Letters from... Costa Rica (part 5: Cano Negro)

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Rio Frio

  As there was no much fun in La Fortuna (the volcano is not even smoking, not to mention flowing lava...), we joined a boat tour to Cano Negro. Cano Negro is about 1.5 hours from La Fortuna. On the way our tour guide was talking many interesting things about Cano Negro and overall about Costa Rica. We were asked what animals we wanted to see - I replied "sloth" as in Corcovado we only saw the claws of a sloth (even that only through a binocular).

two toed sloth

And just in a few minutes, our bus driver spots out a sloth on a tree along the road! From the road, I would never saw the sloth: it was only a darker spot between two branches. As we approached the tree, our guide almost stepped on a coral snake - an approx. 1 meter long poisonous snake. We let the snake go and got close to the tree: the sloth could be seen great by a binocular. It was a two-toed sloth (not the cute, smiley face sloth - those are the three-toed ones). With one arm it was holding to a branch (I guess not to fall off in its 20h/day sleep) and with another, it was holding a baby sloth. Getting back to the bus, our guide told some interesting facts about sloths: like that the two-toed seems to be more "active" than the three-toed - the two-toed sleep "only" 16-18 hours, while the three-toed sleeps about 20. They only come down to the ground once a week for do no.2. Also, there is a kind of moth that in the whole world only can be found in the fur of a sloth. This moth lives in symbiosis with the sloth: it cleans the sloth`s skin, while the sloth gives opportunity for the moth to reproduce (the moth lays its eggs in the feces of the sloth). Also, in the rainy season they tend to grow algae in their fur - they are cute, but I wouldn`t pet them... And finally, the ultimate mystery. How do these animal survive from the jaguars, eagles and snakes if they are so slow? (Even if "emergency" their speed is only 300meters/hour(!).) Well, they have excellent camouflage.  (Some say that`s why they "grow" algae in the rainy season - not to stand out from the green leaves with their originally yellowish-brownish fur.)

   The encounter with the coral snake and the sloth was still in urban area (!), so we were really looking forward to the "real" jungle. On the way to Rio Frio, we stopped by at a restaurant for a short toilet break/souvenir shopping/iguana watch. There were tons of green iguanas in the nearby trees: there was a small river flowing below and the restaurant owner is keeping them there for some research. The males of the green iguanas were actually orange: it`s to distract the birds and other predators from the female. Seeing them so close, they really looked beautiful: they looked like small dinosaurs!

green iguana - isn`t this creature cool?

  In about 1.5 hours we arrived to the river Rio Frio, where our boat tour started. We were welcomed with some snacks and after a little rest we headed to the river.

a "small" heliconia in the garden where we waited

Our bus driver was amazing on the boat as well - he spotted most of the animals! I wasn`t expecting much thinking that mainly we would see river birds (egrets and herons), but I was wrong: not only the view was beautiful but we`ve seen a lot of animals. Not to mention that this was far the best way to spot animals: we didn`t have to watch where we step, we just sat (stood) and could search the trees and grounds for animals without any distraction.

howler monkeys

   Thanks to that we not only saw 3 species of monkeys (capuchins, spiders and howlers (yeah)), but we saw many caymans (even cayman babies!), green basilisk (the most beautiful lizards in the world!), even a row of long-nose bats (they were lining up nicely on a tree trunk).

green basilisk - isn`t it beautiful?

baby caymans

long nose bats

   Not to mention the many-many birds: Little Blue Herons, Anhingas (or Snakebirds as in the water their long and slim neck looks like a snake), Green Kingfisher, Northern Jacanas (a cute little bird with huge legs to be able to walk on big leaves on the water).

snakebird and turtle

I was longing to see a Bare-Throated Tiger Heron (a heron with beautiful brownish-greyish feather) and on the way back we encountered one!

tiger heron

This heron was really beautiful and elegant. We also saw some "unique" birds: a Trogon (Violaceous Trogon which is familiar to Quetzals) and a Montezuma Oropendola (a beautiful bird with reddish beak and bright yellow tail).

Violaceous Trogon

   After 2 hours animal watching on the river, we got back to the shore where a delicious lunch were waiting for us. The Costarican food is really delicious: they almost every time have vegetarian food as well. Here we had a kind of white stew of cauliflowers, some meet, beans, tortilla chips and rice with vegetables. The food is not as spicy and hot as in Mexico, so for me it fit more.

  With full stomachs we headed back to La Fortuna. We went through the town, so rather than going back to our hotel, we got off in the city center and walked around a bit. The volcano can be seen from every corner of the main square, it looked very nice. The town is really small, but the main square is full with souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants, so it was fun to look around.
   After strolling around and window shopping, we headed back to our hotel. Just on the other side of the road from the hotel there was a steakhouse which was really delicious. We had lunch there the previous day, so we didn`t take chances to try out something in the city center, we rather had dinner in that steak house. It was delicious!
 
   Unfortunately, this was our last day in Costa Rica. After Corcovado, Monteverde, Arenal and Cano Negro, finally the day to leave arrived. We took again a shuttle from our hotel to San Jose in the morning. Our flight was in the afternoon, so we again had a few hours in San Jose before we left. Overall, I can only say what National Geographic said about Costa Rica (well, Corcovado): "Paradise on Earth"...

More pictures from here!　→　Cano Negro