Recently we had some guests in the lodge from Nicaragua and Chili who were fluent in Spanish. The ability to speak multiple languages is a skill I envy so much. I would love to be able to stroll the streets of Paris asking for a baguette or buy fresh fruit from the markets in Mexico with the ease of the local language.
In my mind I have a wonderful fantasy of living in Greece and learning Latin to help me get a grasp on the base of a lot of these languages.
It is not the right time for us to move to Greece, but the day dreaming has brought me back to the amazing six week trip we took through out Costa Rica and a bit into Nicaragua. We took buses all over Costa Rica and hiked into jungles looking for wildlife.
I hear so many amazing travelers tales from from South and Central America. It is a place I cannot wait to go back to. Until that time happens, here’s a walk down memory lane and a look at a some of the amazing wild life we saw while heavily using a dictionary to piece together very bad Spanish.
This bird is one of my favorites ever.
This is the bare throated heron.
It will stand on one leg for hours drying it’s wings and I found that just fascinating.
We were within arms reach of this caiman while we ate our lunch in a canoe. He was watching us and didn’t move a muscle the whole time we were floating by him.
This is the Emerald Bask Lizard and do they ever bask in the rays of light that penetrate through the forest canopy.
This is little toad that we were not able to specifically identify, however what I think is remarkable is the little touch of green on it’s body. What a way to camouflage itself.
Long and sleek green vine snake.
Can you find the green snake in this photo?
He had such a beautiful head.
One of the coolest lizards ever, this is the Jesus Christ Lizard (also a Basilisk Lizard) and we watched these guys run across the water.
Another unidentified little creature, which might be a bark anole. I just love how the light illuminates him and how delicate he looks.
Very shy and what seem to be too small of legs for it’s body this agouti scurries throughout the forest.
Ok, so I know these baby raccoons are not some exotic animal if you live in North America, but observing this shy family looking down on us was the cutest thing and I just love their black mask.
Although a blurry picture, this is the iconic red eyed tree frog.
I had my eyes shut just in case the legs tickled into my eyes when we were on one of the best night tours we have ever been on with Tracy The Bug Lady. She asked if she could put this tail-less whip scorpion on my face. Yes a scorpion, and part of her reason for doing so was to remind people that so many animals we fear are only trouble to us when we frighten them or cause them harm.
And one of my most other favorite animals from the trip was the sloth. Prior to the trip I had the preconceived notion that sloths were these slow, kinda boring animals.
After watching a number of different sloths in the wild, they are one of the coolest animals ever. They remind me kinda of a combination of Chewbacca, the Shaggy Dog and a 90s 4th grade boy hair cut. These animals will basically hold their entire body weight with one arm as they meticulously climb from one branch to another. They do not even move that slow and when you look into their eyes, those black pupils are staring back at you with wonder.
We loved our trip around Costa Rica. The bus system is amazing, cost effective and efficient. I spent my time gazing out the window pretending I could converse in Spanish. Depending where exactly we go this winter, perhaps I just may come back speaking some foreign language yet.
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Looks like you had a WONDERFUL trek through the rain forest. The basalisks have always been one of my favorite lizards and would love to have seen them in the wild!
It felt like we were in a National Geographic documentary when we watched them running across the water.
Chris’s day off:
“This is the bare throated heron… It will stand on one leg for hours drying it’s wings and I found that just fascinating.”
So does this mean you think Chris stands on one leg? 🙂 More like, he puts on head phones and watches sports. 🙂
I think it meant Chris gets a day off because you spent hours watching a bird dry its wings.
Oh…well…hahaha….that is true. One of my favorite birds to watch is ducks. I don’t know why. I just love watching ducks and Chris always gets so impatient because he’ll want to get on to try and see something else and I could just watch ducks for hours.
Really should tell you that the bird is a Bare Throated Heron and NOT a duck!
Well the bare throated heron stood for so long on one leg I just kept watching and watching and watching wondering when he might switch legs. We had to paddle away before any of the herons we spotted switched legs. They stood like that for a long, long time.
Costa Rica esta muy bonita!! Tiene mucho animales de la loca y esta muy caliente.
Si, si, me hermana. Pero no habla mas por que no tengo mi dictionario. 🙂