Costa Rica offers plenty of exotic animals

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- During a recent trip to Costa Rica, I found myself constantly looking up to see the host of exotic animals that reside in this beautiful country.

I spotted toucans -- even the famous "Froot Loops" species -- monkeys, gorgeous butterflies, poisonous frogs as small as an inch long and more lizards and colorful birds than I could count.

When my husband and I left our New York City home, our exposure to wildlife had been limited largely to pigeons and pampered dogs and cats. Our animal repertoire was about to be broadened. Wildlife was plentiful in the three different regions we visited. Two locations were so remote they were accessible only by boat or plane.

Visiting Costa Rica, which is about the size of West Virginia, is like visiting several countries at once because of its geological contrasts. The rain forests, pristine beaches, lush green valleys and volcanic areas here are home to five percent of all the known species on Earth, and about 25 percent of those species are protected in wildlife reserves or national parks.

You will find about 200 species of mammals, about 850 species of birds, 160 species of amphibians and more than 200 species of reptiles in Costa Rica. Wildlife is taken seriously by guides, most of whom are biologists or biology students.

We first visited Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast near the Nicaraguan border. Tortuguero is a maze of gorgeous canals surrounded by rain forest. Our journey from the country's capital of San Jose began after we left our van in the small village of Matina and boarded a boat for the two-hour journey some tour books liken to being on the movie-famous "African Queen," minus Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.

Boat tours

We stayed at Mawamba Lodge, within the Tortuguero National Park. Part of our visit included very early morning boat tours of the canals where our eagle-eyed guide and driver were able to spot wildlife that tourists were only able to see with binoculars.

All the animals, except for some brightly colored birds, blended so well into the landscape that it took a few minutes for us to notice them. For example, we studied a tree for what seemed like eternity, hoping to spot the more than foot-long lizard our guide saw. Then we gasped when it leaped from the branch and began tiptoeing across the water. The animal is commonly called the "Jesus Christ lizard" because it can walk on water.

Above us in the trees in various parts of the park, we were able to spot three of the four species of monkeys that live in Costa Rica -- howler, spider and squirrel. Howler monkeys are so called for the noise they make to ward off predators. They sound like ferocious dogs baying at the moon.

Howlers, the easiest to spot, have certain rules they follow, according to our guide. All the monkeys must travel through the trees along the same route as their leader. If a monkey falls to the ground, he cannot return to his "troop" and is essentially exiled for the rest of his life from other howlers.

In contrast to howlers, white-faced Capuchin monkeys are the charmers. But we learned Capuchins have a sinister side, sometimes distracting tourists by "posing" for pictures while other monkeys grab backpacks and other items and quickly dash up trees to hang their souvenirs. We never did see a Capuchin monkey, but when we visited Corcovado, our next stop, we spoke to a woman who was attacked by one as she walked along a trail.

we had taken the day before, and, a teenage boy told us a Capuchin monkey taunted him relentlessly whenever he returned to his hotel room.

In Tortuguero, birds of all colors -- bright blue, yellow, snow white -- flew past our boat. Others perched precariously close to caimans -- small crocodile-type reptiles -- that slept mere feet from my side of the boat, hiding in plain sight next to similarly colored logs and leaves submerged in the water.

We were introduced to the poisonous tree frog and were surprised to see that the amphibian was barely an inch-long. The red-eyed tree frog was not much bigger, and became one of our favorite animals. Its bulging cartoon-like eyes make the creature so approachable that my husband did not mind when he accidentally touched one sitting on a small bridge railing leading to our lodge's restaurant.

On a hike through the rain forest, we spotted toucans perched in a tree, and colorful butterflies, including the deep-violet blue morphos, floating silently past us.

We visited Tortuguero during its offseason, and missed seeing marine turtles during their nesting season. Marine turtles of five species come to both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of Costa Rica to lay their eggs at various times of the year. Guided tours are available to witness the event.

Our next stop was Corcovado on the southern Pacific coast, near the border of Panama. A short flight via a small plane left us in a dusty landing strip where a Jeep took us on a bumpy journey along a road that would be considered impassable in the United States. We were dropped off along the beach where we waded into the Pacific Ocean to board a small boat -- the only means of transportation -- that took us to Marenco Lodge just north of Corcovado National Park, a protected rain forest.

At our lodge, we heard the howler monkeys constantly but saw only a few during a hike because of the hot and humid weather. Birds were the animals of the day -- toucans and trogons were the most plentiful.

I was not pleased to make the acquaintance of an agouti, a cat-sized rodent that resembles a squirrel with no tail. The agouti quickly bounded past us, but another one turned up outside our bungalow the next day. I was glad our bungalow was on stilts, but another couple asked to switch bungalows when an agouti decided to set up house in their bathroom.

During one hike, I asked our guide if he ever saw any of the six species of wild cats that live in Costa Rica -- including jaguars, ocelots, pumas and cheetahs. He said in the 15 years he had been giving tours, he had never seen any of the cats. I was mostly relieved at his answer.

During a snorkeling expedition off of Cano Island, about an hour's boat ride from the mainland, sea turtles, sting rays, jellyfish and small sharks were visible. On the ride back, a group of dolphins charmed us by jumping in and out of the ocean alongside our boat.

A short flight back to San Jose, and then a two-hour van ride through lush green valleys shrouded in fog brought us to our final destination: Arenal Volcano, located in the north-central part of the country. Arenal was thought to be an extinct volcano until it erupted on July 29, 1968, wiping out the nearby town of Tabacon.

The volcano has been smoldering ever since and I expected to see no exotic animals as a result. I was wrong. I got my closest look at howler monkeys -- including a mother cuddling her baby -- as I stood hundreds of feet in the air on a platform that seemed the size of a postage stamp, about to swing through the trees on a harness as part of the popular canopy tour.

Outside the restaurant at the Volcano Lodge, hummingbirds were a pleasant sight every morning. Costa Rica boasts 51 species of hummingbirds. The country is also home to numerous species of bats, and I believe we encountered all of them during a mud-filled, water-splashed hike through the nearby Venado Caverns, another popular tourist attraction. Every time I looked up, the flashlight attached to my helmet illuminated thousands of the creatures, some sleeping, some flying.

As we left Arenal on our way back to the airport to begin our journey home, there was one more animal left to spot. Hanging on a telephone wire alongside a busy road was a three-toed sloth, sound asleep. Our van driver pulled over so we could get a good look but not even the flash of cameras would budge the sleeping sloth.

He may still be hanging there now.

IF YOU GO ...

Getting there: Getting to Costa Rica from New York City was easy -- no stops, just under five hours in the air. From other U.S. points, there's often a Change of planes in Dallas-Fort Worth or Miami. Many U.S. airlines offer regular flights to Costa Rica's main airport in the capital city of San Jose.

Getting around: If small planes aren't for you, the major U.S. rental car agencies all have outlets in San Jose. However, roads are poor in some areas and during the rainy season, some roadways are washed out. Costa Rica has no national network of buses, but there are plenty of private companies offering a variety of services.

Sightseeing: We booked our entire vacation through the Miki Travel Agency (www.mikitravel.net), based in Costa Rica. Our agent, Christian Valenzuela, planned a flawless trip from start to finish and even met us at our hotel in San Jose our first day to hand us our packet of vouchers and our itineraries. A number of travel agencies specializing in Costa Rica tours can be found on the Costa Rica Tourism Board's Web site (www.visitcostarica.com). The Tourism Board's toll-free number is (800) 343-6332.

Lodging: Depending on the areas you visit, lodging can consist of simple rooms in facilities that run on generators, meaning no hot water and no electricity after a certain time of day. Travelers would be smart to do meticulous research on hotels before booking any rooms.

When to go: Guide books and tour operators suggest you time your visit according to the areas you want to see. Tourists usually avoid Costa Rica during the rainy season from May to mid-December, but that's when the country's vegetation is at its lushest stage and animals are easiest to see. The dry season runs from mid-December to April.

-- Associated Press