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Published: November 14th 2008
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It's a frog lovers paradise here
And lets be honest, who isn't a frog lover deep down. Rising majestically into the misty heavens (ah mist that's more like it!), Costa Rica's cloud forrests are a Wonka-esque wonderland of wildlife diversity. From the standard Ticos and American to Germans, French, Spaniards, Scots, South Americans and even Japanese - oh and their are a few birds and stuff too. This place is alive with the rush to see just how much stuff is ... well ... alive.
So it's back on with the boots and off up the mountains where it's gloriously cool, almost always raining and full of nature. A nature that oozes from every crevas, flowing over you like the gentle mist that encapsulates it. Time has abandoned this place and so it seems have the people, leaving this (relatively) untouched wilderness free from human habitation (The state of the roads alone is enough to put off all but the hardiest backpackers). This is a place for nature. For all the bugs and beasties that roam the earth, free from those pesky humans. A cornucopia of eyed, spotted, winged, forrest, common and lesser spotted this is the place to find them. The Santa Elena Cloud Forrest Reserve alone is reputed to contain over 400 species of birds.
So my most pertenant question has to be, how come we only saw 4!
I've got more than that in my garden at home.
After almost 5 hours of wandering through this chilly mist bath, desperately looking, camera poised we got the distinctive feeling things were deliberately avoiding us. Now we're not ones to usually complain about failing to see fauna and since the tiger debacles of India we have become distinctly stoic about our chances, but one has to wonder why for over an hour the only thing we spotted was a rather big millipede called Bernard.
Obviously, Nic named him Bernard, he did not inform us of his own name. While the bugs here are large, sometimes exceptionally so, they have not yet attained sentience - or at least we don't think they have. Where is it all. Costa Rica is filled with T-shirts, posters, wall hanging and just about anything else you can flog to tourists plastered with the most wonderfully exotic and diverse animals species. Reputing a glorious world filled with colours, shapes, movement and every so often just a little bit of devastating efficient posion. Some of which we almost had
a taste of during a close run in with a yellow tree viper. At least the guide got excited about how deadly a snake it was and just how close to us it was, only 20 m away and wrapped around a tree in a distinctly non-treatening (sleeping) way. Still 5 seconds of heart stopping panic at least made the day exciting.
So what to do, where to find this elusive nature we were so desperate to get our hands on (methaphorically of course - one should never attempt to pick up a puma). Thankfully this answer to this question (and a million more) lay neatly prepared in the innumerable 'centers' and '-ariums' that scatter the hills in this sleepy Costa Rican backwater.
Want to see frogs and just too lazy to go looking, then visit the Monteverde Frog Pond where they are all nicely on display with a tour guide on hand to explain feeding habits, mating activity, jumping distances, wetness of skin and a million other facts that pale into insignificance when confronted with 'Oh look a blue one, awwwhh!'
Bored of frogs, how about the Sepentarium, Butterfly Garden, Orchid Garden (surprisingly interesting actually -
flowers are cool) or our personal favourite 'The World Of Insects' (said with an appropriately booming voice, it can keep you entertained for hours - we miss TV). You almost don't need to bother visiting the outside world.
However, it does feel like this would be kind of missing the point. Struggeling through the undergrowth, over rocks, under branches quietly sneaking up on unsuspecting wildlife trying to get that perfect photo (or just scaring the hell out of it). All of which almost paid off for us in the enormous Santa Elena reserve when we heard a distant, but distinct rumbling. A noise too deep and large to be that of a primate. The only option left for the almost gutteral call of the wild was that of one of the 'big cats' reputed to roam the fringes of the reserve. Were we about to witness a sight rarely seen these days as a puma or jaguar stealthily stalked its way through the undergrowth. Was it in fact stalking us?
Unfortunately, or fortunately for us, it turns out that this park has an even more destructive inhabitant. Bear, tiger? Eh ... no. Actually it's a volcano that happens to rumble from time to time. Still, it scared the hell out of us for a few minutes - what could have been eh.
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Stephen Paul
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Mosquitos are Evil by Nature
Nice pics! And its true, everyone loves frogs. Especially the French.