Today, we had scheduled a long(about 6 hours) hike in Cahuita National Park, in Limon Province, Costa Rica on the Caribbean coast. The hike was not arduous or long in terms of total distance. But our tour guide had budgeted the time because of how often we would be stopping to discuss and observe the wildlife we would encounter

After breakfast…

…we loaded up with water, snacks, sunscreen and took off. Sure enough, it didn’t take long before the first of many stops to appreciate the flora, fauna and wildlife of this national park. In this web gallery, you’ll see the following: flowers, birds, squirrels, bats, male plume basilisk(see the female in my first Costa Rica post), hermit crabs crawling down a tree, fungus and mushrooms, some gorgeous beaches, moths, racoons, white-faced capuchin monkeys, epiphytes(plants growing on trees without being parasites), ferns, grass hoppers, anoles, spiders and the pièce de résistance: eyelash viper. This brightly colored species is one of many venomous snakes found in Costa Rica, and the tour guide really wanted us to see one. We found ours at the very end of the hike.

These two pictures and video were taken at about the halfway point of the hike:

On the way home, our tour guide, Mario, was trying to figure out where to take us for dinner. Many of the restaurants in Costa Rica are open air, which we really love. And like anyone, Mario has his favorites, but he was not quite willing to stop the whole bus(we all needed a little rest after the long hike) and interrupt our trip back to the hotel. So at one intersection, he realized we just happened to stop near one of his favorites, so he tells our driver, Nicolas, to open the bus door and yells out at the top of his lungs, “Oye! Como estas? Se puede..?” and proceeds to yell out to the owner, asking them if he can accommodate our party later that evening. The owner recognizes Mario immediately, smiles and waves , but he’s stuck behind the bar with a customer. He thinks about Mario’s request just for a split-second, and yells back, “Claro!” Boom, just like that, we had a dinner reservation at Restaurante Coral Reef(P5P2+9CR, 36, Limón Province, Cahuita, Costa Rica).

Dinner was awesome! Since we’re literally on the coast, the sea food was fresh and highly recommended. See the captions below, from :