Playa Naranjo

Today was another hiking day, a little bit longer than our other one (13k each way). Dan and I hiked it together and we had a lot of really good conversations, so it went by pretty fast… It was similar in a way because partway through the hike we got into an old growth forest that was very different that the rest of the area around it. It was interesting to see the drastic contrast between the two…After that part we came to some mangroves that grow there because it occasionally floods with salt water from the ocean.

The beach was so beautiful! (This seems to be a trend with most places I go in Costa Rica…) The hills around the beach were covered with the same dry forest, and the brown/yellow colors of the trees was awesome. The water was surprisingly cold, unlike in Corcovado, but the waves were great! A big group of us were body surfing, and we had so much fun :) Boogie boards would have been amazing!

We stayed at the beach and watched the sunset there. It was so gorgeous! I am lucky to get to see the sun set over the ocean most of the year, but this was even better that what I’m used to…I couldn’t stop taking pictures because every few seconds the colors would change and I wanted to capture every part of it. It was fantastic :)

This was me trying to be a photographer :)

The clouds were so beautiful when they were lit 

up by the colors of the sunset!

We walked back together in the dark (the sober group) so that we could hopefully see some snakes. We have some pretty good luck, because about 5 minutes into the hike we saw a little crocodile in a stream. 15 minutes later, we found a snake! I was really excited because I knew exactly what it was the moment I saw it (which is a feat when there are 137 snakes in Costa Rica…). It was a Lyre Snake (Trimorphodon biscutatus), and I knew that because I caught one in San Diego before! They range all the way from the southern US to Northern Costa Rica. This one was about full grown at about 4 feet long. It was a gorgeous snake, and it was fun to get to teach Dan and Gracy about it since it was a species I already knew about :) Near the end of the hike we saw a banded gecko (Coleonyx mitratus) which was really interesting. It turns out that they are actually in a different family than most geckos since they have some different characteristics: no adhesive toe pads (just claws) and eyelids (true geckos don’t have them). It was a great end to an awesome day!

Trimorphodon biscutatus crossing the trail

Awesome snake :)

Dan holding the Banded Gecko

Such incredible camouflage!