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COSTA RICA
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April 2002
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1 of 10 
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DAY 1
5:00 A.M. at Sansa, the domestic airline of Costa Rica,
at Juan Santamaria International
Airport, San Jose
My brother Ron and I spent our first few
days at the Caño Palma biological field station in Tortuguero, on the
northern Caribbean coast. There are no roads
in that part of the country, so we flew in over the lowland rainforest in a
little 12-seater Cessna and arrived at a landing strip which is squeezed on a
narrow spit of land between the ocean and an inlet.
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Landing strip at Tortuguero
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Ron swaps photo ops
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A natural canal forms the main thoroughfare
for the area. The region is pretty flat except for some ancient volcanic
remains, called the Cerro (“hill” in Spanish) which dominates the view. The
field station is located on a small tributary that borders the base of the
Cerro, about a 20-minute boat ride from the little settlement of Tortuguero.
Approaching
the Cerro, then down the “driveway” to Caño Palma
Caño
Palma is operated by the Canadian Organization for Tropical Education and Rainforest
Conservation (COTERC). The
station consists of approximately 100 acres of Atlantic lowland rainforest
situated within the boundaries of Barra del Colorado Wildlife Refuge and is
bordered on three sides by rivers, and by secondary rainforest on the
remaining side. They’ve cleared out a one-acre compound for an office,
cabins, and a dining hall, and developed three loop trails into the forest,
the longest of which takes about 2-3 hours of hiking.
Entrance
to Caño Palma Biological Field
Station
We threw
our gear into a cabin and set off to look for herps. We got about 10 feet
from the building and were stopped dead in our tracks by our first sighting.
Just sitting there on the lawn was one of the target species high on our
list, a large male Emerald Basilisk in all his frilly, crested, blue-spotted
glory.
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Emerald Basilisk
Basilliscus plumifrons
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Eventually he tired of us paparazzi and shot
up the closest tree. We turned around and there in a bush behind us was another
green guy, this time a young Iguana basking on a stiff, serrated leaf. Found a female Basilisk resting on a tree
branch, then decided to head off into the forest on the trail that led from
the compound.
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Green Iguana
Iguana iguana
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Into
the rainforest along the Caño Palma trail
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I
discovered that the rainforest is a noisy place, filled with vaguely familiar
yet often unrecognizable sounds. Some were dramatic, like the loud “SNAP!” of
the little manikin birds, caused by the sudden movement of clapping their
wings above their heads. Other sounds were more subtle, like the constant
clicks and chirps that formed a low level background noise. I thought they
were insects, but soon realized that we were surrounded by tiny, territorial
frogs who were standing their ground. They turned
out to be the ubiquitous Dendrobates
pumilio, known as the Strawberry Dart Frog. They’re
also called Blue Jeans Dart Frogs because of their denim-colored legs, however,
along the coast they are nearly all red.
Strawberry
(or Blue Jeans) Dart Frog
Dendrobates pumilio
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