We woke up early and went out to the balcony to the sound of birds. And indeed, there were quite a few in sight including several large black vultures. One of them shared a nearby tree with a Yellow-throated Toucan. Lilach, Daniel and I headed out before 7, for an early morning a swim in a nearby stream fed by hot springs. The flow was relatively fast and shallow, and quite hot at places. Different spots offered different temperatures, with one particular spot offering a mix of hot and cold currents – a strange and unique experience. On the way back, Lilach and I had coffee at SLOFFEE cafe (a combination of the words “Sloth” and “Coffee”), while Daniel preferred to stay in the car and read. We didn’t see a sloth, but the trees beyond the porch provided plenty of bird sightings, and a large and impressive longhorn beetle landed right on the counter in front of us.
Enjoying the hot springs
We got back a little after eight, and then I had two long video calls. In the afternoon, we went to the private reserve Sky Adventures. They have all sorts of zip lines and such, but we just wanted to go for a walk in the forest, which also has two long hanging bridges. It was nice to see the treetops up close. The diversity of bromeliads, creepers and epiphytes that was growing on each tree was truly amazing, and reminded me of a dense coral reef. Besides the beautiful vegetation and birds, we were lucky enough to also see a group of spider monkeys in the treetops, as well as a special find – an Eyelash Palm-Pitviper (Bothriechis schlegelii) that was lying motionless on the side of the trail, justifying its reputation as a specialized ambush predator. This little tree viper earned its name thanks to two distinctive characteristics: the “eyelashes” – elongated scales protruding above the eyes (one dubious theory is that they help protect the eye from small branches and twigs), and the heat-sensing pits located along the upper lip, which help it sense its prey – mostly small warm-blooded rodents and birds up in the trees. Juvenile snakes prefer to hunt closer to the ground, as their prey consists more of small lizards and frogs, which they sometime lure by wagging the brightly colored tip of their tail that resembles a small worm.
At night, we went on a guided night tour in the private Danaus Reserve. It was very nice! We saw many frogs, some lizards and bats, and also a number of caimans. The largest of them (about 3 meters long) didn’t like my desire to photograph him from a more photogenic range and put on an impressive territorial display of swimming quickly towards us and running up the bank. We were convinced to take a few steps back. After we returned to the apartment, Lilach and I went out for another little tour of our own, by car, and found two large moths that chose the main road as a place to think about the next generation, as well as a large and beautiful gecko that we moved from the road to the vegetation on the side.
Family Trips 