The day started with a little pre-breakfast walk down to the river with effortless birdwatching left and right (Green Heron and a Spotted Sandpiper, a species I have seen some years as an extremely rare migratory bird close to Kiel – here they are everywhere).
Back at the breakfast table, Chris happily sips her coconut water.
And I finish the typical Tico breakfast.
The Lodge was a wonderful start into the trip.
On the way to our next nature reserve we took a quick detour to search for macaws (German Aras) that very much depend on almond trees (not the ones we know, more gigantic tropical ones) which are less and less common, reducing their habitats. Additionally they are endangered by the still ongoing illegal pet traffic. We were lucky.
Our main destination for today was the Refugio de Vida Silvestre La Tirimbina. This has the extra feature of the longest suspension bridge of Costa Rica. The comparison with Nepal, the land of suspension bridges, is inevitable. Whereas the bridges of Nepal cross chasms, this bridge crosses a wide river bed of three separate streams enabling views of river and jungle edges. Having gone over it now, I can state that the Nepalese are better in building suspension bridges, but the Costa Ricans do a better job keeping yaks away from them. So it’s a tie.
But first we had to pass a comparatively hectic sloth on the way down a tree. The only thing that they don’t do in a tree is poop and so they come down once a week, dig a hole, poop in it, cover it and then climb back up. All of this is aimed at hiding presence in the tree above as they are sort of defenseless against Pumas and Panthers. Letting their waste drop from whatever height is not a good idea if you cannot run away from its smell.
Late addition: The public (Shana) asked for another sloth story, here it is. A female sloth has a baby once a year, is pregnant for seven months and carries the little one around for 4 months. When she is ready to procreate, she whistles in a frequency that humans cannot perceive, but male sloths can hear from a kilometer away. One at least 70 year old lady from our group slyly remarked on that (slightly paraphrased): So when she is horny in fall, she gets it in spring. I thought that was hilarious.
The guide added that sometimes this situation results in several males arriving at the same time fighting (in slow motion) over the privilege, adding to the waiting time for the poor female, I guess. But somehow evolution makes it work.
The jungle was doing its best to entertain us with sounds and lots of birds and even more plants.
And iguanas – they are everywhere. Different sizes, different scariness factors. You are reminded why the Jurassic Park movies were filmed in Costa Rica – most likely they forgot the animal props here after they were done.
After this full day we were happy to reach the La Tigra Rainforest Lodge. True to its name, it rained, so no picture from the lodge today.
We got treated to a night walk and because a lot of rain had just come down, the trees were full of snakes, frogs, spiders and other creepy crawlies.
I hope they stay where they are.
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