Day One at Tirimbina (Josh Cronmiller),

Our first day at Tirimbina was an eventful one to say the least. Carolyn, Katie and myself, the mighty “Bushmasters” as we call ourselves, were fortunate enough to have the day off, with us being the first evening reptile and amphibian survey. Our first excursion into the rainforest was last night as we were taken into a forest rich with life and teeming with diverse creatures flying, crawling and slithering about. It’s amazing to see the variety of species, even as I type this a large catydid crawls across the monitor. Our day consisted of a long hike (2.5 hours) to the main building where most of the tourists stay at Tirimbina. During this hike we found ourselves surrounded by wild boars, followed by leaf cutter ants and exposed to even more species of insects and amphibians. Our first contact with the internet and some other essentials was a nice way to start our stay as the main building has a few of these luxuries. We then hiked back to the research station sighting several snakes, one being the infamous hog-nosed viper. This has been the third highly venomous snake I’ve seen in the last 24 hours, I don’t think many others can say this… and be proud of it. Tonight we are out for yet another evening survey, I hope the beasts are as excited as I am.

An Excursion (Carolyn Knapper)

Its our second day now here at the Tirimbina centre, and it is beautiful to say the very least. It took a little while for the girls (Katie, Andi and myself) to get over our fear of being eaten alive by cockroaches in the night that were creeping around our beds, but we slept soundly. Last night we went for an amazing night hike that revealed so many new things. Josh climbed a tree to retrieve a small red-eyed tree frog, and ever so gently coaxed a tarantula from another tree for pictures. There were soooo many spiders! But luckily I am still alive and well. Today we (team “Bushmaster” consisting of Katie, myself and Josh C.) ventured out to the main centre, and what should have been an hour hike took more than twice as long. We traveled alongside a river and found an amazing little waterfall, and at one point found ourselves surrounded by Peccaries- wild boars. First we spotted their tracks, and later stared them in the eye from about 20m away. Katie and I went for a swim in a large nearby river, which was a great feeling after such a long sweaty hike. After scoring a free meal at the centre we ventured back, coming across a Hog nosed viper on the side of the trail. Definitely thought it was a Cat-eyed snake, something a lot less harmful, but after showing Josh our pics we realized how easily it is to come across dangerous creatures without even realizing it! Tonight we head out for our first Amphibian and Reptile survey, at 8pm with Josh. Im super excited to see what we find lurking in the dark…

Encounters of All Kinds (Katie Bigras)

Wow, so much already, where do I start!? Ok, the beginning: When we landed we got a cab to our hotel (Hotel Cacts). We were all SOO pumped and so very VERY excited to be in COSTA RICA. The second we got into the room Andrea said ‘check everything guys’… what a bad idea, I saw the biggest cockroach in the world and the three of us lost it, half due to adrenaline, half due to creepy bugs. But let me tell you, we sure had to get over that quickly. Here at Tirimbina they are quite abundant, throughout the night hike, no matter where you look in the forest, chances are: roaches…. Everywhere. BUT that’s not as cool as the Red eyed tree frog that Josh climbed the tree to get, or the Strawberry dart frog, or the Tarantula, the Fer-de-lance snake, the stick bugs, or the Great Owl butterfly to name a small few. But today was by FARRRR the coolest thing yet. As many readers may be aware, we are split into groups, Josh Cronmiller, Carolyn Knapper and myself are the Bushmasters…, we are on night surveys tonight through until the 18^th, on the Ficus tree the 19^th through until the 21^st, and on AM reptile survey the 22^nd and 23^rd. So today we went exploring, went for an 8 km hike to the other side of Tirimbina, and on our way…. Ready for it??... Pigs… surrounded by them, known as Peccary, it was AWESOME, and we were in the midst of looking at the leaf cutter ants when we heard the bushes ahead of us rustle. And as we walked up quietly we saw the first one, then the second… third… etc. It was absolutely amazing. When we arrive to the other side of Tirimbina, Carolyn and I went swimming in the rapids, it was so refreshing, considering we had just sweat about a litre of water each! On the trip home we tried to go a bit faster in order to beat the rain, as we were walking Josh saw a Hognose viper and pointed it out! We were literally inches away before it was spotted! So there it is, the first couple days folks… I cannot wait to fill you in on what’s next! STAY TUNED!!