This trip has been amazing so far! Today we got on boats and drove out to Isla del Caño, which is just about an hour off the coast. On the way we saw a humpback whale, a pod of pantropic dolphins, and by far the highlight A SEA SNAKE! I couldn’t even believe it! The Yellow-bellied Sea Snake (Pelamis platurus) is the only species of sea snake found on the Pacific Coast, and very uncommon to see. On the scale of things I wanted to see on this trip, this would have been within the top 3, but it is by far the last thing I would have expected to see. I didn’t even consider it a possibility…But somehow our boat driver saw it swimming along on the surface of the water and we got to see it! It was so beautiful and impressive contrasted against the brilliant blue of the ocean. It only stayed on the surface for a moment and then it dove down, but that is a moment I will NEVER forget.
Not my pictures, but you get the idea...
We hiked around the island for a while and played in the ocean, then headed back to the mainland. When we returned we had free time, so Gracy, Dan, and I took a hike. (We are the only ones in the group that don’t drink, so we like to hang out together…We call ourselves the sober group :) We thought we knew where we were going, but it turned out that we didn’t exactly…We hiked up a really steep trail and eventually found our way. It turned out to be a really interesting hike after that :) First, we saw a big troop of spider monkeys swinging through the trees. After that we saw a neat Casque-headed Lizard (Corytophanes cristatus) that Gracy almost walked right into :) We were getting close to the campground and I was thinking to myself, “The only snake I REALLY want to see before we leave here is a Fer-de-Lance…” About 5 seconds later Dan yells from up ahead that there is a Fer-de-Lance (Bothrops asper) on the trail! I was blown away :) It was such an amazing snake! It was only a small one, but it could still do a lot of damage if it bit you…These snakes are notorious in Central America and they inflict the most snake bites of any snake here by far. They are common and aggressive, which is a bad combination, but for the snake lover, they are quite an impressive specimen. We returned to camp very satisfied with our walk :)
Corytophanes cristatus
Their pattern is so interesting!
After dinner we had a night hike. Can you believe we saw ANOTHER snake?! This time it was a Cat-eyed Snake (Imantodes cenchoa) It was an amazing day :) First 3-snake day of the trip…
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