Kristiina and Edward in Costa Rica!

Edward and I are spending the summer in Costa Rica and Panama so that I can study frog reproductive behavior.
We're spending 3 weeks in Costa Rica, then we're headed to Panama for the rest of the summer (Edward will return in mid-July).
The frogs are mainly active at night, so hopefully we'll have lots of adventures during the day and night! Enjoy!

June 12th, 2006

Here's an awesome house in San Jose.

From Hotel La Amistad we walk through a nice park to get to Avenida Central in downtown San Jose.
This park has all the tropical houseplants from the U.S., but in tree-size!!!

We found some interesting graffiti as we walked in San Jose.
We also found a poster in Spanish that made fun of George W., but we didn't have a camera!

Avenida Central, the main walking street in downtown San Jose.

Edward and I made a friend on Avenida Central. We don't look like tourists, do we?!?!

So we decided to rough it and take the bus to La Selva ($10 plus taxis) instead of a taxi the whole way ($80).
It was a nice ride through the mountains and I made friends with the little boy sitting next to me.

Here's my friend listening to Shakira with me. He knew every word to "La Tortura". It was great.

One of the first animals we saw at La Selva was this Orb Weaver spider with a perfect skull face on her cephalothorax!
Isn't this a great picture?!

Once we crossed the bridge, we found a ridiculously tame herd of collared peccaries in the lab clearing.
Here's Edward pretending like he's brave enough to chase a peccary.
Remember what happened to Old Yeller? Yikes!

He just kept on eating. I think that's a pretty bad ass face, don't you?

All the Costa Ricans who work at La Selva are having a soccer tournament. And they always pick the hottest time of the day to play.

This Chestnut-Mandibled Toucan is so cute it hurts me.

On our first night, we went out frogging and we found the famous red-eyed treefrog!

Edward thought about eating it, but decided against it. He is a vegetarian after all.

Edward and the frog became friends.

June 13th, 2006

Some of the other herpetologists found a Neotropical Chameleon (Polychrus gutturosus).
He walked like a leaf swaying in the wind. It was great.

This is a Tiger rat snake (Spilotes pullatus) that Moses (a herpetologist here) caught.

June 14th, 2006

This baby Howler monkey stared at us for a couple of minutes! He's still pretty difficult to photograph!

Edward found this awesome Bicolored Snail-eater (Dipsas bicolor) eating a snail!!! Cool find!

This tiny treefrog Scinax elaeochroa sat in this pipe for 3 nights in a row. Isn't he adorable?
When the males are calling in a chorus they turn bright yellow. This species also has GREEN bones! Cool!

June 16th, 2006

Yay!! Edward is very excited to be working in the swamp WITH the boardwalk!
(the other swamp is up to our thighs and full of leeches)

Edward found this HUGE female red-eyed tree frog in amplexus (see the tiny male on her back?!)!
She was the biggest red-eyed tree frog EVER! As soon as we photographed her it started pouring,
but after the rain we came back and watched her lay eggs on the undersides of leaves! Very cool!

June 17th, 2006

We found this juvenile Green Iguana (Iguana iguana) sleeping in the swamp last night,
and then I found him again this morning. Doesn't he look like a little dinosaur?!

Tonight after our field work we went to the Expo in Puerto Viejo. It was basically a fair with carnival rides
and cows on display. We didn't ride any of the rides, but we did pet the cows (they didn't like Edward)!

Here are some bats we saw when we went bat netting. Aren't they cute? Fiesty, though.

Myotis spp.

Carollia spp.

This is a nectar feeding bat, Glossophaga spp.

Edward and I stumbled across a cable car where you could pull yourself across this
big river in a metal "cage". It was exhilarating!

Here's the first fer de lance of the trip. It's a very poisonous snake that Edward found right near the trail.
And I got a picture of it opening it's mouth!

On our way to lunch we saw this waddlingly cute anteater, Tamandua mexican...um?

And I'm always trying to get just one more good red-eyed tree frog shot!

We found another fer de lance sitting by the side of the trail!!! Creepy!!
We were good and always wore boots at night. For good reason!

Pretty Swallowtail butterfly.

so, we're VERY behind on the webpage, but here are some cool pictures in the meantime!

Traveling in Costa Rica

Osa Peninsula

On the boat ride back from Isla del Caño, we saw dophins!!! We were so excited that out boat driver kept
circling so we could take more pictures and scream for joy. 99% of the pictures were splashing water, but some turned out.
Edward got a video of one dolphing kicking (with it's tail) another as they raced in front of our boat!!!

So here's the best dolphin photo. I swear I'm not at Sea World.
Hold your cursor over the picture to see more. You can fill in the middle, since I didn't get a picture!

..

So you can't visit Drake Bay without seeing AMAZING sunsets. Here's a sampling.

Even on vacation, we went out herping, and found some cool stuff!
Here is the first red-eyed smokey jungle frog (Leptodactylus pentadactylus) ADULT that I've ever caught!!!
They're huge, strong frogs that produce a mucous that stings your hands and I finally caught one!
and to top it off she screamed! Supposedly their alarm call is supposed to imitate baby caiman (a type of crocodile) in distress
and attract momma caiman to help. Rumor has it that the call attracts jaguars too, so keep on screaming!

Here she is caught in the act, with her mouth open!

June 30th, 2006

Today we went to Sirena, the most remote station of Corcovado National Park. And one of my favorite places in the world.
I am always grateful for another chance to return to surreal jungles and beaches of Sirena.

This grasshopper is well protected! I've learned from previous experiences with HUGE armored
grasshoppers in Sirena not to touch their back end! They kick hard with those leg spines!

As we reached the Rio Sirena, we saw an immature hawk in the trees.
It let me get really close and even did a nice high pitched hawk call while i was photographing him!

Then we followed a Bare-throated Tiger Heron walking along the river,
and I got these photos of it flying away on the Rio Sirena.
I was very excited to get these action shots!

We're now in Panama!!!

We were going to take it easy and fly to Panama, but... I messed up with the tickets and they were cancelled
(of course we found this out once we were at the airport with all of our luggage).
So we took a buses (many buses) for 24 hours to get to Panama. yuck!

On our first night, outside our new house (our friend Guido's house), we saw a night monkey (Aotus spp.)!! my first ever!!!

One night as we were walking along the Panama Canal looking for frogs, we got distracted and
took many pictures with long exposures. Edward had to balance on top of the world for 30 whole seconds!!!

Here is the frog I'm studying in Panama! Leptodactylus insularum.
Check out my webpage devoted to my work on parental care. www.ristohurme.com/insularum.htm

The tadpoles form VERY TIGHT schools!! All the spirals are their intestines as they turn upside down. Craziness!

Here's a juvenile caiman that is always lurking nearby in the swamp. Don't worry, he's only 2 feet long.

Here is a spectacled owl that was watching over Kent's Marsh.

Now we're off to the Darien! More pictures to come....

Mom and Dad came to visit.

All photos are property of Kristiina Hurme. Please do not use without my permission.
Comments or questions? email me at Kristiina.Hurme@uconn.edu