Preview of Jowhiting's blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jowhiting/4/1249751387/tpod.html This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Sarapiqui, Costa Rica Entry Title: "La Selva Biological Station and Chocolate tasting" Entry: "Today we visited La Selva Biological station just south of Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui and at the confluence of the Puerto Viejo and Sarapiqui Rivers. The station has recorded over 400 birds, 460 tree species and 500 butterfly types in just 6 square miles! I had made sure everyone had the right footwear but couldn't believe it when my heavy duty sandals and socks that were enclosed all except for a couple of holes at the top were deemed unacceptable and I had to change into a pair of ill-fitting rubber boots. So ill fitting that I had to fold them down to get them over my fat calves! Of course this was to the delight of the rest of the family. So not looking my best in shorts and wellies we made our way over the swing bridge onto the main trail. We were with a group of six French tourists and our guide was a young woman who turned out to be very knowledgeable. She explained how La Selva was a mix of primary and secondary forest and is very prone to flooding due to the fact that it is only just above sea-level. Jaguars and Pumas have been spotted but you have to be very lucky. Our guide had been working here for over a year and had never seen either. Our first stop was a tree covered in the pendulous nests of the Montezuma Oropendola a bird that we would see often in Costa Rica with its striking yellow tail. Our young female guide had a nest to show us, it was amazing, measuring about 100cm long and built of woven fibres and vines. Apparently the male will build a new nest each season. Next a Chestnut Mandible Toucan flew into view with its brightly coloured bill unmistakable against the dark tree canopy. Its call is a very distinctive too, a piercing 'a-yip'. We travelled further down the trail which is very accessible, in fact most people tended to travel by bicycles and we often had to move to one side to let a cyclist pass through. La Selva is maintained by the Organization for Tropical Studies so there are always lots of researchers staying here involved in a variety of research projects. We saw lots of interesting insects as we wondered through including the incredibly beautiful Blue Morpho and Monarch butterflies and the highly patterned Harlequin Beetle. The Monarchs are known for their long mating periods, sometimes remaining connected for days and for the fact that the males have sometimes been known to rape the pupa! Leaf cutter ants were everywhere in long, sinuous lines each carrying pieces of foliage many times their own size back to their nests. We also saw many of the infamous Bullet Ants and for once I was quite happy with my tight rubber boots. Our guide told us that she had once been stung by one that had got into her shoe and she was in agony for quite a few days. Strange hairy caterpillars and large millipedes also abounded in the undergrowth. This was also the habitat for the bright red Blue Jeans Dart Frog and we spotted quite a few of these distinctive amphibians looking like large strawberries on the forest floor. Its bright colour displayed as a warning to would-be predators indicating the presence of toxins in the frog's skin. The blue jean's part of the name relates to the fact that its legs are blue so that it appears that it is wearing a pair of levis. All of a sudden one of the French guys came over and said he had spotted a snake on a branch a bit further back. It turned out to be a bright yellow and highly venomous Eyelash Palm Pit Viper. It was only a juvenile but our guide explained that sometimes these could be more dangerous as when young these snakes had not yet worked out how to control the amount of poison they need to catch their prey. It is called an Eyelash Pit Viper because of the modified bristly scales over its eyes that make it look as though it has eyelashes. It didn't seem too interested in us and we were ..." Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jowhiting/4/1249751387/tpod.html Photos from this trip: 1. "Bullet Ant" 2. "Blue Jeans Dart Frog" 3. "Montezuma Oropendola" 4. "Millipede in La Selva" 5. "Eyelash Palm Pit Viper" 6. "Peccary at La Selva" 7. "Incredible painting at the 'Snake Garden'" 8. "Chocolate beans" 9. "Inflatables on the river" 10. "Scarlet Rumped Tanager at he bird table" 11. "Blue Gray Tanager at he bird table" 12. "Squirrel in the garden at La Quinta" 13. "Our Room at La Quinta" 14. "Sam on the river ride" See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00c1-5e6e-9b6a?ytv4=1

• published: 19 Dec 2010
• views: 413