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That now makes 18 national symbols for Costa Rica! Read about why this one and what the other national symbols are in this Tico Times Article. And be sure to check out my collection of Blue Morpho photos in my Blue Morpho Gallery! Including this one below.
And you might also be interested in this article in Tico Times this week: Costa Rica Increases Forest Protection by Over 16 million Hectares
¡Pura Vida!
I didn’t actively search for insects on this trip, but as in any rainforest you can’t help but notice some unique ones! Here’s three:
¡Pura Vida!
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| Red-eyed Tree Frog Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Long-billed Hermit Hummingbird Sleeping Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Baby Basilisk Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Tropical Rainforest Frog Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Katydid Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Fleur-de-lis Spider Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Fleur-de-lis Spider hiding in curled dead leaf Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Blue Morpho Butterfly Sleeping They are bright blue on top with underside like an owl butterfly Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Red-eyed Tree Frog Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
I got a new guide for this hike who specializes in night hikes, a more mature man than the 18 year-old David. He was really good and helped make some of the photos. His name is Jairo, but the way everyone pronounced it, sounded something like “Hydel,” I almost backed out of the hike because of the light rain and sure glad I did not. Today’s hike in the park was postponed until tomorrow (Friday) because I was the only one going today and they need a minimum of two to afford it. There’s 5 of us for tomorrow. But they do the night hike solo and I was glad as the only one because I got more attention and probably saw/photographed more creatures!
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| Isabella Tiger Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Owl Butterfly Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Malachite Butterfly
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Bluewing or Blue-Banded Purplewing
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Colubura Dirce
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Thoas Swallowtail
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Postman
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Heliconius Sara
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Blue Morpho Butterfly on Charlie Doggett Selvatura Park, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Heliconius Hecale Zuleika
Selvatura Park, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
The Selvatura Adventure Park Butterfly House was bigger and fancier and maybe landscaped better or prettier but did not have as many species as the smaller, family-run Monteverde Butterfly Garden which also had a more lively insect exhibit, again not as big, but with more live insects shown up close by one of the owners. If you can go to only one of the butterfly gardens, I would recommend Monteverde. Plus if you go hiking in the Cloud Forest Reserve or Curi-Cancha you will see lots of butterflies in the wild.
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| Templo Falls one of five falls at La Paz |
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| Jaguar at La Paz, my favorite photo after the waterfall above. Though my arm was scratched by an Ocelot when I tried to photograph through bars of his cage. (That’s another story for later maybe!) |
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| Blue Morpho Butterfly at La Paz |
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| Poas Lake Caldron |
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| Active Portion of Poas Volcano that smelled like sulphur |
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| Tree Fern in tropical cloud forest of Poas Volcano |