Three weeks snake expedition in different parts of Costa Rica.
Note:
Click on one of the small photos to open a larger copy of it in another browser window.
Keep the other browser window open if you want to look at more photos.
Move the mouse pointer over the small photos to see information text.
The story is very detailed since I might use the information myself if I would like to return.
Booking and contact information for transportations and accommodations are available for TravelHelp members.
We counted the snakes but I forgot to write down all snakes in my diary so therefore the snake count is higher than the snakes mentioned in the diary.
You had to check-in at one of the consoles at the airport. I had already reserved seats on Internet at home but those seats were now due to this occupied and I had to select new seats. Luckily I didn't get the new seats I had selected, instead I kept the seats I had reserved in advance. What a silly program, I work as a programmer and I wonder how they can accept such a stupid program error.
I checked in first while Fredrik took care of my handbag since the weight was more than 10 kg. I had however read on Internet that Continental Airways accepted carry-on bags with a weight up to 40 pounds, or in other words 18 kg. The first flight was however with SAS. They flew for Continental Airlines but we didn't know if that also meant that you could have a weight up to 18 kg.
The plane departed 30 minutes late and you got a sandwich with cheese and ham onboard the plane.
They checked passports and boarding cards at the airport in Frankfurt. There was no security check but you had to answer a lot of questions at the gate for the plane to New York. They also gave you new boarding cards.
I saw some movies onboard the plane such as a really violent movie called City of God. You got something to drink and just some tiny pieces of snacks after an hour. The plane departed an hour later than scheduled and arrived 20 minutes late in New York, or 14:10. We got lasagna and a hot sandwich onboard if I remember correct. It took another 20 minutes before you could leave the airplane.
Everything went to my surprise quite fast at Newark airport. It took just an hour to get to gate C73 which was the gate for the plane to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. You passed the passport check where they took your fingerprints and photo, you checked out your luggage and handed it over to a man after the customs, they also checked the paper you had filled in onboard the plane and there was of course a security check.
Fredrik met a woman he knew who lived in Costa Rica. We ate dinner together with her at the airport and we later went with the same plane to Costa Rica.
We met Jonas and Andreas at gate C73. They told us the bad news that the bags they had checked in hadn't arrived so they had been filling in a form that their luggage was missing.
The plane to Costa Rica was also late. It seemed like all Continental Airways planes are late.
We informed a nice guy at the airport in San Jose that two backpacks were missing. Luckily he could see in his system where they were. He told us that they would be sent to our lodge in Cahuita, where we would stay, as soon as they arrived so we could expect to have them next evening.
I exchanged 350 USD into colones which wasn't so wise. You actually get more for the dollars if you buy things with them directly instead of change them into colones. When you buy things you get 1.000 colones for two dollars.
We passed the security check quickly and there you also handed over the paper you had filled in onboard the plane.
We ordered a taxi bus at a counter near the door out. The taxi cost 16.000 colones to our hotel. We arrived at the hotel 11 p.m. local time. You had to turn the clock back an hour compared to the time in New York. We paid the room and got breakfast tickets for the morning since breakfast was included.
It took a good time before I fell asleep. I suppose that you think a lot about how the coming time in Costa Rica would be and you were also out of rhythm due to the 7 hours time zone difference.
I woke up 3 in the night. I suppose that I hadn't adjusted to the new time zone.
In the morning I saw that my padlock to my bag I had previously checked in was missing. Later I found it broken inside my bag but there was no paper which informed that it was the customs that had done it. I could see that somebody had searched though my things but nothing was missing. Luckily I always keep all my expensive things in my carry-on bag which therefore use to weight more than 10 kg.
We ate a very nice breakfast at 7 a.m. before we took a taxi to the bus terminal at 8:30. The taxi used the meter and it cost 1570 colones.
You have to buy tickets at a counter in advance and we got tickets for the next bus 10:30. The seats were numbered but we couldn't find our seats. After some time however we found our numbers and they where at the two doors where you go off the buss. That was actually really funny, should we sit on the floor at the doors or what? We asked the driver and I think he went out and talked with the staff at the ticket office. He returned and luckily gave us numbers to other seats which were not occupied. The bus was otherwise full. The bus tickets to Cahuita cost around 4.000 colones per person. I think you have to pay in colones.
The bus driver drove like a maniac through the mountains and down towards the Caribbean coast. He stopped for 20 minutes outside Limon around 12:50 until 13:10.
The weather in Cahuita was very hot and the sky was blue. We passed a tree where a sloth (“sengångare” in Swedish) was sleeping just a few meters up.
We went out and looked for snakes almost as soon as we had arrived but first we had to save some of the puppies which had fallen down into a ditch and couldn't come up. We found one yellow eyelash viper.
After dinner we talked with a woman who arranged tours. She said that two guys called Reine and Nicolay might knew a lot about places where you could find snakes in the neighborhood. We went to the place where Reine lived and on our way we saw some young girls throwing stones at something just 10-15 meters ahead. It was dark and I first thought that they were playing something. When we came a little closer we saw that they seemed to throw the stones at something and we hurried towards them. Unfortunately we arrived just seconds too late. They had injured a coral snake so bad that it would die. The poor snake even bit itself in an attempt to protect itself. We had to kill it so it didn't suffer.
Reine said that Nicolay was on a blind date in San Jose but he would come back after a couple of days.
We went out later that evening and searched for snakes. If I remember correct we found three eyelash vipers, one wine snake, three other snakes and one black and white snake that evening. We saw of course also a lot of other animals. We found them on a trail just behind the lodge where we stayed. Some of them we kept in our rooms so we could take photos of them the next day before we released them where we had found them.
In the morning we had a quick walk on the trail behind the lodge just to see if we could find a fer-de-lance but we didn't find any more snakes. We even sneaked into the national park at one place and I was a little uneasy since I carried a snake from yesterday in one of my jacket pockets. What would they say if they found us and saw the snake in my pocket?
We ate breakfast which cost 2.600 colones before we took photos of the snakes and released all of them except two of the eyelash vipers.
We had planned to take a bus 11 a.m. to a national park up in the mountains but it rained too much so we had to change our plans. We visited instead the national park. Fredrik wanted to take some wide angle photos of the eyelash vipers with nice rainforest in the background. We found a nice place where we took some nice photos.
In the park we saw three more eyelash vipers, one of them was inside one of the buildings at the park entrance. On our way home we also saw raccoon (“tvättbjörn” in Swedish ) which ate land crabs and we also saw basilisk lizards.
We ate dinner which cost 6.500 colones and after sunset we walked again on the trail behind the lodge. We passed a tree which had fallen across the trail and continued along a small river on the other side of the main road to Cahuita. It looked very promising but we didn't find anything along the river. We found however the black and white snake which we had released earlier and we found two more eyelash vipers and one wine snake. We also found two red eyed frogs and another tree frog. It had stopped raining and you could see the stars so hopefully it would be better weather the next day.
We had so far seen 16 snakes including the coral snake.
We took some photos of the eyelash vipers at the lodge before we ate breakfast also at the lodge. They have a nice place where you can prepare your own food.
Monkeys passed by daily and I took some photos of two different species.
I ate rice and chicken to dinner which cost 2.500 colones. We saw a sloth on our way home at a tree in a garden nearby. Many times you find them in trees close to houses. The trees are the same size as fruit trees in Sweden so you can see them quit close. Fredrik whistled softly and the sloth started to look up towards the sky. The guide Tino had taught him that. They think that there is an eagle up in the sky.
After dinner it was a little dark, but we took some photos of one of the red eyed frogs we had caught yesterday before we released it.
I, Andreas and Jonas went out after dark around 7 p.m. We found 4 snakes, one black and white, one cat eye and two thin snail eating snakes. We found a nice trail on the backside of the lodge.
Up in a tree close to our house we could see the eyes of an animal. We took a photo of it just to see if we by the help of the photo could figure out what kind of animal it was. The photo was however too dark. When I came home I just used "auto contrast" in Photoshop and all of a sudden you could see the animal quite clearly. I think it is a kinkajou.
I went to bed early that evening. It had rained most of the day.
It had been raining heavily all the night so I thought that there would be a flooding outside but everything looked as usual. I went out for a walk in the village 6:30. The sloth sat and slept on a branch. The poor animal was soaking wet but I suppose that it was used to rain. I whistled but there was no reaction. Some hummingbirds drank water drops from palm leaves. A few persons where out in the village and some shops were opening. The vultures (“gamar” in Swedish) sat in a tree and tried to dry their feathers. I saw a couple of beautiful toucan eating fruits in a tree. You could hear the howler monkeys in a distance as usual every morning. Land crabs ran down into their holes when you came to close. Two of the many dogs in the village followed me when I walked by. I saw a hummingbird sitting in a tree just a few meters from our cabin when I returned. It warmed itself now and then during the ever ending search for nectar from nearby flowers. Everywhere you could hear birds singing. The vegetation is very green at the Caribbean cost since it rains so much.
It rained a lot so we couldn't go out taking photos. When it stopped raining we spent a little time trying to catch a big land crab which lived in a hole near our cabin. We made a rope of roots hanging down a tree. We put the middle part of the rope at the hole and then we did some other things. The crab was out when we came back. I and Fredrik took each end of the long rope and counted to three before we pulled the rope as fast as we could. I have to admit that I was skeptical to this method of catching a crab but it worked. The crab flew 2-3 meters before it landed on the ground. We rushed towards it and managed to catch it before it found one of the holes in the ground.
We walked into the park when the rain stopped and we saw an eyelash viper. Jonas and Andreas saw another on a surfing board at the entrance. A guide said that we were not allowed to cross the river since there was too much water. We saw however a man coming back from the other side. He used a walking stick so he could check how deep the water was before he slowly crossed it step by step. He was clever and walked a bit out in the sea where it wasn't so deep. The water just went to his knees. It soon started to rain again but luckily we found a place where we could stand under a roof. Another Swedish couple with 6 children also found it.
You could see a lot of green iguanas in the nearby trees close to the entrance of the park.
After the short visit to the park we went to Reine to see if Nicolay had turned up. Nicolay wasn't there but Reine showed us a place where you could find the beautiful black and green frogs. It was close to the road at a place where they threw garbage. The garbage attracted flies and other insects which the frogs ate. The frogs are very quick so it wasn't easy to catch them since you have to be careful so you don't hurt them. We managed to catch two of them which we put in a plastic box Reine had given us. Later we took photos of one of the frogs close to our lodge before we went back and released them where we had found them.
Jonas went to the pond at our lodge after sunset and came back and told us that there where a lot of red eyed tree frogs. A male frog sat on top of a female frog on a leaf. There was another frog on another leaf and there were two frogs up in the nearby tree branches over the pond.
Nicolay came to our lodges. We decided to meet and talk a little after dinner since he should meet a friend at a pub first. We ate fish, red snapper, which was delicious.
We went out after dinner and after we had talked with Nicolay. We were out until midnight. We saw one of the eyelash vipers we had caught before and also the black and white snake again. We saw however a new eyelash viper and also a new bigger black and white snake. We found a tree frog which we took some photos of. It jumped and landed on Andreas' mouth, luckily he had his mouth closed. The lodge owners' dog followed us all the way when we walked on the trail behind the lodge.
We found a black and green frog at a fallen tree and another nice looking tree frog.
Jonas found a big bullfrog which we placed under a basket so we could take photos of it the next day. It escaped however.
So far we had seen 24 snakes.
It rained the whole morning. I checked Internet and saw that there should be scattered showers the whole day and on Friday it should be even worse, namely rain. Scattered showers seemed to be one and a half hours without rain and then one hour with a lot of rain. It was impossible to go out for a longer walk since you had to be careful with your camera equipment. On Internet you could see that it should be raining during 10 days at the Caribbean coast. Everywhere else in Costa Rica they had sunshine or partly cloudy weather.
We took some photos of the black and green frog, the crab we had caught and the black and white snake before we released them. I also took some photos of the village and the iguanas at the park entrance. There was still too much water so you couldn't cross the river inside the park.
We phoned Tino but didn't book any guide tours. We also phoned the hotel in Manzanillo and booked two rooms. The phone numbers in Manzanillo have been changed. You have to add 2 on ordinary numbers and 8 on mobile numbers.
In the evening we ate pizza before we went out. We had heard that there should be a lot of snakes down at the sea behind the police station. It rained a lot and we only saw a rat.
It rained a lot so you couldn't do anything. We had finally had enough of all the rain so we all decided that it was best to travel to the other side of Costa Rica, namely the Pacific coast. We therefore cancelled our booking at Manzanillo. We packed our things quickly and Andreas went before the rest of us to buy bus tickets at the bus terminal. He managed to buy some of the last tickets for the next bus which went 9:30.
There were some road problems up in the mountains so we arrived in San Jose 14:30, an hour late. It rained almost all the way up into the mountains. You leave the mountains close to San Jose and go downhill a little while. It stopped raining before you reached San Jose and everything was dry in the city. The vegetation wasn't as green as it is at the Caribbean coast and it looked as if it hadn't been raining for some time.
At first we had thought of renting a car at the airport to avoid the problem of getting in and out of the city. It would however be cheaper and quicker to rent it in San Jose. We met a nice taxi driver who recommended Adobe. He phoned them but they didn't have any available cars. He made some other phone calls and we ended up at Thrifty which had some cars. I think that they were very good and can be recommended if the price is okay. Fredrik discussed the price with them and managed to get it down to 427 USD a week for a four wheel driven car. It was a little car called Jimny. You had to store most of the luggage just behind the back seats. We had to see if we could get our things inside the little car before we rented it. We managed to squeeze three backpacks behind the backseats with a lot of force. The man who worked at the car rental agency looked a bit worried. He probably wondered what kind of maniacs he was about to rent the car to. The fourth backpack we placed between the two people in the backseat. We had to drive with our handbags on top of our knees. Fredrik was driving so one handbag we managed to put down at the feet of the person who sat in the front seat. The car was really filled up and it was now so heavy loaded so the ordinary light beam was too high. We met many drivers when it was dark who blinked at us since they thought that we had the full beam on.
We went towards Coco beach in search for the tropical rattle snake. We stopped and ate at one place and across the street you could see a man who watered some plants. The grass along the roads was brown so it hadn't rained much. The east and west coast of Costa Rica have very different climate due to the very high mountains in the middle of the country.
We reached Coco beach after sunset and talked with a guard at a luxury hotel. He said that there were a lot of rattle snakes at Playa Conchal. We found a cheap hotel, Cabinas Coco Azul, and quickly stored our things since we were all eager to get out and try to catch a rattle snake. There should be a dirty road towards the beach but it was difficult to find it. Fredrik talked with some policemen and said that he also worked as a police officer. The policemen smiled and said 'colleague, colleague!'. All of a sudden we got police escort in search for rattle snakes. The police car stopped however where the small road towards the beach started and they pointed that we should drive into that road. We found a dead snake on the road. The road got really bad and it was difficult to drive even with a four wheel driven car. All of a sudden we reached a place where the road stopped at the sea but there where no beach so we had obviously not reached Conchal. The surrounding terrain looked however promising so we went out for a walk.
We found a sleeping iguana and we saw many mice. Fredrik tried to catch the iguana but missed since he was afraid of getting bitten. It is quite funny since if it had been a deadly poisonous snake he would have caught it without any hesitation. We had to walk steep upwards and downwards along a fence. It was so difficult so I was soaking wet of sweat. Luckily nobody slipped and fell down so we and the car returned without injuries or damages to the hotel half past that night.
Playa Coco seemed to be a nice party place and maybe it would be nice to come back during other circumstances when you don't have really expensive camera equipment to look after. We didn't dare to leave the camera equipment at a hotel room and you couldn't take it with you out after sunset due to the risk of being robbed.
We ate breakfast and asked some persons in the village if they new places in the neighborhood where you could find rattle snakes. We got some information but we weren't sure how much we could trust the people. We decided that it was better to drive to Santa Rosa national park and talk with the guides there.
The entrance fee to the park was 10 USD per person which you only had to pay once even if you stayed several nights. They don't close the park during night so you can drive out and in without problem. The staff at the entrance leaves however 4 p.m. if I remember correct.
We drove down the 7 km to the office on a very good road to check if they had any beds available. There were almost no people at all. We got a room all by ourselves. The room was otherwise for eight persons. It cost 15 USD per night per person and we booked for two nights.
Just outside the hostel where a lot of big, black iguanas.
We ate lunch which cost 4.800 including a big bottle of water. You can eat as much as you want at Santa Rosa which is really good.
We met a woman from Canada who did some DNA research on butterflies. They collected caterpillars and documented what kind of leaves they ate. They kept them until they turned into butterflies so they also could see how they look like during all their lifecycle. They sent pieces of the butterfly to a laboratory for DNA tests. She told us that there were 10.000 species before but due to the DNA tests they now almost daily find new species so now there are 15.000 species.
The woman wanted to go with us down to the beach and look at the crocodiles. Her car was bigger so she suggested that we should take it which we did. She hadn't paid extra for insurance so it was brave to go with four unknown guys and to let Fredrik drive her car.
We saw something in a distance which probably was a crocodile. We saw however many black iguanas, some crabs, parrots and a bird of prey eating something which looked like a big moray eel. It was however far away so it was impossible to say exactly what it was.
A big iguana tried to hide inside a tree stock. There was however not much room so it felt vulnerably when you took close-up photos of it. It opened its mouth prepared to bite and made a lot of noise.
After dinner we just found a frog behind our building. We took the car down to a place where we searched for rattle snakes but we didn't find any. I saw some birds which I first thought were baby birds but they flew away when I got too close. There were a lot of birds sleeping on the road and you constantly scared them away when you came driving.
We had set the alarm clock on 5 a.m. since we wanted to go out early. I and Fredrik went into the forest on a narrow trail. We got lost but luckily the sun hadn’t gone up far so we could use the sun to find our way back to a road. On our way back we found a dead snake and some dead scorpions on the road.
We ate breakfast at 7. We heard that people from National Geographic had seen a big rattle snake, or at least a big snake. We also heard that a woman who worked in the kitchen saw a coral snake behind the house where she slept almost every evening. People also told us that many had seen rattle snakes behind the camping area and at the nearest trails.
We looked behind some houses but only saw a bat sitting on one wall. We also found a scorpion under a stone with plenty of baby scorpions on its back. We went to the nearest trail which seemed very promising, especially when there was a creek with a little water.
We found another quite big scorpion which we tried to catch since we wanted to take some photos of it. Jonas said that you could let them creep on your hand without being stung. Fredrik tried it but managed to get stung in his finger anyway. I suppose that he might have moved his finger just a little. Jonas tried to calm Fredrik by telling him that scorpions in Costa Rica are not deadly poisonous. I am not sure that it was any comfort. Fredrik said that it hurt a lot but it didn’t get swollen like when you are stung by a bee.
Jonas caught one of the big tarantulas we saw so we could take a photo of it.
If you followed the trail to the left you came to a bridge over the creek. The bridge formed a cave where an awful lot of bats lived. We entered the cave from both entries and the bats were trapped between us. It was bats everywhere so it was like a scary movie.
We found a couple of blind/worm snakes. Fredrik took some photos of an iguana and the rest of us walk home.
It took quite a long time before Fredrik turned up at the hostel. He had lost his way when he had followed a creek. He had found two snakes, one of them he had in his pocket. He had also seen a snake that had eaten a frog outside the restaurant. We run to the restaurant since we also wanted to have a look at the snake and hopefully take some nice photos of it. Unfortunately it had already swallowed the frog and mowed a bit up in the tree.
After lunch we saw a couple of deer, an anteater and something called an agouti just outside the restaurant.
After lunch we went by car up to La Cruz where we bought some food and filled up petrol.
We had booked a meeting with a guy after dinner at 8 p.m. but he never turned up. He was otherwise going to show us where he had seen coral snakes. I and Jonas went and had a look behind some houses before the planned meeting and found a snake which we first thought was a viper. We also saw a rat going into one of the buildings. We all found a coral snake anyway at a tree just outside the restaurant and we found another one at the creek down at the trails. Fredrik found a striped snake which we had to put in my backpack. Jonas found a huge toad which he put in his backpack.
The coral snakes were really wild when you caught them. They bit anything they could get their teeth into. They curled their tail in a strange way and moved so fast so it was actually difficult to see what was the head and what was the tail of the snake. You should obviously never touch them without thick gloves which we used when we caught them.
On the way home we passed by the restaurant which was just a couple of hundred meters from the hostel. On the ground was a two meter long boa constrictor creeping. What a luck! It was very calm and didn’t try to bite at all. Someone put it around my neck when I was writing my diary.
All our snake bags were filled with snakes which we were going to take photos of the next day so we didn’t know where we should place the boa. We solved the problem by using a pillowcase for one of the smaller, not poisonous snakes. The guy who led the work for the National Geographic team had a look on the snakes in our room.
We had found 38 snakes in total but also seen some frogs.
The guys from National Geographic have told us that we could follow them to the place where they worked. We could see what they did and see if we could find the 2 meter long snake they had seen. We decided that we should see each other after breakfast. We thought the breakfast opened 7 a.m. but it opened already 6:30. We therefore met them on our way to the restaurant. They had already eaten so we missed the opportunity to go with them. We had anyway a lot of snakes we planned to take photos of so it was no big deal.
We took photos of the boa constrictor, coral snake, another snake and the big toad.
We had problems with army ants when we took the photos. They passed by but luckily missed the spot where we were. They scared up insects and there were a lot of birds in the surrounding trees which had a good opportunity to catch some of the insects. A bigger bird flew by between the trees at an incredible speed. It must have been a hawk but I couldn't see if it caught any of the birds. On our way back we saw a lonely capuchin monkey who made a lot of noise. I think it had lost its group or family and now didn't know where they were.
National Geographic built a small cabin up in a tree and set up wires between the trees over a waterhole. The wires were used for cameras which could be used both day and night. They would come back in mars when the actual filming would take place. The plan was to film jaguars. They hoped to see the cat three or four times, if they were lucky, during the 6 weeks they planned to film. The guy who should do the filming had been working with that for four years and he was now only 22 years old. He had been visiting Santa Rosa national park before but then he filmed ants. He had also been filming leopards in Sri Lanka and lions / hyenas in Africa. He found a name of a photographer on Internet and asked if he wanted assistance. He now worked for a company in England who was contracted by National Geographic.
I took some photos of birds after lunch behind the camping and some photos of a younger iguana.
I and Fredrik took the car to a place where you could take photos of the sunset just before dinner.
After dinner we all took the car and went to a place outside the park where we searched for rattle snakes. We didn't find any rattle snakes but we found four other snakes that evening. The last one we almost drove over on the 7 km road to the park headquarters. We stopped the car and jumped out quickly. At first we didn't see any snake under the car but then we found one trying to climb up into the car at the right front wheel.
Fredrik drove back to our hostel but the rest of us jumped of at the camping and went looking for snakes at a trail behind the camping place. Jonas found a nice looking lizard which looked almost like a Leopard gecko.
We had now seen 49 snakes in total.
When Jonas went up from bed he felt something crawling on his arm and brushed it away. A 3-4 cm long scorpion fell to the ground in our room and quickly run under one of the beds.
I took some photos nearby of a snake we had kept during the night. When I came back to the hostel an ant bit me. I then discover that the back of my t-shirt was covered with red ants. I must have touched a branch when I took the photos and didn't see when they had crawled over to my t-shirt. I desperately quickly removed them during some frenetic seconds.
We also took some photos together of two other snakes.
We said goodbye to the "National Geographic" team. We were going down to Nicoya Peninsula since we had heard that there should be a lot of rattle snakes. The film team promised that they should cut in a film sequence of a rattle snake for us if they saw one. We took some photos of the lizard Jonas had found the previous night before we left Santa Rosa national park. I liked the park and it is a place I would like to come back to.
We drove down on the peninsula and passed the Santa Cruz and Nicoya towns. We stopped at one place and bought some hamburgers at a Burger King. They had converted a bus into a kitchen where they prepared the food. We also bought water melons at another place on the way. At one place I saw a dead animal beside the road which looked like a armadillos (“bältdjur” in Swedish). The road was terrible with 10-15 cm deep holes in the asphalt. We drove quite fast so I was a little bit afraid that my camera equipment or PC would get damaged when we hit one hole after the other. Luckily the journey went without problem.
At one place we saw some kids with a big, dead black iguana. I first thought that they had found it on the road where it had been killed by a passing car. One of the kids run into the house and came back with a big slingshot which he proudly showed us. They had obviously killed the lizard with that and they said something that it tasted like chicken so I suppose that they were going to eat it. To catch and eat a lizard where they lived was maybe not so different from catching and eating a fish or crayfish in Sweden.
In the evening we drove a little with the car on a steep road uphill in search for rattle snakes but without luck. We only saw some kind of wild cat on the road, unfortunately much smaller than a jaguar. We had heard that there were a lot of rattle snakes in the nearby hills and we had asked the owner if we could walk on his property. He said that it was okay if we didn't shoot the snakes. We assured him that we should just take photos of them. We all hoped that the 50th snake would be a rattle snake but the only snake we found was a worm or blind snake with a yellow head. Andreas found his second shell from a land turtle.
We had found a very nice place where we spent the night. The owner was also very nice, too nice actually. He couldn't speak English but tried to tell us a lot of things anyway. We were lucky if we could understand half of the things he tried to tell us. We would like to talk with each other at the restaurant but he wouldn't leave us and we just couldn't tell him to go away. You got the impression that he hadn't met another person for ages but he had of course his wife and a lovely daughter.
We ate fish for dinner and it was really good. He told us that it was caught the same day and that wasn't hard to understand since it almost melted in your mouth when you ate it.
I went out for a short walk early in the morning but didn't see anything special.
We ate breakfast which cost 2000 colones and an extra 1000 colones for fresh juice.
I and Fredrik had the previous evening given them all our dirty clothes which they washed directly. The weight of the clothes was 6 kg and we had to pay 7.500 colones to get them washed. We had to wait a little until the clothes had dried in the sunshine before we could continue our journey.
We had been told that there was a ferry going to Puntarenas at 12:30 so we wanted to be at the ferry terminal in good time to catch it. The price for a car and four persons was around 11.000 colones. The ferry was really slow.
We had given up the search for rattle snakes and instead we were going up in the mountains in search for two types of pit vipers. Jonas had consulted our big "bible" where you could read a lot about all the reptiles in Costa Rica. He had also been reading Lonely Planet and told us that there is a little place called Sucre up in the mountains where you could find guides who could guide you in the nearby national park. Sucre wasn't a big village so we more or less passed by it without noticing it. We ended up at the next city called Quesada where we after a lot of driving finally found a nice hotel at the park next to a casino.
I and Fredrik ate a pizza at Pizza Hut and we made a short visit to a karaoke bar. It seemed to be the only nightlife that city had to offer on a Wednesday evening.
We changed our mind and didn't go to the national park at Sucre. We weren't sure that we could find a guide and even if we found a person who could guide us it wasn't sure that he understood English. We decided instead to go to a place called "World of snakes" which Jonas had found in the guide book. It was a good decision since the people there were very friendly, especially when we told them that we looked for snakes in Costa Rica. Fredrik told them that he had previously been in contact with them since he was interested in buying some snakes of them. He wondered if he could see some of the snakes they had for sale and they showed us the buildings where they kept the snakes. A guy called Roberto took care of the adult snakes and Adraina took care of the new born snakes.
Roberto had been bitten by an eyelash viper and it wasn't a big deal he told us so he hadn't gone to the hospital. It didn't sound so scary until he said that his whole arm got really swollen during some days.
Adriana's former boyfriend had also been bitten but he had been bitten by a little fer-de-lance in his finger. The finger had turned black but he had refused to go to the hospital since he was sure that they would have amputated the finger. Adriana had taken care of him and after some time he got well again.
They told us that they have around 600 snake bites in Costa Rica each year and 50% of them are bites of fer-de-lance if I remember correct. 20 people die each year by snake bites.
Roberto said that you could find the vipers we where looking for at a nearby place called "Bosque del Ninjos" or in other words the children's forest.
We went to a waterfall in the forest where Fredrik took some photos of the water. We started to go back and Fredrik had been running back when he saw the viper in a tree next to the trail. I, Jonas and Andreas had just walked by that place without seeing the snake and it was incredible that Fredrik had seen it running. Anyway, we got some nice photos of it.
We spent the night at a hotel in the nearby town called Grecia northwest of Alajuela. We ate food at a restaurant and pub close to the hotel. A drunken woman was really interested in us and I think she did her best to get one of us to follow her back home to her bed. I am not sure if she was a prostitute, just drunk or maybe both. She talked a lot in Spanish which we didn't understand and after some time she walked away. The waiter came to us and told us that he was sorry if the girl had been bothering us.
I took a shower and went out a little later with Jonas and Andreas. There was more nightlife in a graveyard than in that town. The only place seemed to be the pub and restaurant where we had just eaten. They ordered beer and I ordered my usual Cuba Libre. We passed and hour or something like that talking before we went back to the hotel for a nights rest.
After the hotel breakfast we had a quick visit at World of Snakes since we wanted to thank them for the advice to visit the children's forest and also tell them that we actually found one of the rare snakes.
We met Adriana and the other guys again. I remember that Adriana liked scorpions and she often took them out of her house and released them outside. She liked that they killed cockroaches which she thought was really repulsive. She also told us that she had been attacked by a huge fer-de-lance. Her former boyfriend had taken out the snake from its cage and somehow the snake managed to escape. Adriana was simply in its way and she couldn't escape since there was a closed door behind her back. The snake tried to bit her three times but luckily she managed to avoid the bites by using a plastic cover as a shield. Her boyfriend finally managed to catch the snake with a snake with a pair of tongs. What a woman. Whow!
It was not easy to drive into San Jose. We passed the airport and saw a traffic sign which said that you should turn left for Uruca. We decided to drive that way since then we wouldn't have to travel through the whole city center. Unfortunately there wasn't a sign which should have informed you that you should have turned right at the next crossing. We therefore went in a loop through Santo Domingo and another village before we came into San Jose on the Central Street and found the Caribbean bus terminal. At the terminal we arranged so we could drive after a taxi to the Thrifty car rental agency. It was just one block from the terminal on the other side of the central street so we only had to pay the taxi 1000 colones.
The car was still dirty but we didn't have to pay extra for washing it and luckily the car hadn't been damaged. We had really used that car.
I and Fredrik said goodbye to Jonas and Andreas since they were going home with a flight the next day. We walked to the terminal with our luggage and arrived around 12. We got tickets for the next bus to Horquetas wich departed 13:15. It cost just a little more than 1500 colones.
We didn't know where we should get off but luckily Fredrik found out that the woman behind us also was going to Horquetas so we just had to get off the bus together with her.
I had completely forgotten where the office was located but luckily Fredrik remember a little more and we also got directions from other people who also had been going by the same bus. The two restaurants were located close to the street. The cabins were located at the first little road to the left and the office of the rainforest resort was located at the next little road to the left.
We went to the office first but it might have been better to stop by at the Buenas Aires Cabinas first since that was much closer. Anyway, we met a very nice guy called Berny at the office. He told us where we could find red eyed tree frogs, red eye stream frogs, poisonous blue jeans dart frogs and glass frogs. He told us that we could ride up in the morning instead of taking the tractor up in the afternoon.
We went to a restaurant to get some food and afterwards we prepared our baggage for the trip up in the mountain the next day.
Berny had arranged so the restaurant opened a little earlier and we could have a breakfast at 7:30. An hour later we turned up at the office where we stored some things which we didn't need during our stay at the lodge up in the mountain rain forest.
At 9 a.m. we started our horse ride together with a guide and another nice, older couple from USA called Ralph and Ann. The journey up took almost 4 hours. We used the horses for almost three hours, I think, and then we walked the last bit on a trail through the forest.
We found two snakes on our way up. The first one we found on the tractor road. We didn't know what kind of snake it was so we took a photo of it. On the trail through the forest we found a beautiful, green parrot snake. The guide told us that we could take it with us since we wanted to take some photos of it after lunch. We had of course to release it afterwards where we found it.
We had spaghetti for lunch 13:00 which was served without any meat. Afterwards we went together with a nice guy called Cory to the place where we found the parrot snake. Cory was from Canada and worked as a volunteer. We took some nice photos of the snake before we released it.
We walked on the tractor road on our way back since we had heard that they had seen snakes on it recently due to the hot weather. We found a blue jeans frog, and a stream anolis lizard got scared when we passed by and swam to the bottom of a little water pool where it tried to hide in the muddy water.
The tractor arrived around 6 p.m. with our luggage together with a group of 14-16 people who had booked a round tour in Costa Rica with the travel agency G.A.P.
We carried our stuff up to our room. It looked a little better than before but not much. There were still holes in the mosquito nets used instead of some windows but at least they had put up mosquito nets for the beds which were a huge improvement.
We had originally booked accommodation in the Casitas which had bunk beds without electricity but Berny arranged so we got the same room as before to the same price which was really nice. Maybe we got it since we had booked so many nights. Other people usually only stayed for two nights.
The dinner was served at 18:30. We got a little piece of chicken together with the standard rice, beans, vegetables and juice.
We went for a night walk after dinner during a couple of hours. We saw only one snake. Afterwards we relaxed at the restaurant where we bought beer and Coca Cola. Nectar eating bats visited the sugar bottles every 5 seconds or so. You could take photos of them just a few decimeters away and I managed to get some really nice photos. Later I showed Cory one of the photos and he told me that it was the best photo he had seen anybody taking of the bats.
Last time we visited the rainforest lodge it had rained all the time. Now we seemed to be lucky since the weather had been wonderful and the sky was starlight. It was very cold when you slept that night. I used two blankets.
I walked for a little while before breakfast which was 7:30 a.m. I saw a coati (“närbjörn” in Swedish) searching for something to eat like a pig not far from the dining house. To breakfast you got rice, egg and bread.
After breakfast we went and searched for a big, 2 meter long fer-de-lance Nelson had seen at a bridge over one of the creeks. We didn't find the snake but I took some photos of two lizards and of the leaf-cutter ants.
Fredrik bathed in the river between the two waterfalls while I took some photos of stream anolis lizards.
I took a very cold shower before I went to bed and discovered that my whole back was mosquito bitten. I had maybe 30 - 50 bites and each of them looked really red. I got a shock since it looked so terrible. Now I understood why my back had itched when I slept. I had wondered if it had been bed bugs.
The G.A.P. group where leaving early so they had breakfast 6 a.m. Fredrik arranged so he could eat with them but I missed the early breakfast since I arrived 20 minutes past 6. They had then already taken away most of the food. I just took a warm cup of tea and some of the cakes. I returned 7:30 and ate breakfast with the other people.
Fredrik went out and jumped on stones up a river in search of fer-de-lance but he didn't find any snakes.
I asked Nelson where you could find the blue jeans frogs and was informed that you could see them behind the butterfly garden which was a big tent. I searched but didn't find any. I talked about it with Cory and he told me that I had to go inside the butterfly garden and look under leaves. I was lucky and saw one. I prepared my camera equipment on a table which only took some seconds. The red and blue frog was gone when I returned to the place a few meters away where I had seen it. Incredible that such a colorful frog could disappear so completely. I visited the place another time and managed to take a photo but the frog became unfortunately dirty.
The food at the lodge is quite good but I think it was better at Santa Rosa national park. When you are inside national parks and places like the rainforest lodge you have to accept that you don't get any luxury but I don't think you should accept the bad conditions at the lodge, or at least I don't want to accept it although I didn't complain. When we arrived there were no lamps inside our room but two guys put lamps in the empty sockets the first evening. The problem was that they didn't work. I saw them blink one night during some minutes and that was all. I told Nelson and Cory about it but I don't think they checked it up. Everybody needs to hang up wet clothes so why haven't they put up ropes outside the cabins. I think we should have warm water. A couple of times it was warm during a few minutes, but otherwise the water in the shower was ice cold. You could charge batteries in a dirty room where they store empty bottles. The cable was actually lying on top of empty bottles and the staff didn't keep an eye of the things so you couldn't leave any things of value there. They had no adapters. The toilets didn't work one day since there was no water. There were locks on the doors so you could lock them from the inside but you didn't get any keys so you could lock them from outside. You could get water from a tap at the restaurant but the tap was too big so only half of the water went inside you bottle. There seems to be one million things you can easily improve but nobody seems to care, maybe because the owner and managers doesn't visit the place very often.
Ralph, the nice American man, wanted to join us during our night walk. We had promised Nelson that we should keep quiet about it since he took 15 USD for a night walk. We told Ralph that it would take at most two hours but instead we almost got lost and it took three hours and a quarter. Luckily his wife had fallen asleep and didn't worry. He had no problem with the walk although he was around 65 years old. We didn't find any snakes.
Fredrik saw a big rat in the restaurant when we returned for beer a Coca Cola.
Ralph and Ann left after breakfast so it was only we, another older couple from USA and a younger couple. Fredrik arrived a little late to breakfast since he had gone down to the waterfall to take some pictures.
Ralph talked about education. He had been working as a teacher with kids who had problems. He said that it was really important to have a lot of patience. The younger man agreed and said that he also was patient but then his wife started to laugh which was quite funny. I don't think she agreed with him.
Nelson showed us a place behind the generator where they trow out the leftovers from the restaurant. There were around ten coatis. Nelson had previously said that they lived in a tree behind the lodge.
After breakfast we went along the road all the way down to the bridge and looked for eyelash pit-vipers but didn't find any. We found however a snake which we put in one of the pockets of my jacket that had zippers. We were going to take photos of it later before we released it.
At lunch Fredrik told the older woman from USA that I had a snake in my pocket. She thought that we were joking and thought that Fredrik was talking about something only we men have. I told her that the snake was in my jacket pocket and not in my trousers. After lunch we showed them the snake inside the butterfly garden so they could take some photos of it. I and Fredrik also took some photos at the road before we released it where we found it.
I walked on a trail close to the cabins which was 1300 meters long. I walked quite fast so it took just around 30 minutes. I only saw some frogs.
After breakfast we went out and walked together with the younger couple from Canada and Netherlands. Cory also joined us. The Canadian woman, Heather, went first of us in the beginning but we hadn't walked far when she thought that it might be better if one of the snake guys went first. We decided that it was best that Fredrik went first and the rest of us followed him. We had probably just walked a few minutes with him first when he suddenly shouted fer-de-lance, "Step back". The quite big snake set off into the vegetation with Fredrik just behind it. Fredrik managed to stop it after around 5 meters and with a little aid from me he got a good grip of it behind its head. The other people probably thought that it was the most exciting walking tour they had done. They got a god view of the snake's really long teeth. We had only one large snake bag so we decided that Fredrik should run back to the lodge with the snake and leave it there. We needed the bag if we were lucky and found an even bigger snake or maybe the snake we dreamt of to see, namely a bushmaster.
Fredrik returned after a little while. Nelson had given him a net cage where he could have the snake while we were out walking.
We found a thin, snail/frog eating snake and also a nice coral snake imitation. The last snake I put in my jacket pocket since we wanted to take photos of it afterwards.
We saw a nice waterfall and we bathed in a pool just above it. It was a little cold but it was nice with a bath.
Heather was quite amazing and much tougher than she looked like. She walked very fast but one time we had to wait for her just a little moment. She told us that she slipped with her walking stick and then her arm had popped out so she had to push it back again. She said it like it was the most natural thing in the world. Whow! She told us that she had been riding a lot and she had held a horse when she was younger when it had tried to get away with the result that her arm popped out the first time.
Heather and Coen had by the way seen Jaguar tracks.
We went back so we didn't miss the lunch at 1 p.m. A humming bird flew in under the roof and attacked a mirror two or three times before it flew away again. It must have seen its mirror image and thought that it was an intruder in its territory.
After lunch Fredrik took out the snake since we wanted to put it in a smaller cage. He had a grip behind the snakes head and tried to remove some skin with his left hand. The snake got really nervous so he had to release it. It is incredible how fast a snake can be. The snake bit after his right hand as soon as it was released but luckily Fredrik was quicker.
We took the snake down to the waterfall since Fredrik would like to have a photo of it with the waterfall in the background. Cory, the volunteer, helped us. When we were almost ready with the photo session Nelson turned up. He informed us that we had to leave the next day. We had been thrown out which was quite amazing. Later we heard that the chef, who made the good food, had phoned the manager when he had heard that we had a deadly poisonous snake in a cage. The manager had said that we were not welcome there any longer due to this. I heard that they even planned to search our things before we left the next day to make sure that we didn't take any snakes with us home. The atmosphere wasn't so good. I was a little nervous since I still had the little coral snake imitation in my jacket pocket and I wanted to take a photo of it before we released it. I therefore went up towards our cabin where I planned to take the photos as soon as possible so I could release it. I opened the pocket but the snake was gone, or maybe it had found a hole in the pocket so it was still somewhere inside my jacket. Luckily I had put my jacket outside of the restaurant when we were eating. It definitely would have been bad if the little snake had crawled out from my pocket inside the restaurant while we were eating. I had to return to the restaurant and told Fredrik that the snake was gone and that it was best that we kept quiet about it just in case it still was somewhere inside my jacket. It was cold that evening but I couldn't put on my jacket just in case it should crawl out from it.
We ate dinner as usual at 18:30. A small bird flew in under the roof and landed on Fredrik's shoulder. It was a magic day since so much had happened.
After dinner we went up to our cabin. The first thing we did was to search my jacket. There was something inside which felt like a little snake so we used a scissor and made a hole in the pocket to get inside the jacket. We found a piece of plastic tape but no snake.
We packed our things since we had to leave directly after breakfast the next day.
After breakfast we phoned the hotel in San Jose to check if they had a room available. They had only a luxury room for 75 USD available which we decided to take. Fredrik also phoned the manager for the lodge and discussed the current situation. We had after all not done anything illegal. The rainforest lodge is not within a national park and we have asked if it was okay to catch snakes just to take photos of them before we released them as soon as possible where we found them. The guide, Nelson, had even given us the cages in which we kept the fer-de-lance. Fredrik told the manager that he had worked for the Swedish Government with snakes and he therefore had a lot of experience with very dangerous snakes. The manager got a better view of the situation and we were actually welcome back. We didn’t mention that it was actually nice to leave since the weather wasn’t so nice and we had done most of the things we wanted to do. I had had a lot of problems with the mosquito bites so I was actually glad that we had to leave.
We walked down to the place where we had left the horses when we arrived and I took a tractor ride from there. Heather actually walked the whole 15 km down to the village Horquetas.
We met Berny at the office and he told us that there probably wouldn’t be any problem to get the money back for the last night since we had already paid in advance for all nights.
We went to the nearest restaurant and ate a quick meal. The guide Cory was with us and we paid his food since he had been very nice.
The bus stop was just outside the restaurant and the bus arrived 1:50 p.m. We went together with Heather and her husband Coen to San Jose. They should stay one night in the capital before they continued to the Osa peninsula. Heather asked us if we would like to go out with them in the evening which sounded like a very nice idea. We decided that they should come to our hotel at 18:30.
Our hotel room was really something special. It looked like a hotel suite and we had a marvelous view of San Jose. We invited the couple up to our room when they arrived since we just had to show them our luxury room.
We took a taxi and told him to drive us to a nice restaurant which he also did. It was however very expensive. The food cost 35 USD per person but it was nice with some luxury after the lodge in the rainforest. Afterwards we wanted to go out and dance and another taxi drove us to a place which might have been El Pueblo where we took some beer and I took a Cuba Libre. There wasn’t anybody dancing and I suppose that it is much better on Friday and Saturday nights. We asked another taxi driver if he knew a good place but he gave us a business card to a strip club. We decided therefore that it was time to go to bed.
We had had a nice time with the couple, Heather and Coen. Fredrik and the other guy said funny comments all the time. Fredrik had said that he didn’t have any children and Coen wondered if he wasn’t skilled enough. The guy coughed and Fredrik wondered if he coughed up a hair ball. Heather had to break the conversation several times by saying that she knew in what direction the conversion was going and she didn’t want to hear anymore. It was all just fun, teasing each other.
They told us that Coen had forgotten to pay the ESTA so they almost missed the plane to Costa Rica. The only web terminal didn't work but luckily they found a woman with an Iphone which they could use to fill in and pay the ESTA. Obviously you dodn't have to do it several days in advance but it is of course good to do it as soon as possible.
After a good breakfast at the hotel I went out for a walk since I hadn’t seen San Jose. Fredrik borrowed my computer while I was gone. There wasn’t much to see and many shops were still closed since it was quite early in the morning.
We changed room before 12 since we had booked an ordinary room the last night for around 50 USD.
We ate lunch together and afterwards we had sightseeing in the city again before we ate dinner and packed our things. Fredrik went out running and came back and told me that a lot of people were dancing outside not far away. They had however stopped when we went to have a look.
I used the Internet to check up a couple of salsa places in the city but I was too tired to go there in the evening. It was probably a wise decision to take it easy the last night.
We told the guy in the reception that they should wake us 4:15 the next morning. I checked my jacket a final time just to make sure that the snake wasn’t there. I would probably get a lot of problems at the customs, especially the USA customs, if they found a snake in my jacket.
My mobile phone woke us up 4:10 a.m. I think we woke the guys in the reception when we passed by so it was really good that we hadn’t trusted them completely since they had forgotten to wake us up.
We had arranged so that the nice taxi driver who drove us to the car rental agency should drive us to the airport. He was outside 4:30 and drove us to the airport without problem. He said that it was much safer in San Jose when he was younger. Today you must be careful when you are in the city after sunset. The trip to the airport cost 25 USD. We gave him a lot more since he was really nice and we had no use of the colones which we had left over.
When you arrive at the airport you first of all have to pay the 26 USD departure tax in a place to the right. Luckily they give the change back in dollars. You get a paper and on the backside you have to fill in some information before you even can enter the long queue to the check in counters.
Fredrik's plane departed 7 a.m. and the departure for my plane was 9 a.m. I was therefore early and a woman told me that I couldn't enter the check in queue before 6 a.m. even though my plane number was shown at the check in counter. Luckily a man saw me when I sat waiting and he informed me that I of course could check-in. The queues to departure tax, check-in and security check takes at least an hour so be at the airport in good time.
A small bottle of water cost 3 USD and everything else at airports are expensive.
There was another security check at the gate, maybe because it was a plane to USA. I woman just opened the middle part of my bag, lifted my mine PC a few centimeters and then told me that I could go onboard the plane.
You got a warm sandwich with ham and cheese together with a muffin, some pieces of melon and a small glass of Coca Cola on the flight to New York. I almost forgot that you also got a glass of water before landing. You could watch movies during the flight but then you had to use your credit card and pay six USD. I don't think anybody did it.
You got just one form onboard the plane which you had to fill in before you could pass the passport check at the Newark airport. I had forgotten to write "In transit to London" where you normally shall fill in an address in USA. The man who checked the form was almost rude due to this since he had to fill it in himself. I think all the staff at the Newark airport are more or less rude or seem to be angry. Something is wrong with that airport, maybe the staff is underpaid since you never see them smile and they are never kind to you. They take your fingerprints and photo as usual. You have to fetch your bag which you had checked-in in San Jose and carry it through the customs before you leave it again. A lot of trouble but I suppose you get used to it after some visits to USA.
When I waited for my bag to turn up on the conveyer belt I saw a woman film a sign with her video camera. It said "US customs and border controls welcome you to United States". An officer saw her film the sign and told her something. I think that she had to show what she had filmed and remove it. So much for that welcome.
After the security screening of my handbag a man took it and did something with a piece of paper. I didn't understand what he did but Fredrik, who is a police officer, told me that he probably tested it for drugs. Maybe I looked like a drug addict after three weeks in the rainforest with all the mosquito bites. I heard that Fredrik had to take of his flip-flop and send them through the x-ray device. He thought that the man was yoking when he was told to take them of.
The flight over the Atlantic Ocean is quite nice and you can always look at movies which you don't have to pay for. A good advice is to bring your own headphones which keep out as much as possible of the airplane engine noise.
The lights where put on an hour before landing and we got a breakfast. You have to walk quite a lot at Heathrow airport and we had to take a bus to another terminal which served SAS and some other air-companies. We asked a woman for direction and she smiled friendly when she told us where we should go. It was nice to have left the unfriendly staff at the Newark airport.
We had to wait a little for our next plane home to Gothenburg in Sweden where my father waited for me and Fredrik's mother fetched him.
It had been an exciting vacation but it was nice to be home again.
We found 51 snakes together and additional 9 snakes at the rainforest lodge. In total we found 60 snakes.
|
Blunthead Tree Snake or Central American Tree Snake? Imantodes canchoa or Imantodes gemmistratus? Quantity: Many |
|
Blunthead Tree Snake or Central American Tree Snake? Imantodes canchoa or Imantodes gemmistratus? Quantity: See above |
|
Blunthead Tree Snake or Central American Tree Snake? Imantodes canchoa or Imantodes gemmistratus? Quantity: See above |
|
Ringed Slugeater Sibon annulatus Quantity: 1 |
|
Central American coral snake Micrurus nigrocinctus Quantity: 3 |
|
Central American coral snake Micrurus nigrocinctus Quantity: See above |
|
Eyelash viper Bothriechis schlegelii Quantity: At least 11 |
|
Mexican Vine Snake or Brown Vine Snake Oxybelis aeneus Quantity: 2 |
|
Two-colored Snail-eater Dipsas bicolor Quantity: 3 |
|
Two-colored Snail-eater Dipsas bicolor Quantity: See above |
|
? ? Quantity: 2-3 |
|
Mexican Parrot Snake Leptophis mexicanus Quantity: 1 |
|
Boa constrictor Quantity: 1 |
|
Speckled Racer Drymobius margaritiferus Quantity: Many |
|
Esmarald Racer Drymobius rhombifer Quantity: 1 |
|
Cope's Black-striped Snake Coniophanes piceivittis Quantity: 1? |
|
Black-banded Cat-eyed Snake Leptodeira nigrofasciata Quantity: 1? |
|
Side-striped palm-pitviper Bothriechis lateralis Quantity: 1 |
|
? ? Quantity: 1 |
|
Satiny Parrot Snake Leptophis depressirostris Quantity: 1 |
|
Orange-bellied Littersnake Urotheca guentheri Quantity: 1 |
|
Fer-de-lance Bothrops asper Quantity: 1 |
We also saw a coral snake imitation, an ordinary cat-eyed snake and a few snakes which escaped too fast so we couldn't identify them.