I didn’t have the greatest sleep. Our mattress was not very good, and I could feel the floor under my hips. At 3 am the people next to us, on both sides, got up to leave (you have to catch the Rio Clara crossing at low tide) and so we woke. We did both get back to sleep however and slept until 5 when someone’s alarm clock rang.
Anole displaying his crest
We were planning to get away for an early hike anyway, so this was when we’d planned to get up. Neyer cooked us coffee, then we went on an early morning hike looking for peccaries (we did spot just one, though we could often smell them along the trail). We had much greater success with monkeys, as we saw many, many troops of spider monkeys swinging through the tops of the canopy, as well as some howlers, and lots of squirrel monkeys.
The plant growth was amazing, and we were awed by enormous primary rainforest trees towering as much as 50 metres above us. Neyer was an extraordinary guide and his knowledge was so extensive that we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the park.
After breakfast at about 8 we went out again, once more looking for what animals and plants we could find. It was already starting to get hot, and although we looked for peccaries at every waterhole, we never did see any more. That was quite alright however for we did see so much other flora and fauna that we will never remember even a tiny part of the names of what we viewed.
Loading the boats at Sirena
By 12:30 it was time to head back to the beach and catch our boat home. The tide was out, unlike when we’d landed yesterday morning, and we had to walk out about 100 meters over hard flat rock. The water was shallow, and very, very warm, almost hot.
A frog on the night hike
This evening we went for a night walk. This was led by one of the other guides who lives in Drake Bay, but Neyer accompanied us. We were really glad he did for he spotted many animals that the other guide missed, including the famous red-eyed tree frog.
Red eyed tree frog
He also saw something very unique, two snakes that were trying to swallow the same frog. They each had about half a frog in their mouth and we weren’t sure what would happen when they got to the middle. Would one snake swallow the other?