Final Day in Jaco

Our final day in Jaco was devoted to the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees *hums* and the sta...*whacks self upside the head*  Sorry 'bout that.  Musta been something I...oh, nevermind.  We decided to devote the morning to a little place called NeoFauna, a butterfly farm that also has an indigenous frog and snake collection.  The proceeds from this place go to support a jaguar protection program as the jaguar in Costa Rica are now endangered.  

The guy that gives the tour, Randal, was a charming fellow who spoke fluent English.  He was very knowledgeable about all of the animals in their care, and you could tell that he really loves his work.  He started out by taking us through their collection of frogs and snakes.  The Innocent Bystander was really looking forward to seeing some poison dart frogs, and the first three aquariums held three distinct species of them.

He then showed us his snakes, but they were all in aquariums, so we did not get any good pictures but one.  I can't remember what species this one is, but I do remember thinking I'd like to see some shoes in this pattern. (I know...Shame on me!)

And then there was Mikey.  Mikey is a capuchin monkey that was raised as a pet, but he was being mistreated and was reported to NeoFauna who rescued him.  He was malnourished and in poor health.  He is used to humans, both fortunately (so I got to play with him) and unfortunately (because now he is reliant on them), so once they get him back to health they will have to work on reestablishing him with another group of monkeys who can teach him how to forage and fend for himself before they can release him back into the wild.  He is extremely cute, and his little fingers are just like little baby fingers and so soft.  Randal offered to let me into the enclosure, but I know too much about the little buggers to even consider it.  Also, I thought it was kind of a weird offer if they are trying to ready him to return to the wild, eh?

After we finished with the snakes (which did not take long as neither the IB or I have any interest in them other than knowing that they are behind protective glass) and Mikey, we went into the butterfly enclosure.  Again, we only got good pictures of one species (they just never quit flapping around, damn them!), the owl butterfly which is a beautiful blue on one side and has the face of an owl on the reverse.  The angle we got the owl face at does not do it justice, because when the wings are fully extended it looks just like an owl looking at you.  Really weird.

The last little feller we met was this guy, who is about the most awesome little frog I've ever seen, the red eyed leaf frog.  A picture speaks a thousand words.

All in all, it was a fabulous morning, but then we had an evening cruise on the Jungle Crocodile Safari Tour, a two hour boat ride up the Tarcoles river, where we saw about fifteen crocodiles and between 25-40 species of birds, including Scarlet Macaws, Toucans, Ibis, Amazon Parrots, Kingfishers of several varieties, cranes of about a dozen varieties, and many more that I would have to get my list out to name.  Unfortunately, at that distance you would have to have a telephoto lens to get any pictures worth a flip, so I have nothing *holds out hands plaintively*. We tried, but no point putting up pictures of a bunch of leaves, so go grab your fruit loops box-I saw THAT.  

Well, I've used up naptime, so I'm off to finish the gumbo and make some tater salad, so I guess tomorrow I will tell you about our last day in Costa Rica and my impressions overall.  Pura vida!