And it’s only been 2 days...

Day 1: After a 14 hour flight, there wasn’t much for us to do other than avoid falling asleep on any chair we encountered. We gave up at 7pm, but not before having seen our first hummingbird, a giant toad and had a quick dip in the pool while swallows were flying by to drink. 

A promising start, considering we were 10 mins away from the airport, but not quite what we were after...

Day 2: Okay so that was more like it! From San José we had a shuttle take us to Samasati Nature Retreat in Cahuita, a 5 hour drive during which we saw our very first Costa Rican orchid hanging from a tree at a gas station! Allright! No flowers yet, but we’re guessing some Oerstedella sp. After arriving at a barrier with a big stop sign, we took a very bumpy ride into the mountains and safely made it to our hotel.

And that’s where it started...we dropped our luggage, left the cabin and stumbled straight away on a strawberry-red dart frog, followed by some 10 cm long alien-looking stick-insect and a crab wholed up along the path (what are you doing up in the mountains Mr. Crab?)! By now (and we were 10 meters out of our cabin), our heart rate was up through the roof and we were only getting started...sloths, toucans, aracari’s, mot-mots, 3 different hummingbirds, another dart frog (Dendrobates sp.), fireflies and a lot of big mean-looking spiders were added to the list.

Orchids? Not so much yet, but several Catasetum were spotted on the grounds! 

Our plans for today: hiking and snorkeling combo in Cahuita National Park, we can’t wait! 

Oh and a little update while writing today's post: a nice praying mantis came by, just begging to be included :)