We spent 2.5 hours walking through the heart of the rain forest. We had an amazing guide named Endida who took three Spanish speaking guests and three English speaking guests on an amazing tour. Endida majored in botany, biology and English in university. Listening to her go back and forth between English and Spanish in such technical terms was amazing! Once (maybe twice, but not more), she would question a word, but she always had it right. As so many of our English speaking guides, she would comment on her English as being "not great", and we (as non-Spanish speaking people) would just have to laugh. We assured them that their English was perfect and amazing. She said one time a visitor was frustrated as she called as animal "fairy" instead of "furry"....gee whiz....that's nothing compared to our southern twang!
Moving onward: and upwards, literally, we climbed through the jungle and across 17 bridges over the next hours. Some were swinging, others were fixed.
I'm just waiting for my family to remind me of my horrid fear of hanging bridges as a child; hanging bridges don't phase me anymore. This does:
Jumping pitvipers in a tunnel. Now that still freaks me out! Fortunately 12.5 meters isn't very long, and there were no vipers there, and nothing jumping. This
was
after saw a real viper in the wild, the dreaded eyelash viper. And don't be misguided: that cute name is a snake with a very deadly bite. I still shudder when I think of it.
Off we go! The first critter Endida was able to spot and point out to us was a frog. When Carter saw it, he said "That frog is poisonous". Endida turned and looked at him, and said, yes he was right! It was bright blue and red and tiny.
Nestled above in the little hole is a tarantula....you can see bits of legs, and she said those legs would be all folded up. Unfolded, I hate to think what size it was!
Canopy view
Spectacled Owl
Endida, our guide: If she could come to the US, she said she could die happy if only she could see a sequoia...
The trail we followed between bridges, and our Mexican friends: Ally, Maria and Maria
Down down down....
A type of lizard.... ??
Monkey mama and babies in the wild
Orioles! Yes, Endida told us these were the same birds we have in Virginia. Not just the same species, but the same birds that migrate between the US and Costa Rica. Oriole love birds!
I wish I could remember all the animals we saw, and a few new ones: the agouti (a rat looking animal) and the coati (in the raccoon family).
And as much as Carter swears that summer is NOT for learning, we learned so much. Did you know that the poisonous frog would not be poisonous if not for toxins created by leaf cutter ants? And that colorful toucans wouldn't be colorful without the berries they eat, which in turns reseeds the trees? And don't even get me started on the leaf cutter Minnie Mouse ants....
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