Ken the Serpent Pincher

Hi all, Ken here, bringing you the latest update on our adventure. Kimberly is usually the one writing these posts BUT we thought it would be good for me to be a guest writer since this week included my birthday celebration(s). Plus I’m cooler, so there’s always that.

Overall the week itself wasn’t too crazy. Kim and Noah frequented the pool, I mostly remained chained to my desk until about 5pm. Once the work day was done I’d try to spend a little time with them in the pool, or take the boy for a walk to the beach. We’ve actually narrowed down the main spots the local howler monkeys like to hang out at, so that is a frequent stop on our walks. Besides the monkeys we always keep an eye out for all sorts of wildlife. We’ve seen some cool birds, lots of lizards, some neat fish, and lots more.

On my birthday I awoke to a special birthday breakfast. There were birthday pastries from the nearby baker, balloons, hand drawn birthday cards, silly pirate themed props, and even some birthday gifts! That night we ran into town and had a nice birthday dinner at Zi Lounge. I had the classic combination of deep fried wings as a starter with lobster as an entree. We wrapped the night with a candled cheesecake that we all shared because we were stuffed.

On Friday we waited until my work day was wrapping up then jumped into a rental car to head to Arenal. First, the scenery on the drive was amazing. We went from beach to farmlands, to rolling hills, to giant wind farms, and eventually to the Arenal volcano and lake view. Words cannot do it justice, and my crappy phone pictures pale in comparison to what we actually saw. Equally contributing to the experience were the road conditions my chauffeur (Kimberly) had to deal with. Some of the roads we took were by far the bumpiest, windiest (as in squiggly, not blowing air), and overall rough stretches of “drivable” land we’ve ever seen. Still, in the end we made it to the Arenal Observatory and Lodge in one piece without any issues.

Not 10 minutes after we arrived it started to rain, which was fine by us since we were tired. We spent a little time switching rooms (since the upgraded room offered a little more space and a slightly closer view of the volcano), and then headed to dinner. Dinner was great, and we had some really ominous lightning-lit views of the volcano every now and then. Once dinner was done we went back to our room only to discover the first round of animals was waiting for us on the little path to our door. We saw 3 different kinds of frogs, each more interesting than the last. After a quick run back out for pictures we decided to turn in for the night.

Saturday was an early start for the boys. We woke up at 3 AM for absolutely no reason and could not fall back asleep. Finally at 5 AM I got up, fed the boy a snack, and we started looking for wildlife outside the room’s back patio. By this time we had made enough noise to wake Kimberly up, BUT I saw the tail of something slink away in the corner. I quickly got the boy dressed and we ran out of the room and up to the main observation deck. That’s when we saw a whole pack of Coatis. Particularly special was the group of really young ones that seem to be following their mother around. There were also beautiful birds and humming birds flying around.

When we want back to the room we had the same pack of Coatis come right up to our back door (they no doubt have learned to beg tourists like us for food). They quickly realized we would not be entertaining their family of 15 and kept on moving. After a bit more lazing around we went up for breakfast and got ready for our first activity of the day – a nature walk. The nature walk started with a bang, as there was a golden viper perched in a nearby tree (in the parking lot no less). The rest of the walk was a bit more tame – we saw lots of plants and tress, learned a bit of the history of the volcano and surrounding areas, etc. There was also a really cool waterfall stop (that included a ton of stairs), and another poisonous snake sighting (Coral snake). At the end of our hike we had a little tractor pull us back to the lodge, giving us a nice ride through some of their well kept farm land.

After our long walk, we had a quick lunch and decided to take a nap. Noah elected to play instead. After our nap/play time we made our way to a unique restaurant a little ways from where we were staying. It gave us an awesome view of the volcano and a delicious meal.

By the time we got back, we were all tired BUT we had wanted to make a trip to the nearby frog pond, as Noah was determined to find a Red-Eyed Tree Frog on this trip. So we grabbed our stuff and headed back out under the cover of darkness and retraced our steps to the pond.

The pond frog pond at night was like a whole different world. You could hear the noisy chirping of probably hundreds of frogs before you could even see the path that headed their way. Instantly we encountered 2-3 other little frogs, but not the ones we were looking for. Finally around the bend we hit the jackpot. And then again 4 or 5 more times. Noah was beside himself with how cool these little frogs were, and in all honesty so was I. On our way out Noah also spotted a snake in the pond, but it was too far to photograph with our crappy equipment. At this point it began to rain a little bit, but we made it back to the room quickly.

The next morning was a much later start (thank god). We popped out for breakfast, saw some more cool birds on the observation deck, switched back to our old room (the upgraded room was only available for 2 nights), and then headed out for our next adventure.

We had arranged another nature walk with the same guide, this time on the other side of the mountain and bit lower in altitude. Having now seen the frog we were hunting for, our goal was to see some sloths and toucans. We met our guide Eduardo in town of La Fortuna, and we drove a very short distance to the small nature reserve where we would be walking. From the moment we entered there were animals galore. They had a small bird feeding platform set up to attract the super colorful local birds

(not pictured here is the bird we nicknamed “the deadpool bird”).

We also caught a glimpse (but sadly no photographs) of an agouti just while waiting at the entrance and watching the birds. Once our group was ready, we headed out on the trails. We saw 4 sloths, a grey hawk, some herons, 2 different kinds of toucans (I’ll let you guys figure out which one we nicknamed the “evil toucan”), a caiman, a swimming snake, and a strawberry poison-dart frog.

The caiman sighting was particularly exciting because we saw the caiman, then we saw a snake swimming across the pond, then we saw the caiman swim to intercept the snake and WHOMP, it tried (but seemingly failed) to eat the snake! I was too engrossed in the unfolding drama to take a video but another member of our tour group got it and we exchanged information to try to get a copy. We also had another encounter with a red eyed tree frog:

Overall, it was amazing. I would highly recommend the walk and guide to anyone who has any interest in seeing these animals in their natural habitat.

After our second nature walk we headed back to the lodge again, threw on some bathing suits and made our way to the pool. I didn’t mention this before but the observatory is actually up in the mountain range so its about 10-15 degrees cooler than the surrounding areas. Noah made it in to about his knees in the pool before he turned around and slowly acclimated himself to the hot tub we were in. We hung out in the hot tub for a little while, mostly waiting out a rain storm that had started after we had arrived there. After the hot tub we hung out in the room for a bit, then headed out for our final dinner at the lodge itself. Once back in the room Noah and I decided to make one last trip to the frog pond (since it was our last night) but Kimberly chose to stay in the room. We threw some stuff in a bag, grabbed a little flashlight and our gopro and headed out.

The frog pond was nuts. First, we saw two red eyed tree frogs almost instantly upon arriving at the pond. Secondly, we saw a goddamn tree snake try to get one of the frogs we were looking at almost immediately after we noticed them. Luckily the frog it came up behind made a leap for safety very quickly, and we elected to give the snake his space and keep walking. We saw a LOT more red eye frogs, some other little guys we had seen the night before, another tree snake, and the biggest frog I’ve ever seen in my life. Again, my equipment was shoddy so this image does not do it justice but this thing was massive, easily the size of Noah’s head.

Upon circling the pond once we decided to take another look at the frogs we first found, and that’s when things got serious. There was a mother<bleep>ing snake on our mother<bleep>ing frog!

Noah was not a fan. I tried to explain that the snake is an animal too and has to eat. But my kid wasn’t buying what I was selling. That snake was hurting the poor little frog, and he was mad as heck about it. It was getting late, and this was not how I wanted the night to end, so I made an executive decision to intervene. It’s at this point I would like to point out that sometimes I do crazy things, but most of the risks I take are well calculated. The snake was actually really long. probably a little under 3 feet, AND it had its mouth securely around the frog. The frog was also still fighting, trying to pull itself away from the snake. I made Noah stay a little ways back, and I flicked the very end of snake’s tail. That snake didn’t care even a little. I moved a little higher up the snake’s body and gave it a squeeze. I’m pretty sure the snake laughed at me, I could see it in it’s beady little eyes. Finally I decided to commit, I did mean to save the frog after all, so I pinched/squeezed the snake a little higher up the body with intent and the snake finally let the frog go. The frog leapt immediately to safety, and frankly so did I. Interestingly enough, the snake’s immediate reaction was not to come fight me or chase the frog, it started to rub its face/mouth against a leaf. We had actually read that the red eye frogs are not poisonous but they do taste bad to predators, so it was interesting to see that seemingly at play.

We did not stick around to see the rest of the situation play out, we gave the frog a fighting chance and elected not to stick around a hungry snake. We made our way back through the darkness to our room and filled mommy in on our little adventure. Unfortunately I learned the limits of my phone and gopro cameras with regards to recording things in the dark, but I think we captured the important parts.

The next morning we made our way back home. We stopped at a little town called Tilaran for lunch. Very peaceful, but also very lively. It was interesting to see a recurring pattern where most of these towns had a big church in the middle with a park right across the street. Once done with lunch we made our way back home. We actually made another trip back out that same day to Liberia – one of the larger towns in the area. Kimberly’s eyes were rebelling against her contacts and the elements so we had to see an ophthalmologist. The man had the most state of the art machine we’d ever seen – and we go to the eye doctor yearly. We hit a pharmacy on the way back to our car then drove to a nearby restaurant. We then proceeded to have some of the best ceviche either of us has ever had at Tierra Mar.

With the night coming to a close, and my wife slightly blind due to some of the eye drops used in the doctors office, we headed for our final stop of the night: Walmart. Yes, Walmart. We picked up some odds and ends and headed on the final leg of our super long day. The drive home was uneventful – UNTIL we reached the center of Playa Del Coco and quickly realized there was no power. In the whole town. Five minutes later we were in our powerless house. It was hot, we were tired, and I was dreading the night. Luckily the power came back on within 10 minutes of us being back in the apartment and thus ended an amazing weekend.

I want to pause here and say – this was my 30th birthday weekend, and I don’t think I will ever forget it. A big thank you to my wife for coming up with the idea and coming with me on this amazing adventure.