For University I am required to go on at least one field course or do an equivalent course at Guelph. I couldn't pass up the opportunity so I went to the tropics. The Costa Rica Rainforest and Reef course is amazing. The prof Hamish is equally as amazing. The group of us met up at Pearson airport in Toronto and flew into San Jose and stayed overnight in a hotel there.The area was very nice and we explored a bit but there wasn't many wild areas nearby.
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| Our wonderful tour bus for the two weeks |
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| View in the city |
On our drive to Limon the next day we stopped by the coast just to walk around a bit in a small town.This drive was long and as I was staring out the window I wished I could stop so many times.
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| Lesser Kiskadee? on the coast |
The lodge we stayed at (Atlantida Lodge) was near Cahuita National Park. It was fantastic. Close to the beach, very wild, nice atmosphere and so much wildlife right there. It rained pretty much every day but was clear for half the day too.
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| Very pretty orchid at the lodge |
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| I dont know how to flip this around on here yet.... |
We saw many cool things in the ocean near our resort such as sand dollars. Walking down the dark sandy beach I eventually found some tidal pools in a rocky area. There where urchins, chitons, hermit crabs, small fish and anemones.
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| Taryn and her buried treasures |
There were always dogs wandering around and these two puppies were the absolutely cutest things ever!
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| Liz and the puppies on the beach |
Many of the local boys played soccer on the beach every day and the group of us would always join in. Most of them spoke very good English and it was really fun.
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| Beach near the lodge |
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We had lizards in our rooms every day and geckos at night...
And many sloths were climbing around the lodge at night.
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| Mother sloth with baby holding on after we had a lot of rain |
We were supposed to have a fire on the beach with the group of locals that we played soccer with for two of the days but the intense thunderstorm kinda ruined that idea.
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| On the beach at night |
To my enjoyment I saw two of my favorite groups of frogs right at the lodge. Poison dart frogs (
Dendrobates) and tree frogs (
Hylidae).
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| Green and black poison dart frog (Dendrobates auratus) |
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| Large toad! |
We saw many males and a few female red-eyed tree frogs in a shallow pond with a lot of vegetation that was nearby the pool. These guys were so cute.The males are smaller and brightly coloured but the females are dull and larger.
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| Red eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas) |
We went birding every morning when I was there but I didn't have any field guides with me. I learned my lesson from that!
The place where we got on a boat to go out snorkeling had a beautiful orchid growing on a sign that I just couldn't resist taking pictures of. So many orchids were in bloom when I went. It was fantastic.
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| Cattleya? |
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| Some cool invert life was crawling around too |
Waking up early to go for a 6am birding walk near the lodge is where I saw:
Eastern kingbirds
Howler monkeys
Black cheeked woodpecker
Passerine tanager
Many iguanas and basiliaque lizards starting to sun themselves in trees
Blue-grey tanager
Black chested jay
Short billed pigeon
Great kiskadee
Grey headed chachalaca
Keelbilled toucans
Oropendulas
Rufus tailed hummingbird
White lined tanager
Clay colour robin
Social flycatchers
Banded back wren
Variable seed eater
Mastetyra- red face white body
Great kingfisher
Melodious black bird
Bright rumped tila
Crimson fronted parakeets
Blue headed parrots
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| Blue headed parrots nesting in a tree nearby our lodge |
A lot of these birds were seen near or on a noni tree that has white fruit that they eat.
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