It just goes on and on...... the plants, flowers and animals are just absolutely incredible. This morning we were up at 5.15am - partly because we had a 6am boat ride into the forest, but also because the sun was up and the frogs and birds were having none of this sleeping in nonsense! We all hopped on the boat for the first ride of the day, into the Torguguero National Park, mostly for birds and things....... what things we did not know. We saw plenty of bird life, big small and inbetween. It was lovely to see just how unafraid they are of humans and the boats with engines. A few people were on canoe tours, which was, no doubt, so that they could sneak up on the wildlife without scaring them away.. Seriously - that was not necessary, besides, for the first mile or so, there were about 5 other boats with engines. They are all pretty quite and there is no mad revving going on - its all a no-wake zone, but I am glad we did not get the canoe trip - we got to see so much more with a motor that took us way up into the forest. When we saw a bird, or iguana or Jesus Lizard, they just sat there and looked at us as if we were the ones on display. The reflections in the water are just stunning and I was constantly changing my lenses to be able to capture both the tiny critters and the wide panoramas that the forest laid out for us.
We went up a fairly wide river and saw a sloth, monkies, heard the howler monkies doing their thing. They really do sound very fierce! We saw the Aninga, I think thats how you spell it - otherwise known as the snake bird. It lies under the water with only its head sticking straight up, looking like a snake. One bird was a lovely shade of blue and had a very wide beak, much like a platypus. Oh I wish I could remember all the names! We saw three different species of Kingfisher and a good many other wading birds too. We saw a good many iguanas high in the trees and that funny upright running lizard as well..little ones this time. It was a really lovely two hours.
After breakfast we headed out again - the National Park is only about 5 minutes by speed boat. This time I told our guide that I wanted to see poison dart frogs and an anaconda. Well, he swopped the anaconda for a toucan... a lovely toucan high in the tree, but there he was out in the wild and it is amazing to see the huge beaks on these birds. For this excursion we had the boat driver who was also an absolutely excellent spotter as well as the guide, and then Frank and I. That was it. Perfect :) and oh did it rain!! We were on our way to the National Park and the rain came down so hard that our guide, John, and us were crouched over in our rain ponchos just rattling with laughter with out cameras safely tucked underneath. It really was a very hard rain and each drop made its point.. The driver just kept on going and got us out from under that cloud - fast. It rained a bit on and off during the whole tour, but I had a plastic bag that I have adjusted to fit over my big camera and still be able to take photos in the rain, and Frank hid his one when it rained.
The camera's really got their fill for this trip.... we heard a jaguar but could not find it, saw a few cayman and their babies. They lay dead still with unblinking yellow slit eyes, just daring one to jump in and join them! We passed up that offer gladly. We saw a tiny little red poison dart frog, but it is only poisonous if you eat it or put it on an open wound, so we all had it on our fingers at some point. Pretty little critter. A good many birds were still out there ...... and the howler monkies filled the forest with their screeching. We saw two otter and they both came out of the river, only about three feet away from us, and climbed onto a log for a perfect photo op! They are apparently quite rare to see, but we got two. And those stunning blue morpho butterflies flitted in amongst the greenery - there is no way one can get a decent photo of them while they are flying, so we just watch them and enjoy the smile they always bring. And then, there high in a tree was about the last thing I thought we would see....... a squirrel and a nut. Really - whats that about! Those lizards that can run on the water are very prehistoric looking, very weird indeed. I got some really good pics of a good few of them. I love the roots of all the trees in the forest, they are sometimes like huge folds, sort of like when you pour cake mix into a pan and it makes those big loose floppy folds.... like that, just upright. And then there are those long thin pointy roots that seem to make a jail for many of the things on the forest floor. And the flowers! Oh they are soooo beautiful - hugs pink ones, bright red, perfect pure white, blue, purple and almost every color inbetween. The greens are a thousand shades of green and then a thousand more, and then the different lichen - some huge and white, or tiny button looking growths..... others brown, black or a beautiful orange.
There was so much to see that i had to go and flick though the photos to remind me - oh boy am I going to have a rough time picking some to put up online! Cant do that quite yet, the internet here is not of 'uploading quality', so you will all have to just wait a few more days.
As if all this today was not enough, we had a 'walk around the property' tour this afternoon. I was not madly impressed with our guide, John. He walked way ahead of us, muttered through his binoculars, nodded thoughtfully to himself and at other times hauled out his camera and was taking photos before ever telling us what he had found. I spotted more animals and things than he did - maybe he was preoccupied, he did seem more personable later on in the evening. Anyway, we had already walked around most of the gardens - there is so much color and its just beautiful that any time we have a few minutes we stroll down a pathway and see what there is to see. We saw toucans right outside our room door, hummingbirds, more of those 'on the water running lizards', and other little cute puffy round birds. There is a place about two minutes from our room that is a pathway inside the forest - just a dirt path and its like a steambath in there, but its filled with all sorts of critters, lichen, flowers and - yup, we found our first Red Eyed Green Tree Frog!
We had seen newly laid eggs - like a tube of see through gel with the eggs all spaced beautifully inside it... and searched the leaves all around for the frog - and there it was.....looking like a pale green blob on a leaf. It looked plain boring, until John got it to open its eyes and stretch! Oh what joy it was! That is the cutest little thing out there..... huge red eyes, blue on its legs, patterns on the side and bright orange feet with big suckers on each toe. That poor froglet must have thought the papparazzi had found him the way our camera's clicked..... But he was not interested - they simply dont 'do daytime' very well at all, and within seconds his eyes had slammed shut again and we were left tickling its butt to try and wake it up. No luck, so we parked him back on his leaf and headed out again. We want to go back into that forest tomorrow as we have a full free day to walk the ocean, go into the little town and just relax with no deadlines apart from breakfast, lunch and supper.. glorious!
But wait - there's more!! After supper I decided that I just had to see some more of these little froglets, so I tootled off to find a flashlight (torch) so that we could find the little suckers in the dark when they were actually willingly awake. Right next to the big swimming pool is a frog place (dont ask me to spell it now, but it starts with a T), where they have some frog eggs and tadpoles in some smallish fish aquariums...... Not only are there these, but there is a walk way, filled with the plants that these little froglets are most often found on. So, armed with two cameras and the flashlight, off we headed. We found seven! They are really such cute looking critters and they definitely like the night life a whole lot better than daytime. They are about 2 - 3 inches in crouching position and about 5 - 6 inches when all stretched out - sometimes bigger or smaller too. We found them peering around the stalks of plants at us, watching us from the top of a huge leaf or just sitting quietly hoping that we would just go away. No such luck. Frank held the flashlight while I happily clicked away, and then some more.
But, I was not happy with that - I needed to hold one for more than just a few seconds and I really wanted one on a leaf where their reflection shone through the leaf..... so off I went to find another one, picked it up really gently and tried to get it on a leaf that Frank had picked....(Kate, I can hear you laughing already! Alaskan Bear, Wendy?) .....and thats when it happened! That little frog jumped straight onto my mouth!! Thank Goodness my mouth was closed right when it landed! I let out a huge, from-the-belly yell that was thoroughly muffled as there was no way on earth that I was going to open my mouth right then.... ! This all took just a second, but Frank was already in hysterics....and thankfully froglet quickly made another leap onto the leaf right behind me. Funny how tightly my eyes slammed shut when this happened!
So now I have been kissed by a frog - does that make me a princess yet??. Oh, just in case you want to know - it feels a bit like a slightly tacky gummy bear.
And so we called it a night. Just in case anyone has any doubt - these past three days have been totally friggin amazing. It already feels like weeks ago that we were on that beautiful island, and well, there is so much more to come.
I know there is a lot to read, and there are certain people that I can almost hear groaning from here as I send that 'send' button..... (yeah Kev, you are one!) but I am trying to get all the memories and thoughts down so that I can re-read it one day when we are too old to enjoy this type of travel anymore..... may those "books of memories" be many years old before I have that need to read them!
love light and laughter - and thanks for all your emails!
Annie
ps. Joleen, I hope you are not too overworked, Lisa, I hope you guys are all feeling better, Steven and Laura - congrats on your 1st wedding anniversary this weekend :) We love you all lotsa
xxxx
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