Day Seven - Costa Rica

This morning we took it easy, and I spent most of the morning either dozing or reading my book in bed. Alan was up with the kids (who always get up at around 6am these days!) and was working on our Rainforest Encounters blog. We don’t have an internet connection here yet, and hopefully it will be set up next week. For now we write all emails and blog posts on a word document, then when we get connected either via an internet café or our neighbour, upload what we’ve already written. Makes it a bit easier when the girls are waiting patiently (or not!) for us to finish!

A big rain storm came through this afternoon, and we could literally see it coming. We have a wide view of the rainforest out the front of our house, and we could hear the large drops pelting the rainforest canopy before they had reached us. When it rains in Costa Rica, it really rains! Tayen and Saige were both happy to have a bit of a rain shower when it died down a little bit. I don’t think they’ll get sick of this past time in a hurry!

Alan had his first night out collecting with Tristan, and travelled up to a local back-packers/volunteer station known as Bolita. It is about 20 minutes walk from our place through dense rainforest, but with Alan travelling slowly looking for bugs along the way, it can take a few hours there and back. The back-packer station is basically a wooden hut on stilts with no electricity, and back-packers from around the world can stay for as long as they want, supposedly volunteering at the organic fruit farm that is no more than about 10 random fruit trees scattered through the rainforest.

After the walk up there, Alan was awarded with his first glimpse of a Terciopello, the Spanish word for the Fer-de-lance viper. Unfortunately he left his camera battery at home, so the photo here is of a snake he saw a few days later. This snake is one of the most venomous here, with bites causing massive tissue damage that can result in the loss of a limb. It also causes massive internal haemorrhaging with bleeds that can fill the abdominal cavity and can cause you to bleed to death. So needless to say, we all have been very wary when it comes to walking anywhere at night, and making sure all pathways, lawns and garden areas are clear during the day to make playtime safe for the girls! We are probably being a bit obsessive about it at the moment while it is all so new to us, and I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough that these snakes are not lurking under every bush!

A young Terciopello