Sloths. That’s pretty much it – Costa Rica day 4

So before I get into this, yes, I know I missed day 3. We’ll get back to that shortly. For now I’ll skip ahead a day though and get to one of the highlights of the trip: the sloth tour.

As soon as we were on the ground in Costa Rica we started seeing sloth themed stuff everywhere. They seem to practically be the national mascot. However, for the first couple days of our trip we saw no sign of them. We did see one on a river tubing trip on the third day, but it was from very far away. Given that, our expectations were tempered for the sloth tour. We were hoping we could catch a glimpse of a few.

A curassow watching us from her perch in a tree over the path

We quickly discovered that we would see a lot more than we had expected as our guide pointed out the first sloth (a mother with a baby) less than a hundred yards from the meeting point. Actually getting a good look at them was a bit harder though. The sloths were quite high, and almost always obscured by branches and leaves. It was still pretty cool to see though, and the guide had a telescope that gave everyone a good look. Further through the tour there were a couple sloths that gave us a bit better look though, and one even posed for a photo.

This was pretty typical of our early views of the sloths. The green haze on the bottom is very out of focus leaves
I think he’s either smiling for the camera or laughing at a joke

As the allotted time wound down we were all feeling pretty happy with the tour. We had seen lots of sloths and had learned some fun sloth facts (apparently baby female sloths inherit their mother’s tree). So when the guide said we were going to head back to the entrance and see one more sloth, we didn’t think much of it. As it turns out though, this one last sloth was a mother sitting in a tree with her baby. This tree was quite a bit smaller though, so we were able to see them both very clearly. It was a really special moment just watching the mom sleep and the curious baby climb around nibbling on leaves. This one tree would have been worth the entire tour.

Are you awake mom?
The baby looked our way as it climbed up the branch
Just hanging out for a mid morning snack

With that it was back to the car and on our way. The tour was really incredible, one of the highlights of the trip. If you end up in Costa Rica, definitely check one out!

Taken 2/14/23

A night out with frogs – Costa Rica day 2

As you might imagine, my idea of a fun night is less about the bar scene and more about the activities. When those activities include photography, I will probably enjoy it. We had booked a guided frog tour fir our second evening in Costa Rica so that we could hopefully catch a glimpse of some of the crazy frogs we had seen photos of before our trip. Going in our expectations were fairly low, and in the beginning we didn’t get much. We walked along the trails with our flashlights looking for frogs that were nowhere to be seen and had to settle for some crickets, moths, lizards, and spiders (click to reveal) .

A cricket resting on a leaf
A beautiful moth we found on the trail. it was less than two centimeters across.
An anole watching us walk by

However, as it got darker the frogs started to show themselves. We saw a number of small brown tree frogs on various leaves before we made it to some ponds that had built in the woods to provide a habitat for some of the more interesting frogs. The highlight here was the red eyed tree frog, which was a truly striking sight.

A pair of mating red eyed tree frogs
I love the green spots on this one

After an hour and a half we made our way back to the parking lot and wrapped up the tour. In the end it was a really fun activity. I was even inspired to walk to the end of the neighborhood our Airbnb was in to do my own mini frog tour the next evening. I’m happy to report that I was able to apply my newly acquired frog spotting skills to find a couple more on my own.

I’m not sure what kind of frog this is, but he looks cozy
A savage bullfrog waiting for his dinner – another frog – to walk by

Taken 2/12/23 and 2/13/23