2018/02 Costa Rica - Greentique Refuge |
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We caught a taxi back to the hotel; none of them seemed to have meters but the cost was rarely more than about $6. We had a night walk in the jungle scheduled at the Greentique refuge, across the road from the associated Si Como No hotel. We’d originally been destined for that hotel, but the total cost of the trip had exceeded my stated limit, so we’d been moved to La Mansion; hard to think of it being a downgrade. One of the side effects was that instead of walking across the road we needed yet another taxi to get there.
At Greentique we were quickly separated into fast movers and slow movers. Frank, our guide, warned us slow movers to stay in the centre of the path and not to grab trees or railings without looking first. Sure enough there was a bullet ant on the railing, so called because its sting feels like a bullet wound!
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Jungle at night (1.22) |
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Our flashlights were powerful so my camera worked quite well and I was able get some pictures. The composite shows various bugs 
and frogs; top centre between the millipede and the frog with plastic feet is a tarantula making an undignified exit down into its burrow. The bird is a blue-crowned motmot. The ball of twine is a two-toed sloth seen from below. The red-eyed tree frog with its snazzy flank markings is definitely a cousin of the Costa Rican tourism star.
We were pretty much worn out after two hours in the evening’s humidity; sweat was dripping from my fingertips and my waterproof watch had disappeared into a cloudy mess, never to emerge. Frank took us across the road to the Si Como No’s bar for a drink and then got us a taxi back to our hotel, just in time for a late dinner. We were hardly presentable for dinner but the waiters must be used to eccentric gringos as they still treated us very well.