from the middle of the road. We checked the area, and this snake obviously did not stop but just kept going. Jason said he was a minimum of 5 feet. Now back in the car another 2 minutes down the road and asked Jason if that was a snake…..he said yes. On gravel roads with potholes, the holes cause shadows and sometimes the shadows look like snakes. I got out and caught one of the longest cat-eyes I've seen in a long time maybe ever. I just moved him off the road. We got back to the hotel and I turned around in the driveway and said let's give this road one more shot. We did – to no avail.

This is the day we planned to visit Carara National Park , which we do most trips. We got to the entrance and brought our tickets for the day. We always go to the second trail which has water in a lagoon that usually has some crocodiles in it. We spoke to one of the guides and he said that the trail was dry. This was the first time I had been on the trail when it was dry. As we walked, the trail we saw some Spiny Tail Iguanas and some Ameivas, but Jason went off trail and spotted an Agouti who was slowly moving thru the forest feeding on vegetation. Everyone was trying to get photos but we lost him after 5 minutes or so. Jackie and Pete were having a good time finding and identifying birds. Finally we arrived at the lagoon and there was a five foot croc in a foot of water that was nice and clear. The water was the lowest I had ever seen it. There was tall grass maybe 20 to 30 feet away from the water that I wanted to check it out for crocs. As I was doing that, the guide came with some clients and said he had seen a four meter croc in the grass. At that point I turned around and came back to the group, I didn't want something 12 to 13 foot long chasing me or having me for lunch. On the way back Jason who was ahead of the rest of us yelled back that he had seen a monkey. We all moved up with cameras in hand. It turned out there was more then one, more like 10 or 12 White Face Monkeys. They moved into the trees above us, Finally some came to the ground and didn't seem to mind that we were close by. A few minutes later some Howler Monkeys started hollering. We knew they were close by but couldn't see them. Finally one of us spotted one high in the tree above us they turned out to be a small troop of 4 or 5. The monkeys moved away and we headed back to the car, less then a half hour later we all were back at the hotel sitting down for lunch. After lunch some of us went to the pool but not Jason and Pete. They went for a hike on the river trail and Jason found a snake. It turned out to be Stenorrhina degenhartii, the Southern scorpion eater, the same snake I found DOR back in Puriscal a few months ago. This was a great find, the first of this species on any of our trips. In addition we found 3 more cat-eye snakes that day. 1

Today was our last day of herping and we didn't have a plan as a group. So at breakfast I asked if everyone would be interested in going to Pablo family's property where Pete, Jason and I got the 5 foot boa a few days ago. But, I told them that I wanted to hunt the property at night. Everyone was enthusiastic about that, I told them that I would check with Pablo and let them know if we could do it tonight. I didn't find out until late in the afternoon. A few hunted on the trails, Jackie and Skip went into Jaco for gifts, the pool had a few of our people in it off and on all day. At dinner we took our traditional photo of our last night dinner.

After dinner we packed into the cars and head out to pick up Pablo. I'm glad Pablo was with us. I would not like to try to find his property at night. We got there and hunted for an hour and a haft with no luck, I was hoping someone would come across the Boa we got the other day. Pablo suggested a spot near by with a small river. When we went there, we found a lots of frogs, I thought this may be good but again no luck. We stayed about an hour walking the river banks. Nada!!

We went back to the hotel but I didn't turn in. I stayed on the dirt road hoping for something. But, it was not to be. This is the first time in sixteen trips that we have been completely skunked for a day. Not one snake live or dead! I glad these days don't come often and I hope it doesn't happen again for 16 more trips. Time will tell !!

Last night at dinner I told everyone that we had to leave early because we had members of our group that had an early flight to catch. We would have time to spare it we left the Villa Lapas by 9:00 AM that is if we don't run into traffic delays. After breakfast everyone went to their rooms and packed, put their luggage in the car and were ready to go at 9:00AM. I really appreciated it; usually it's a pain getting on the road the last day. Anne and I had a departure at 12:30 PM, Sherri a short time after us, Skip and Jackie were leaving around 2:00 PM. The rest of the group would be staying overnight or longer in Costa Rica. We dropped the rental cars and their van took us to the airport; we said goodbye to everyone and wished them well. A couple hours later we were in the air heading home. It had a great 3 months for Anne and me. We had many wonderful experiences and met many interesting people who are now on our list of friends, especially the people we spent the last seven days with.

The following is a list of snakes our herpers encountered on our trip to Costa Rica; May 1st to 7th 2011.

Species	Common Name	Live	DOR
Boa Constrictor	Boa	2	1
Bothrops asper	Fer de Lance	4	0
Leptodeira septentrionalis	Cat-eye Snake (Northern)	12	0
Conophis lineatus	Road Guarder	1	0
Imantodes canchoa	Common Blunthead Tree Snake	0	1
Pseustes poecilonotus	Bird Snake	1	0
Mastigodryas malanolomus	Neo-tropical Racer	1	0
Oxybelis aeneus	Brown Vine Snake	1	0
Stenorrhina degenhartii	Southern Scorpion Eater	1	0
Un-identify		0	1
TOTAL	26	23	3