Today was our first full day in Santa Rosa, and it was so interesting! Santa Rosa is a dry forest, as compared to the wet forest we were in for the past week. Since it is currently the dry season here, almost all of the trees have dropped their leaves and it hardly feels like a forest. It is much less humid, which makes it a lot easier to sleep at night :)
This morning we just hiked around the campground and learned about some of the key species in a dry forest ecosystem. We saw White-faced Capuchin Monkeys and Spider Monkeys really close to the trail, which was really neat. We also found a Parrot Snake (Leptophis mexicanus) that was D.O.R. Pretty cool snake though!
A relaxing Capuchin
Leptophis mexicanus up close and personal :)
After dinner, the sober group (Dan, Gracy, and I) went out for a short hike along the road to look for snakes. We saw a really interesting little brown snake (Stenorrhina freminvillii) that was slithering along the road. Apparently they are mainly diurnal and fossorial (live underground), but for some reason it was out at night on the road :)
Stenorrhina freminvillii crossing the road...and
Dan's shoe :)
We had a lecture after that, then we went out for another night hike while everyone else drank ;) We had good luck again! We saw a beautiful black snake with greenish-white bands that is an uncommon mimic of a rare coral snake (Leptodeira nigrofasciata). One of our professors who has lived in Costa Rica for the last 40 years has never even seen it before, so we felt pretty lucky :) Second 3-snake day of the trip! I love this place :)
The only picture I could get before it escaped
down into the rocks
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