Costa Rica 2006

Costa Rica

March 2006

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Part II - Monteverde

Our next stop was a couple of days in Monteverde. We were joined along the way by Chris Winne (another SREL graduate student) and his wife Lisa.

After another long bumpy ride we finally arrived at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve and were immediately welcomed by one of the resident Coati (photo by Verna Case)

We wasted no time in hitting the trails, the high-elevation rain forest was fantastic... (photo by Verna Case)

photo by Verna Case

photo by Chris Winne

photo by Verna Case

photo by Chris Winne

photo by Chris Winne

photo by Verna Case

Cool rainforest plants were everywhere

It took us a while to figure out that this was a cross-section of a palm trunk

Wes was in heaven with all the weird rainforest invertebrates

photo by Shannon Pittman

We crossed a fairly sketchy bridge over a deep ravine and ascended into the cloud forest (photo by Shannon Pittman)

photo by Verna Case

This Guan was spotted through the mist (photo by Verna Case)

photo by Verna Case

We crossed the Continental divide and finally reached the summit (photo by Shannon Pittman)

On our second night there we were able to get access to the park for a night hike. As usual, the first exciting finds were some stunning insects.

photo by Shannon Pittman

Finally we began to see some herps.

(Eleutherodactylus cruentus) - photo by Chris Winne

(Norops tropidolepis) - photos by Chris Winne

Near the end of the hike I spotted this guy doing his best impression of a branch. Finally a snake!

Blunt Headed Tree Snake (Imantodes cenchoa) - photo by Chris Winne

Photo by Wes Anderson

One morning we awoke for some early birdwatching - photo by Shannon Pittman

Orange-Bellied Trogon - photo by Verna Case

Resplendent Quetzal - photos by Verna Case

The preserve had a set of hummingbird feeders that provided from some great viewing and photography - photos by Verna Case

We were a little surprised to see this curious in the jungle

Gray Fox - photos by Verna Case

On the last day we took a hike through lower-elevation dry forest. The environment was interesting but we didn't see much wildlife.

Tarantula - photo by Wes Anderson

Two-Toed Sloth - Photo by Verna Case

On the third day the group parted way with the Davidson crew heading home and Chris and I heading on to La Selva.

On the way down from Monteverde we persuaded our taxi driver to stop for this heartbreaker...

Rainbow Boa (Epicrates cenchria) - photo by Chris Winne