Costa Rica 2011 Part 2: Cahuita National Park

We spent most of the days at Cahuita National Park walking the trails and snorkeling on the reefs. Unfortunately my waterproof camera broke so I have no pictures of the reef.

We walking along the trails and you could see beach almond palm trees growing into the wind to help with seed dispersal.Leaf cutter ants follow distinct lines across the trails guarded by their soldiers. They use these leaves to grow a fungus in their nests. We searched for bats hidden in coconut leaves and found empty tents created from chewing the secondary veins but none held bats.  We did see five bats hanging onto a tree by the river.

There were some interesting snakes that I had never seen before. 

Vine snake, we actually got to see one of these guys grab onto another ones head. Possibly was trying to eat it?

Eyelash vipers came in many colours but these ones were found the most because they stood out so much

We saw large groups of howler and white faced monkeys. They were eating monkey guava fruit which is very fragrant and has long white flowers. A female would be seen leading the group and the alpha male would be seen at the back. Two toed and three toed sloths were seen moving very slowly or sleeping in trees. Some white faced monkeys got very very friendly.  Yes it is on my head and succeeded in opening up my backpack and pulling out my flip-flops. This was a pretty surprising but kinda cool experience.

The tour guide is poking it with a stick trying to get it off of me.

They are adorable when not trying to steal your shoes!

Baby howler monkey

Pair of herons

 This park, although not very big, holds so much life that is right in front of you. We didn't even need to go out looking for things but saw them right from the trails.

The reef was also spectacular but you could see that it was quite damaged. Its a very good thing this area is now protected. The reef had a lot of interesting thing including Caulerpa (sea grapes), turtle grass, Verongula (vase sponges), fire coral, polychaete worms and fire worms. Gorgonian corals or sea fans were seen swaying back and forth with the waves.Spiny lobsters were hiding under the coral during the day. Long spined sea urchins were seen all over the reef.

As I glided over the reef many juvenile yellow tailed damsel fish with their bright blue spots were seen on elk horn corals.  Sergent majors, blue tangs and grunts were seen in schools around the reefs edges. Stoplight, queen and rainbow parrotfish were seen nibbling away at the reef as cleaning gobies eat off of them. A large tree underwater was home to some porkfish and sharpnose puffer fish.