We left El Zota early in the morning on the 13th, and spent another long travel day making our way across northern Costa Rica, over the Guanacaste Mountains, and to Santa Rosa National Park. The first few hours of our drive were relatively quiet, with the exception of when we saw a sloth crossing the road. We pulled over to see if we could help, and another passerby ended up stopping his car, getting out, and carrying the sloth out of traffic and to a roadside tree. Said sloth did not look especially happy to be moved, but was much better off out of the path of fast-moving traffic.
We got to see some incredible mountain scenery, and stopped at a beautiful open-air restaurant by a stream for lunch.
As we left the mountains, there was a major shift in weather from the cool, rainy morning to a hot, sunny, dry day. The area we were in falls within the mountains' rain shadow, and it was also Costa Rica's dry season. There were large areas of cattle pasture and the forested areas that we did pass were dominated by short, scrubby trees. We arrived at Santa Rosa National Park as the sun was setting, and got to enjoy some nice views.
We spent our last two nights in Costa Rica at the Tropical Dry Forest Research Center in the Santa Rosa National Park. The research center has dorms, a dining hall, and administrative buildings, and is near a campground. Scorpions were abundant in the area, in both the forest and the shower stalls. We had to be very careful to leave our bags zipped at all times and our hiking boots upside down when we weren't wearing them. I had a night where I opened the shower door, saw a scorpion in it, and decided that I was too tired to deal with it and I would just use the other shower stall. Alissa won the gratitude of the class by removing multiple scorpions from the bathroom later that night. Our most frightening sighting was the scorpion that we found on one of our bunkbed ladders- it's a good thing that happened on our last morning, or I'm pretty sure I would have been trying to just jump on and off of my top bunk in the middle of the night (the top bunk which I originally picked in hopes that scorpions wouldn't climb). I do like scorpions. I appreciate scorpions. I just appreciate them much more in the forest than in my bedroom.
We had the chance to go on a night hike the day we arrived, and get a taste of the dry forest. The change in weather was striking- the air was cool and dry, and there were strong, sustained winds that had all the trees around us creaking (and knocked out the power at the field station, twice). We saw a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, as well as a lot of cockroaches and a cool gecko. The night sky was also beautiful- the clear weather and lack of light pollution meant that we could see so many stars.
We had some amazing hikes the next morning-- I absolutely loved the unique ecosystem of the dry forest. The landscape was dominated by short, scrubby, densely tangled vegetation. Some trees had lost their leaves for the dry season, and those that had leaves had much smaller ones than we had seen in the wet forest. We had lots of cool animal sightings including howler monkeys (with a baby!), spider monkeys, White-fronted Parrots, and Inca Doves. There were also acacia plants, home to Pseudomyrmex ants and Bagheera kiplingi, a vegetarian jumping spider. Towards the end of the hike, while climbing around some rocks to look at more petroglyphs, we found a cave full of bats! The dry forest was another one of my favorite places that we visited, because it was so different than anything else I had experienced before.
On our last morning in Costa Rica, we took a pre-dawn hike to look for birds, and then watched the sun rise from an overlook near the Hacienda Santa Rosa, a historic site and museum and the site of an important battle in 1856.
(Bird feeder- we saw a Squirrel Cuckoo, Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, and Collared Aracaris)
We had some amazing hikes the next morning-- I absolutely loved the unique ecosystem of the dry forest. The landscape was dominated by short, scrubby, densely tangled vegetation. Some trees had lost their leaves for the dry season, and those that had leaves had much smaller ones than we had seen in the wet forest. We had lots of cool animal sightings including howler monkeys (with a baby!), spider monkeys, White-fronted Parrots, and Inca Doves. There were also acacia plants, home to Pseudomyrmex ants and Bagheera kiplingi, a vegetarian jumping spider. Towards the end of the hike, while climbing around some rocks to look at more petroglyphs, we found a cave full of bats! The dry forest was another one of my favorite places that we visited, because it was so different than anything else I had experienced before.
And in the afternoon, we got to visit another beautiful beach, with Magnificent Frigatebirds and Orange-chinned Parakeets! On the drive there, we saw a peccary in the forest. On our way back, we stopped at Las Cruces for some amazing views out over the hills.
We also saw some adorable iguanas, including one asleep in a tree.
It was an incredible two weeks, and I absolutely loved the trip! We saw lots of incredible wildlife, and I loved getting to experience so many different ecosystems. I'm already looking forward to the next time I can return to Costa Rica!
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