Day 13... Getting into the groove

Today my first aim was try to make a little more sense of this wierd place I had ended up... find my own part of it that I could escape in away from the tourists and find a little calm, find a piece of puerto jiminez amidst Tortuguero madness. 

So I wandered back through the centre and found a good Soda to eat breakfast, the usual, Gallo pinto con huevo (rice, beans and fried eggs) I sat contemplating the scene near the dock, watched as the boat unloaded the next lot of tourists and their bewildered look as they got pounced on by the hotel linked guides. It was quite funny. The dock seems to be the hub with all the tourist stuff located near here. All the restaurants and souvenir shops go down the main street next to the dock and it is here that it is the busiest and most touristy. 

It didn't feel great... too busy.. too much bustle. I wanted to see if I could find anywhere that had a bit of peace and quiet... anywhere a bit off the beaten track..

I wandered down the main street and as I had been told by the guy who I was going on a night walk tonight, I veered right and followed the track towards the beach and then down the side of the beach, past the sea turtle conservancy and onwards.. 

There were no people, and as I progressed further along the track there was only a lodge here and there. On either side of the track trees and bushes and greenery. 

I wandered along, enjoying the peace and quiet and general solitude of the day. I searched the bushes for interesting things and eventually my patience was rewarded. As well as the usual menagerie of spiders and crickets and locusts, I found 2 green iguanas. Cute and not too bothered by my presence, one just hung out in the branches as I photographed him. Looking at me with  a bit of the old side eye that lizards can give you. 

I also found a couple of the larger lizards with the blue tail, Central American Whiptail lizard according to my app. 

I walked almost all the way to the airport and then turned back and headed for my hotel, through the small alleyways and past houses. Here was not so clean as Puerto Jiminez, rubbish strewn on the streets seemed like at odds with the environmental message that tortuguero handed out. Maybe it was the tourists that made the place messy. 

Once back at the hotel, I got the kit ready for the night walk. At night is where all the good stuff is found if you are a snake  or an amphibian enthusiast. And it seems the only way to go out for a decent night walk is with a guide as the National Park does not allow you in without a guide after 6pm. 

I went back out and wandered into town towards the meeting point. Victor had found more people to join us, making it cheaper for me. We got some boots and then clambered aboard the boat for a quick dash across the water to another point in the park. 

As soon as we got off  the boat, the familiar whine of mosquitos started up. 

Firstly we went to an area that was quite dry. and covered with leaf litter and the guide pointed out all the strawberry poison dart frogs hiding. Some of them will be were climbing up a tree. There were loads of them. Also known as blue jeans because of the blue legs... I had to keep reminding myself, that unlike my dart frogs, these were quite poinsonous! Because of their diet in the wild, which included things like ants, they became deadly to things that touched them. My ones are only fed fruit flies, so mine are not a problem to touch. 

It was great to see them in the wild and see what their natural habitat looks like. 

We moved on and up in the trees the rustling sound was identified as a kind of noctural possum. It was eating the flowers of the banana! So cool and soooo cute. It continued with its meal even with us watching and shining our torches on it. Not bothered at all. 

Onwards... and the way became really muddy.. so. much so that I got my foot really stuck. and had to be rescued. I wasnt the only one to get in trouble... the mud was deep and squelchy !

whilst getting through the mud, several spiders were pointed out to us... banana spiders, large things... quite cool of you like that type of thing... the stuff of nightmares if you dont! 

Then as we got out of the mud and onto a drier patch, we saw more blue jean frogs... so cute just hopping around... and then the guide himself got super excited!! He had spotted a pair of dendrobates auratus green and black! They had been reintroduced into this area a while back but he had never seen any and was sooo excited to find a pair. 

They seemed pretty fat and in really good condition as they hopped about in the same. place as the blue jeans. I have one photo with both types of dart frog in, which is pretty cool! 

Onwards and through much more mud. More spiders of the same type as before, a bullfrog or two and then a couple of red webbed tree frogs. These were pretty nice, yellow ish in colour with red webbing between their toes, as their name. would suggest. 

We saw several of these and a few rain frogs like the ones I had seen in Corcovado. As we huffed and puffed through the mud, the mosquitos kept trying to bite and often. succeeding. It seems that once again the mosquito spray I brought, no worky!! 

We were just circling back when a shout came out from behind.. snake... 

it was a good spot because the snake was fairly high up in the tree, all you could really see in the torchlight was it's white belly scales. Victor after a bit of staring, said that it was a false eyelash viper, which was pretty rare. I'm not sure how he could tell from what we could see but I trust his experience! 

It was a cool final find and we made our way back to the boat.. sploshing through more mud. It had been a good night with some great finds and a few more species to add to my list of creatures seen. 

As I got off the boat, Victor apologised for lack of eyelash vipers, I shrugged. It happens... you can but try. 

He said he knew a place we could go that might be better for eyelash vipers so I think I will be hiring him for another night walk later in the week. 

Now though I crawled back to my hotel, through the dark and windy streets, starting to feel more comfortable with this wierd place.