Costa Rica

As most of you know by now Janice and I are moving to Costa Rica about one year from this November. My recent trip in June was to purchase more property adjacent to what we own now. I brought my brother Jim with me this time. It was nice to have a family member along so they could see for themselves why we are excited to move to Costa Rica. My brother Jim is a few years older then me but had no problem keeping up. Our second day we set out to machete through adjacent jungle to see what was around my property. There was plenty of wildlife around us. The first animal we ran across was a toad like none we have ever seen. Jim though it was a tree stump until it started moving. This toad was at least 10 inches long with it's legs folded under and had a circumference of 16 inches. We guessed it was two plus pounds, maybe three! I have no picture. I didn't want to have my camera with me while I was swinging a machete. Further along we saw a thicket tinamou. It's a ground dwelling bird shaped like a fat football with a skinny neck and small head. The color was barred different shades of brown. It's call was a single peep. We also came across a flock of Chachalaca a type arboreal pheasant that stays in heavy cover in the trees and vines. Every morning you can hear the plain brown Chachalaca's as they call out to each other across the valley. One of my favorite birds on and near our property is the Long-tailed Manikin. A mysterious bird that is often heard and not seen. Small only about four or five inches long sports a tail twice the length of it's body. Two long black skinny tail feathers that separate further along to the end. The body is jet black with a powder blue back and red cap. They also sport a pair of orange legs. Every year I pick up on more calls this little beauty has. So far it's around six different calls. One song is a duet sung by two males perched side by side. I saw and heard this happen several times. They start off almost simultaneously singing identical notes. Another day when we were up at our property Jim was pointing out some flowers. I told Jim '' If you stick your finger out any further, that snake is going to eat it''. It was pretty funny, it was a harmless vine snake about four foot long. I reached in the brush to pull it out to have a closer look. As I was holding it by it's tail the snake keep lifting itself up with a open mouth ready to bite. I grabbed my camera with my wide angle lens to get a shot. When I finally focused the snake it was almost at my hand and had to drop it. No shot. Jim and I spent a few days hiking different national parks during our short two weeks. One hike at Arenal Volcano National park we had another snake experience. We came across this humongous tree that I had to get a shot of. While hiking I carry one camera with my telephoto lens on my shoulder with a mono pod attached. The rest of my camera equipment is in my back pack. So I needed to set my camera down to grab my other camera with the wide angle lens. When I set my camera down on what looked to be a good dry spot I heard slight rattling, a snake warning me to back off. I had just set my camera down on top of green pit viper, a venomous snake. It stayed still not give itself away even with the camera atop of it. I turned to grab the right camera out of my bag and then it was gone. How could I not see this snake. I'm constantly looking for snakes and then this happens. Sounds like a lot of snakes, but we see less then one snake per visit. I could go on forever about Costa Rica. The wildlife is only a part of what draws us there. The fishing is great. The local folk are more then friendly and layed back. Good food and healthy too. The scenery is like the Smoky Mountains but tropical. Surrounded by the ocean and beaches. The cost of living is more then good. Here's more pictures from our trip.