25 December 2018 -2nd  January 2019

Just mentioning the name of this lodge "La Tarde" makes us dream... Dreaming of snakes, of serenity, of nature still wild! This lodge is located in the center oft he Osa Peninsula, a few kilometers from the National Park, which you can easily reach on foot. It is away from any “civilization“ and the beaten track. To get there you will have to drive on dirty tracks for about twenty kilometers. Its owner, Carlos Eduardo Castro Rojas, a former farmer converted into an ardent defender of his forest, is an outstanding herpetologist! We made two night outings with him, two of the most extradordinary moments of the trip but also of the most tiring. It was the dry season and most oft he snakes gather towards the rivers. We had to walk a few kilometers from the lodge on sometimes steep paths, among the invasive gnats, before we could observe our friends the snakes…

The lancehead, Bothrops asper, was the most common snake observed during these two nights to the point that we stopped counting them! We love and seek out snakes, but there… we were very impressed with such a large amount of this very poisonous species! We could observe many other species of Reptiles and Amphibians on those nights, but the lanceheand was the highlight!

Note also for the remarkable diurnal animals : the four species of Primates observable in Costa Rica, the long and very close observation of a three-toe Sloth, the magnificent and endemic Dendrobate, Phyllobates vittatus, as well as the greatest diversity of diurnal raptors observed during this trip !

Our regret was not to speak better Spanish in order to be able to talk more with Eduardo and his family…

Puerto Jimenez is almost the opposite of La Tarde… Although small, this city is very lively and touristic. Nature is omnipresent but difficult to appreciate. Fortunately, we made the right decision to offer us a boat trip just the two of us, which allowed us a nice trip and the observation quite close of a dozen pantropical spotted dolphins ! Despite this, we will not return to Puerto Jimenez.

The other visited regions:

 -Arenal Volcano and Heliconias Rainforest Lodge (Red-eyed treefrog and other tropical beauties)

- Palo Verde National Park and Rancho Humo (Pacific coast dry forests and swamp)

- Tarcoles river and Carara National Park (American crocodile)

- Osa peninsula, Punta Marenco (dream beaches)

- San Gerardo de Dota (Quetzal and magic mountain forests)

- El Copal biological reserve (Lots of Tangaras and very big Terciopelo)

- Cahuita National Park (tropical beaches, racoons and poison frogs)

- Selva Bananito (snakes portraits and few nice birds)

- Tortuguero National Park (little Amazonia)