After the excitement over more overnight tropical storm, howling monkeys and flooded bars we headed off to the Cahuita National Park. We had struggled to find an organised trip that didn’t involve snorkelling, so we drove up to the park ourselves.
A chat with the ranger on the gate and we soon had ourselves a guide organised, and we set off. Surprisingly, in the opposite direction to the park, but the guide clearly knew what he was doing and pointed out an owl that looked exactly like the tree it was sleeping in, its camouflage was amazing.
The guide then had us staring all over a tree looking for an iguana which was right in front of our eyes, but almost invisible. We then set off along a 2km long boardwalk that was built through the swamp to enable tourists to see the wildlife without wading through danger and all the snakes and other nasties that live in the swamp.
The other highlight was this little yellow worm which seemed harmless enough but turned out to be e baby viper, already with all its venom loaded ready to go.
I was a bit surprised at the lack of wildlife on show, but that is the problem with nature, it isn’t cooperative. The main even was a troop of cappuccino monkeys who are a deeply unpleasant creature. They are very territorial and seem to attack pretty much anything that comes along, including tourists.
Cappucinno monkeys
When we (and other tourists) stopped in their territory, they surrounded us in the tree ready to attack so it was wise to keep moving. Apparently, these monkeys even rape the Howler Monkey females, probably in the hope that they stop screeching at night,
At the end of the boardwalk the guide took his cash, and relieved me of an addition £7 cost he didn’t have any change – it isn’t just the monkeys that are dodgy.
The trek then continued along the deserted coastline, but by now we had seen quite a bit of deserted beaches, and we did get to see a little raccoon hanging around.
Now if the daytime was a bit boring, the night time certainly wasn’t with a range of creepy crawlies that seemed to belong to nightmares more than our world, but here are a few shots of these amazing creatures of the night that came alive when the sun went down.
We could hear the frog in the daytime, but as it is completely translucent, it is impossible to see it in the daylight, but at night it’s eerie glow appears in the torch light.
This scorpian is only visible when a blue light is focused on it.
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