Oh No! Let's Go!

Post date: Jul 2, 2010 3:59:58 PM

I signed up for two tours, one at night, the other the following morning. The night tour was supposed to expose me to the possibility of seeing pit vipers, sloths, frogs, and more. The day tour was for monkeys, birds, and sloths.

Turns out I got a guide all to myself for the night trek. I saw a “Strangle Tree,” which begins as a seedling, of course, but grows to envelope its host tree and crushing it. The host tree eventually dies, and the interior of the host tree is hollow. I also saw three or four species of frogs, all of which were small. There were oddly shaped crickets, katydids, spiders, and walking sticks. My guide found a hole in the wall of dirt beside our trail and started poking a stick in there, flashing the light on the entrance. Some movement in the back caught my attention. As the guide continued to pester the inhabitant, he lured out a giant tarantula. It was black and its joints were reddish orange. My guide the next day said they have bad vision (funny, considering the number of eyes they seem to have), and attacked based on the vibrations they detect with the hairs coating their bodies. At one point my guide stopped and said he smelled monkey pheromones. Monkey pheromones? As in the scents used to attract mates? I smelled nothing. Why did my guide? Yeah, he’s a retired ecology teacher, but he didn’t look any part monkey. Then I noticed a bunch of ants. Calling my guide over to see the writhing swarm, which was vigorously moving along, he immediately sputtered, “Oh no! Let’s go! Those are army ants! Very aggressive, and their bite stings!” Looking down at our feet, we saw that some had already crawled onto usl We hopped down the trail, stomping, shaking off the ants. Neither of us got bit. My guide the next day said that you can hear a swarm of army ants coming because there’s a lot of crunching going on and sounds of insects jumping out of the way. Thunder started booming around us, and my guide said, “We have a problem” as he pulled out his poncho. I smiled and just said, “I’m no stranger to problems.” We finished early on account of the rain. I saw no vipers or sloths, but enough frogs, insects, and a tarantula to appease me.

The next day I got lost on a road that would be smoother if it was a river bottom. A car with three girls was lost also, so we bounced around looking for the entrance to our morning hike. We arrived an hour late and the guy said we were SOL. One of the girls sweet-talked the receptionist into calling one of their guides, and a guide agreed to take us separately right then. This was some fantastic mountain jungle. It was cool, mossy, and streamed with vines (on one of which we were allowed to swing!). No frogs and few insects, but lots of birds, especially hummingbirds. 10 species of those in that park alone. The “Cloudforest” of Monteverde rests right on the continental divide, which means that it gets the west’s rain season from May to November and the east’s rain season from December to April. No monkeys or sloths today either. But, I saw a magenta flower high in a tree that blossoms only one day out of the year. Saw some new butterflies, beetles, caterpillars, and other flowers. Saw a small black snake the guide said probably wasn’t poisonous due to the shape of its head. Triangular heads generally are the poisonous types. There’s also this plant whose flower opens at night, gets to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees F), and emits an aroma that attracts beetles. Once the beetles come, it closes. The beetles eat from the flower and mate with each other, having a blast I’m sure, then leave (if they want) when the blossom opens the next morning. The beetles then pollinate other flowers with the flower’s pollen. Mutual benefit.

I learned that the monkeys I saw and heard at the beach are not “Congos.” At least not technically. By comparing the sound I heard to that of popular Costa Rican monkeys, I determined them to be Howler Monkeys.

Being here makes me feel quiet inside.