After we left Volcan Arenal, we spent New Year’s at a local hotel and the next day we were off to Uvita. Uvita is a small town on the Sierpe River on the Southern Pacific side of Costa Rica. On our way to Uvita we stopped off at el Puente de los Cocodrilos (The Crocodile Bridge). This bridge has become a major site for tourists in the last few years as there has been a large congregation of American crocodiles that bask under the bridge.

Crocodilians are very important to the tropical ecosystems. They limit the growth of many populations of animals from fish to birds and large mammals and snakes, anything that moves is on the menu for the American crocodile. Of the four species of crocodile that inhabit the New World, the American crocodile has the largest population range but it is declining. More than 85% of the deaths to american crocodiles are due to humans. This is a mixture of poaching for their skin, hunting for their meat, and accidental human interactions leading to casualties on both sides.

At the bridge we also saw green iguanas. Although green iguanas are very common throughout the Americas, and even in Hawaii as an invasive species, they are unique in Costa Rica due to their red morph. Southwestern Costa Rica is the only place that you can find red green iguanas.

We stayed a night at Uvita and watched the sunset on the Pacific Ocean. This was the first time I had seen the Pacific in my life and it was truly beautiful. The beach had an outcropping known as the Whale’s Tail that extended more than a mile out into the sea during low tide. We went out and saw the sunset from the Whale’s Tail but had to run back before high tide swept us away! This beach is also famous because whales are frequently spotted off the coast during their migrations. On the beach we saw a melody of ghost crabs, sea cucumbers, brittle stars and small fish within the tide pools. Tide pools are unique microecosystems that only exist during low tide.

The next day we resumed our trip to Campanario. We drove as far as the road could take us but in the end we had to travel by boats. We traveled on the Sierpe River for three hours to reach Campanario but made a pit stop to kayak through the mangrove forests. Unlike almost all other neotropical ecosystems, mangroves have very little ecological diversity due to the fact that very few plants, less than 60 on the planet, that can successfully live in saline conditions. Although most people think of the large trees with massive root networks, mangroves are just any plant that can live successfully in salty water. Of the actual trees that are considered mangroves, there are three in Costa Rica: the red, back and T-mangrove.

The red and T-mangrove are able to survive in salty water by storing all of the salt from the water in several leaves that contain specific vacuole-like organelles that store the salt, since they lack large amounts of chloroplasts, these leaves are usually yellow to black and look dead. The plant will then drop these leaves into the water, although they are wasting leaves, this strategy is useful in these environments because the mangroves aren’t competing with other plants for space and can grow much faster. Black mangroves will deposit the salt on the underside of the leaves, allowing them to save leaves. Many tourists will lick the leaves and taste the salt deposits. Mangrove forests are incredibly important ecosystems that act as buffers for incoming storms and are home to many unique species of life.

 

When we left the Soltis Center, we stopped off at Volcán Arenal. 5 years ago, Arenal was the most active volcano in Costa Rica, now it is still active but Volcán Turrialba reigns supreme. On our penultimate day in Costa Rica, we stopped off and spotted Turrialba from a distance with its constant smoke stack. Although Turrialba is more active now, Arenal remains most photogenic.

Arenal is located on one of Costa Rica’s many national parks, with its jungle and wildlife preserved. We were able to hike around Arenal but the trial was destroyed due to an eruption several years ago so only the lowland trails are intact. This will be an overview of the wildlife seen at Arenal.

One of the first animals we saw was a tiny eyelash pit viper. Unlike the one seen during my orientation hike (read: Orientation), this one was a green morph and much smaller. We were able to get really close to it while it was coiled up in a branch almost invisible, perfectly blended into its surroundings.

Birds were everywhere in Arenal, most notably toucans and oropendolas. Toucans are one of the most well known birds in the world and they are very common in Costa Rica. I will not be talking about them too much in this post because I saw them in greater numbers in Campanario later in the trip. Oropendolas on the other hand are extremely strange birds. They’re larger than toucans and are completely black except for the tip of their beak and their bright yellow tail. What makes them strange is their call, once you hear it you’ll never forget it. The call of the oropendola is something out of a science fiction movie, I highly encourage you to listen to it.

We also saw various species of orchids and bromeliads throughout the hike. Orchids and bromeliads fall under a group of plants called epiphytes. Epiphytes are plants that do not live in soil and life attached to other plants. They form a commensalistic relationship with the host plant. Orchids are extremely beautiful plants that produce colorful flowers. Orchids are the largest group of plants and are incredibly diverse, these plants are great at cleaning the air and live off of the humidity in the jungle. Bromeliads are typically larger than orchids and will accumulate water in the plant. This is important because it is then used as a water source for many organisms that live high up in the canopy. Frogs use it to lay eggs (read: Frogs at the Soltis Center) and they can form unique ecosystems, similar to tide pools found on beaches.

 

This was the first time I had ever seen an active volcano, but something that was just as magnificent was the trees. There were trees there that were the largest trees I have ever seen. The trees were massive and they had their own unique ecosystems. Epiphytes covered the trunk and within crevices, stingless bees swarmed, birds roosted in the canopy. This is a perfect example of although you might only cut down one tree, you’re killing hundreds, in this case thousands, of lives.