The Pit -Viper that bit our husky

This is the hognosed pit viper that bit our husky. These snakes are generally small and sluggish. They do not attack without being provoked, in case you were feeling bad for our dog! We have had very dry days lately and the snake came out to our gravel driveway to soak up some sun. It is lucky that Smokey found him first because the snake was scarily close to our house. We wear boots when we walk through the grass but when I am just hanging laundry I am only wearing sandals. We got Smoke to the vet on time for the anti-venom but not before his nose blew us to 3 times normal size. We were lucky to notice immediately after it happened or we could have lost him.

Pineapples

Pineapples are a big business here in Costa Rica. The big companies use chemicals, to keep pests down, that are poisoning the water. In some cases, they are made to replace a towns water supply with another source but few are made to clean up the existing mess. There are rows and fields and entire tracks of land all dedicated to pineapples here. They run for as far as the eye can see. We plant our pineapples from babies that grow directly from a mother plant that we were told was heirloom. A pineapple takes about 9 months to mature and produce more babies.

Cacao Blooms - Start to Finish

The blooms are attached to the trunk of the tree. It seems to me that this is a natural defense to keep the branches from breaking. The cacao fruits are so heavy that just two on any of the branches could cause it to snap so the tree has it's fruit on it's trunk. The last picture is our homemade drying rack. After fermenting we put the beans on this rack in the direct sun for about 4 days then we roast in a wok over an open fire.

Our Cacao in bloom

We have about 25 cacao trees along our creeks here in Costa Rica. We have been playing around with the drying process and learning how to prune our trees lately. We have done a successful batch of nibs but still don't quite understand the tempering to chocolate process. Here are two images of the fruit on the tree and a collection of ripened fruit. Tomorrow we will post two more. I am in love with the look of the tree and the colors of the fruit.

Pit Viper in Costa Rica

You are probably thinking to yourself "Why are these guys always shooting Rain Forest Hog Nosed Pit Vipers?" Well it's because we have a lot of them here on the farm and we don't have our bird stations completed yet. This guy lives on the banks of the stream in the roots of a laurel tree.

HELP

People don't usually pick these strawberry dart frogs up but this lady didn't seem to mind. She says that she has somehow become immune to the sticky poisonous mucus that covers the frogs. You can also look up blue jean frog to find out more about these guys.

Manzanillo Reserve

You can find this lovely little spot on the Southeastern side of Costa Rica. It's unspoiled because it was deemed a national park and boasts the only undisturbed mangrove swamp in the Atlantic.

Inside a Hermit's house continued

I liked these two images together because of the contrasting messages. The eating utensils, although dirty, show some sense of order while the shelf, which is an arm's length away, is simply an un-organized pile of collected objects.

Inside a Hermit's house - In HDR

When we bought our farm here in Costa Rica there was an existing house on it that was occupied by an El Salvadorian man. He lived here for 25 years as a caretaker in exchange for free rent. This is the inside of his house. We will be taking it down and donating what usable pieces there are to an Indian family tomorrow. We have two more images to post tomorrow.

Even ugly animals can be cute

Our husky tree'd this opposum in one of our Gumbo Limbo trees. He could have been chased up a less useful tree but he got lucky. The Gumbo Limbo has fruits that many migratory North American birds enjoy, has resin that is used as glue and incense and the lumber has been used for years to make carousel horses in the U.S..

Don't get mossed in the forest

This scene is from high up in the Costa Rican mountains near San Isidro. They are opening a new National Park there aptly names Parque Nacional Quetzal, because of the frequency of seeing the famed quetzal birds there. We were driving back from Playa Uvita and stopped in the mountains for lunch. The temps were so nice we decided to take a walk on the new trails. I actually got to hug my husband for the first time since we have been in Costa Rica. It is normally to hot during our hikes. We have plans to go back ; ).

Welcome to the snake pit

Another shot of a hog-nosed pit viper. This has been my favorite snake that we have caught so far. His coloring and markings are just beautiful. No animals are ever hurt in our photography and we always put them back close to where they came from. When we want to snake to play nice, we simply fill a 5 gallon bucket with water put a branch or a flower in the bucket with rocks and then place the snake on the branch. He can not slither away because he would fall in the water.

Gandoca-Manzanillo Nacional Refuge

This little piece of paradise is at the very southern tip of the Caribbean coast of Limon, Costa Rica. There is magnificent snorkeling and wave watching here. The nearby town of Manzanillo is really small and not overrun by tourist hotels so it is the perfect day spot.

Here I am, rock you like a

Scorpion King? The bigger the scorpion the less punch they pack so this guy was not much of a threat to us due to his large size.

Sloth - This is the third deadly sin?

After watching these guys for a few months now I believe that they just told people that they were slow so that they were always impressing us. They move pretty rapidly compared to the long held belief that they are slow. This guy is from Cahuita National Park. We have two that live on our farm but they are always so high up that we have yet to get a good image.

Beautiful Blue Pit Viper

This little (extremely poisonous) sweetie was right next to my foot as I was putting out laundry. I was very lucky that I saw it in time to get out of the way! After we take some more shots this morning we are going to take it back in the jungle and let it go. It is officially a rainforest hog nosed pit viper. So beautiful.

Strawberry Poison Dart Frog

These little girls are at home in the cool underbrush of the forest floor until it comes time to protect their babies. Then they will climb high into the treetops and deposit eggs into water droplets for hatching. I learned all of this from the documentary film "Life" which is a wonderful watch.

Water Apple Debris

This is waste from a water apple tree here in Costa Rica. The fruit is a bit darker than this when perfectly ripe. It has the consistency of an apple but has a slightly lighter

Green Vine Snake, 2 more

Only slightly venomous this snake is really only interested in feeding itself. It would only bite a human or larger animal if it felt in danger for its life.

Green Vine Snake

We were walking back from delivering a cake to our neighbors and came upon this guy attempting to snatch a gecko in a banana tree. He missed the gecko and then noting our presence stayed in the tree long enough for Barry to run into the house and get his gear. We will post two more images of him tomorrow. If you want to learn more about Vine snakes go to wikipedia.