Latest Update: 2 August 2015…
Hi to everyone interested in seeing what we are up to in Costa Rica. A total of 21 of us are exploring various locations in Costa Rica (Nate, Linda, Stuart, Rebekah, Devi, George, Carolina, Ryan, Brian, Allie, Alec, Laura, Janice, Chris, Kathryn, Kim, Nicole, Stan, Kelly, Michael (our co-leader), and Me – Dave). Carlos – owner and operator of Costa Rica Rainforest Experience – is our guy in Costa Rica who made all of the arrangements here and is our fantastic guide as we explore. After a grueling day of travel, we arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica on Wednesday July 22. By mid-afternoon/late-afternoon we were ensconced in really comfortable rooms at the Hotel Bougainvillea. The place is beautiful with wonderful staff, and the building and grounds are stunning!
The front entrance of the Hotel Bougainvillea in Santo Domingo, Costa Rica.
Hotel Bougainvillea Front Desk.
The gardens at the Hotel Bougainvillea.
Black Witch moth at the Hotel Bougainvillea.
We are only at this hotel for one night so we made the most of it by going out and looking at birds in the late afternoon, then in the evening going out and looking for any nocturnal critters we might find. We really scored with the Golden-eyed Tree Frog, a beautiful species! We found some other notable creatures too…
The intrepid hunters of anything that is of interest…Nate, Chris, Brian, and Stan – missing in the photo are Dave and Michael.
Golden-eyed Tree Frog (Agalchnis annae) near one of the ponds at the Hotel Bougainvillea, Costa Rica.
Two Golden-eyed Tree Frogs on a leaf at the Hotel Bougainvillea, Costa Rica.
This is one of the interesting small creatures we saw – a Robber Fly (Family Asilidae). Hotel Bougainvillea, Costa Rica.
A remarkable Leaf-footed Bug (Family Coreidae) on a plant at the Hotel Bougainvillea, Costa Rica.
One of the many flowers in bloom in the gardens at the Hotel Bougainvillea, Costa Rica. This one is a large orchid.
Golden-eyed Tree Frog – photo was taken using a built in filter on my Olympus TG-3. Cool effect!
The following morning (Thursday July 23) we headed out early (6:00 am) to move our base of operations for the next two days to the small town of Tortuguero – located in extreme northeastern Costa Rica. To get there, we have a bit of a bus ride, then we board boats to take us to the Laguna Lodge at Tortuguero. No roads go out to Tortuguero so the only ways in and out of the place is by boat or by small plane. More on the place a bit later…in the meantime, we made a breakfast stop at an open-air restaurant called Selva Tropical. An interesting place that not only serves food but also has a butterfly garden behind the restaurant…
Sign for the Selva Tropical restaurant.
A Morpho butterfly emerges from it’s chrysalis at the butterfly garden at Selva Tropical.
A neat golden-colored chrysalis at the butterfly garden at Selva Tropical.
After breakfast, we headed out again via bus to La Pavona, our departure point to head to Tortuguero by boat. There are a remarkable series of canals that interconnect (and four rivers that merge into the area around Tortuguero) and are used extensively by the boats pictured below – to transport not only people but supplies and other goods.
Loading onto the boats at La Pavona to transport us to Laguna Lodge in Tortuguero, Costa Rica.
The boat ride to Tortuguero…like a real life Pirates of the Caribbean ride – except no pirates….
Carlos talks to us about Tortuguero during our boat ride to the area.
A view of the dockside entrance to Tortuguero Town, Costa Rica.
Laguna Lodge is located almost two miles north of the town of Tortuguero. After checking in, we had lunch then went into town to check the place out.
Walking through the town of Tortuguero, Costa Rica.
The trash cans in Tortuguero are festooned with colorful artwork above the cans. This one is of a sloth with a Blue-crowned Motmot painted on it’s side…they don’t come in nature with the Motmot painting…
The school in Tortoguero.
A cool mural on one of the walls of the school in Tortuguero, Costa Rica.
A funny thing happened while we were walking in Tortuguero town. A guy passed us with a wheel barrow containing coconuts. After he had passed us, one of our group said, “…did you see that rhino beetle in that wheelbarrow?”. This led to a short chase down the street yelling “Señor” until he finally realized that we were talking to him. Upon asking about the beetle, he broke out in a big grin and told us that these sometimes come into the lights. He then held it out for us to take pictures and to hold it. It is feeding on a piece of sugar cane.
A type of rhinoceros beetle called the Hercules Beetle, held by a coconut vendor in Tortuguero, Costa Rica.
Hercules Beetle on a piece of sugar cane.
After our brief stay at Tortuguero town, we headed back to Laguna Lodge via the trail that extends along the eastern edge of the peninsula of land where many of the lodges and the town itself are located. The beach for many, many miles is a primary nesting ground for four species of sea turtles: Green, Leatherback, Loggerhead, and Hawksbill Sea Turtles. In the past month, there have been 18 turtles predated by Jaguars along this stretch of beach.
This is the beach to the east of Tortuguero and Laguna Lodge. This extent of beach along northern Costa Rica is an immensely important nesting ground for multiple species of sea turtles.
A female Rhino or Elephant Beetle…this one was at the top of a snag and measured approximately at least 3-inches in length.
The start of our second day at Tortuguero was a nice opportunity to do some birding. We had also done some birding the afternoon before and got a pretty nice bunch of birds: Olive-throated Parakeet, Montezuma Oropendola (a nesting colony is present at the lodge), Blue-gray Tanager, Social Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee, Short-billed Dove, Mealy Parrot, Red-lored Parrot, Great-tailed Grackle, Green Heron, and…an awesome bird – the Black-mandibled Toucan!
This is a Montezuma’s Oropendola…a fairly large bird that nests colonially.
These are the nests of the Montezuma’s Oropendola…they are woven by the bird from grass and other items and hang from the tree to make them less accessible to predators. They are large too…measuring upwards of 3-feet in length.
Blue-gray Tanager – a bird we often saw.
Mealy Parrot eating some kind of fruit. This bird was about 25 feet away and although it didn’t seem upset by our presence, it certainly kept an eye on us.
Red-lored Parrot – there was a large flock of these all feeding on fruit and flowers and also chattering up a storm. It was awesome!
And, here is the crowning sighting our first day at Tortuguero…the Black-mandibled Toucan.
But, starting the day we did a bit of birding on the grounds…we ended up with 19 species in about an hour: Social Flycatcher, Slaty-tailed Trogon, Great-tailed Grackle, Montezuma Oropendola, White-collared Manikin, Clay-colored Robin, Orange-chinned Parakeet (our second parakeet species), Great Kiskadee, Blue-gray Tanager, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Black-striped Sparrow, Red-lored Parrot, Variable Seedeater (guess what this guy eats?), Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Streak-headed Woodcreeper, Pale-vented Pigeon, Olive-throated Parakeet, Collared Aracari, and more Black-mandibled Toucans. Shortly after our early morning hike (only from 6:00-7:00 am), we had breakfast then headed out on two boats on an excursion to see wildlife along the waterways of Tortuguero. We left around 8:00 and stayed out for almost four hours. Lots of cool critters including these: 
A Green Basilisk…nope, none of us got turned into stone…different kind of basilisk.
Find the lizard…sort of Christmassy colors!
Mangrove Swallows watch us floating by.
We also were able to see some very cool mammals. In fact, in the first fifteen minutes of the boat ride, we found a Three-toed Sloth…and it even woke up for us.
Three-toed Sloth.
Also saw some primates…Central American Spider Monkeys as well as Mantled Howler Monkeys. 
The above monkeys are Central American Spider Monkeys while the below image is of a Mantled Howler Monkey with a youngster on her back.
Holy Smokes Batman! It’s flying monkeys…not quite like the ones from the movie (remember that one…yep, it has a yellow brick road in it) because these do not have little suits!
Now to save a bit of time, I’m going to do a batch of pictures of critters we saw…
Black-mandibled Toucan.
Northern Jacana.
Spectacled Caiman – this one only had a little bit of it showing…and it was about four feet long.
Adult Green Iguana.
Juvenile Green Iguana.
One of the more remarkable things we saw was this tent-making bat. A number of bat species will make shelters for day-time roosting by “constructing” a tent made from large leaves by chewing on specific locations on the leaf to cause them to droop downward, thus causing a “tent” to form. Really cool! I found two tent (both unoccupied) but then Carlos found this lone bat…
A tent constructed on a coconut palm leaf. Nope, nobody was home…see how the sides droop down from the bites along the leaves that cause punctures in the leaf.
The Common Tent-making Bat (yep, that is the common name)…scientifically it is known as Uroderma bilobatum.
Some other things we saw…
This ant is only about 0.5-inches in length, but that’s not what is cool about it…what is cool is that it is metallic golden in color!
A Skipper butterfly.
And back to ants – this time the trail of Leaf-cutter Ants.
A couple of the cats from Laguna Lodge… 
At Tortuguero, we were able to see some really cool frogs. This is one of them – the Red-eyed Tree Frog, the species often associated with our tropical rainforests due to prevalent media coverage…plus it is just stunningly beautiful! 
We also got another cool species of frog – the Red-webbed Tree Frog… 
It was finally the day to leave Tortuguero – July 25 – one of the interested parties in our departure was this dog. Several of us wanted to bring him back with us… 
Time to leave Tortuguero…we board the boat and head back to where the bus will pick us up.
Luggage transfer to the bus after our boat ride from Tortuguero.
Hi again…sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you. Finally have reasonable internet access in San Jose – not California, but Costa Rica – and can therefore upload pictures.
So, we left off where we were journeying from Tortuguero to head to Sarapiqui in the interior of northern Costa Rica. Sarapiqui is a town along it’s namesake, the Sarapiqui River. Fantastic place and the home of the famous La Selva Biological Station. This station is a birthplace for neotropical biodiversity research and at one time, there was one scientific journal paper being published each week from research being conducted at La Selva. It remains a premier place for rainforest research and has become an important location for climate change studies as it relates to changes in distribution of organisms as the Earth continues it’s fever.
So we checked into the La Quinta lodge in Sarapiqui.
The lobby at La Quinta, Sarapiqui.
La Quinta, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica.
At La Quinta, they have set aside a part of their garden area for a research project on Leaf-cutter Ants. This project is being conducted by a local farmer named Leo – an amazing person who built this entire facility himself. A literal biological Macgyver! The vines shown below are all associated with one of the Leaf-cutter Ant colonies so that they can travel out to their food resource and come back to the nest without wandering off anywhere else. These ants then go into a confined facility that has their colony, their “farms”, their eggs and juveniles, etc. This way, he can study the ants without having the colony members wandering off or getting predated or having any myriad of problems associated with a wild population. So very cool!!! This is a good example of someone who has explored biology on their own and made amazing discoveries in science! A true example of a “Citizen Scientist”.
The Leaf-cutter Ant research facility at La Quinta, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica.
Leaf-cutter Ants at work.
Leaf-cutter Ants transporting leaf segments.
The queen Leaf-cutter Ant surrounded by workers. She is huge compared to the workers and can live for approximately 20 years.
Leo showing the strength of a soldier Leaf-cutter Ant…it is holding onto a piece of wood with its jaws. Indigenous people will use soldier ants as “sutures” to close wounds.
Turns out that Leo is not only studying Leaf-cutter Ants, he is also studying the Bullet Ant…known for a very painful sting associated with this species – like one of the most intense and excruciating pains you will ever feel. Dr. Justin O. Schmidt (look him up) is an entomologist who has developed a Schmidt Pain Index rating the level of pain you feel from stinging insects and their venom (it goes from 0 to 4). He rates Bullet Ants at 4+ on his scale! To quote: “Bullet Ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel.”
Bullet Ants – each ant is about one-inch in length and injects a tremendous amount of venom per sting, thus accounting for the excruciating pain. Carlos – our host – has been stung five or six times and agrees that the pain is intense.
We visited La Selva Biological Station on our second day at Sarapiqui. As a biologist, this feels like my very own pilgrim to a shrine…in this case a biodiversity shrine. This is a very large field station associated with a large expanse of protected forest combining private and public (government park and reserve land) parcels into a nearly contiguous range of forest up and over a mountain. With this much intact habitat, this is literally a researcher’s dream!
La Selva Biological Station is located along the banks of the Sarapiqui River in Costa Rica.
The two sides of the Sarapiqui River are accessed via this hanging bridge.
This map shows the area of La Selva and it’s surrounding habitats. You can definitely see the wide expanse of intact forest lands that comprise both primary and secondary rainforest.
We split into two groups for our hike with one group concentrating on birds for the most part and the other group looking for anything of interest and all critters.
One of the two groups that went out with the guide. This group focused on birds. La Selva Biological Station.
We saw a lot of great animals. Here are a sampling of some of the cool birds and mammals…
White-collared Manakin.
Rufous-tailed Jacamar.
Two-toed Sloth.
Crowned Wood Nymph.
Black-throated Trogon.
White-collared Peccary.
And…we also were able to see a colony of the Honduran White Bat. One of my very favorite species!
This is a heliconia leaf that has been modified by the bats into a “tent”. The top and sides are pierced (with their teeth) to cause the sides to fold down, leaving one portion intact, thus creating the “tent” for shelter.
Another view of the tent from underneath. You can see the colony of bats in the middle of the tent.
Six Honduran White Bats (Ectophylla alba). La Selva Biological Station, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica. 26 July 2015.
After a great morning of wildlife at La Selva, we went into Sarapiqui and had lunch, then headed back to La Quinta. A group of six people went out that afternoon white-water rafting for a couple of hours and the rest of us stayed back at the La Quinta. In the evening we went to a place that raises invertebrates…like large beetles and large spiders – among other things. They also built a large number of small ponds which ended up providing habitat for many frogs and other creatures (as intended). In Costa Rica, you can restore habitat but you cannot transplant animals into that habitat…sort of Field of Dreams kind of deal where “if you build it they will come”.
An Hourglass Frog at one of the constructed ponds. Other frogs seen at these ponds included the Dink Frog and the Red-eyed Treefrog.
Sampling some cuisine…this time roasted crickets. Tasted like a mix of shellfish and popcorn…including the crunch.
Back at La Quinta, lots of night critters to be seen…
Black Witch moths were attracted to the fermenting fruit on the bird fruit stand. These are a large species sometimes reaching a width as large as six-inches.
Loved the sign, but loved the fact that a female Red-eyed Treefrog was perched on the corner of it…and no, this truly was not staged!
Red-eyed Treefrog.
Dink Frog.
A Cat-eyed Snake – this is a predator of frog eggs…thus it was located where the Red-eyed Treefrogs hang out. Now, before saying ahhhh in sympathy with the frogs, remember that a predator has to eat too and I think the next photo speaks volumes about how a predator can be cute too…
MORE TO COME! All photos by David Wyatt unless otherwise noted.
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