Hiss ‘n’ Things, Inc.
Highlights of Trip
2
Highlights: November 6th. 2001 Trip.
As things turned out the trip was in serious doubt since Sept.11,
2001. The day has changed things thought out the world and our trip was no
exception. As we approached the Nov. 6th departure date we had the trip fully
booked for several weeks and after much uncertainty everyone was ready to
go.
We had a new problem to contend with, Hurricane Michelle was in the lower
Caribbean flirting with the idea of visiting South Florida. Each day it was
moving our way but at only 5 miles an hour. Each day the pressure was building
in me, what to do? Living in the Florida Keys isn't like living in Miami a
few miles inland. We have to be concerned with tidal surges, our island is
only a half mile wide and we're only thirty feet from the water. This Hurricane
is a category 4 storm. I emailed everyone and we were on standby until Michelle
made up her mind. In the mean time Helen and I put up our storm shutters and
made evacuation plans and stayed tuned to the weather channel. By the time
Michelle went over Cuba she came out a category 1 Hurricane and turned to
the Northeast. She missed South Florida with a day to spare before our departure.
Well, the first memorable part of the trip started early the
day of our departure Nov. 6th. Around seven o'clock in the morning. I'm having
coffee when the phone rings. It's Lindsey. He and Lynne have just been refused
boarding by American Airlines their connecting flight to Miami. American refused
them because they didn't have proper documents required by Costa Rica to enter
the country. Pryor to 9/11 a US citizen could enter Costa Rica with a tourist
card (purchased upon landing) and one other piece of identification e.g. a
passport or a birth certificate or a valid drivers license. The rules had
changed now. They required a passport or a certified birth certificate. Of
course they never changed the information on their website.
I called my son our travel agent and explained the problem. There was little
he could do they had already missed their flight. He did come up with a solution
for a certified birth certificate you could get it that day by going to the
County of your birth and for a small fee you can get your birth certificate.
That's in Florida at least. He also got American to cut the cost for changing
flights from $100 per person to $25 each. They took an afternoon flight into
Miami and an early flight out from Miami to Costa Rica the next morning. I
picked them up at the airport in San Jose at 9.30 that morning.
We had to be at the airport anyway to pick up Matt's luggage, which didn't
make it on our flight. This was Matt's second trip with Hiss 'n' Things and
both times his luggage didn't make it. This time was better because his bags
made it the next day the first time he didn't see them for three days.
We picked up our cars from Budget Car Rental in San Jose and
headed back to the Hotel Irazu where we had stayed the first night. We checked
out a short time later and started our two and a half hour drive to the Hotel
Villa Lapas where we would stay for the next six nights the remainder of our
trip. We stopped at the bridge over the Rio Tarcoles to see the crocodiles.
There were about 15 big ones sunning themselves along the riverbanks. Ten
minutes later we were checking into the hotel and shortly thereafter we were
enjoying lunch and a cerveza. After lunch everyone grabbed their cameras to
get shots of the spiny tailed iguanas and the basilisk lizards, which are
easy to find on the hotel grounds.
At dinner that night I gave my talk about road safety and driving conditions
in Costa Rica. The driver is responsible for the car and all persons in the
car, which is a heavy load especially when you see a snake on the road. Everyone's
adrenalin starts pumping real hard and it's easy to make poor judgments like
not paying attention to oncoming traffic. We started our first nights hunt
around 8:00 Adam, Lindsey, Lynne and I in one car and Steve, Matt, John and
Dan in the other. We met them on the road around 12.00 and we had a Sibon
and had come across an Imantodes, Sibon and Bothrops asper dead on the road.
Steve's car had nothing at that point. We met them again around 1 AM and they
had caught a Fer-de-Lance (B. asper) and had come across a couple of road
kills. We headed back to the hotel and they made an unproductive extra run.
The next morning I awoke around 6 AM and headed to the dining
area for a cup of coffee. I grabbed a cup and walked around the grounds to
see if anything was out and about. No herps were about but many, many birds
were flying around and singing their songs. I went back and got another cup
of coffee and took it back to the room. Steve and I were rooming together
and he was up. I asked him what he had done with the Fer-de-lance? He said
it was in a bag on the floor by his bed in the corner. This alarmed me, I
said to him, since this was our first night in this room what would have happened
if he or I got up to use the bathroom in the dark and made the wrong turn
and stepped on the bag with a hot snake in it? I said lets be extra careful
and put him in the closet in the bathroom. He agreed and I left for breakfast.
We all had a big breakfast and then we took pictures of the snakes we had
caught the night before. After, we all went into Jaco to use the Internet
and let everyone know we were OK. We stayed for a couple of hours. We all
headed back to the hotel except Dan, he rented a mountain bike for 24 hours
so he could ride around. He was soaked with sweat when he got back to the
hotel.
A few hours later I thought it would be a good ideal to wash a couple of tee
shirts that were dirty. I had brought a small bar of laundry soap in San Jose
the day before, so I looked for it and couldn't find it. I looked and looked
and still couldn't come across it. I checked in my luggage, the drawers, in
my shaving kit, all around the room. On my third trip around I'm getting pretty
frustrated, why can't I find it? I'm in the bathroom now cussing up a storm.
Now I'm starting to move things, I knew I didn't put it under anything but
maybe something got placed on it and there's two of us sharing the room. On
the shelf by the sink I see my old beat up stained jacket, I grabbed it and
wondered how my sleeves got tied in a knot? I moved it a little but the soap
wasn't there. Well, I better look under it I move my hand a little and picked
it up. SNAKE---- FER-de-LANCE, my mind tells me. My knees go weak and I start
breathing real hard, it's suppose to be in the closet with the doors closed.
I realized I'm not bit not even struck at, thanks to the fact that Steve double
bagged him. I calmed down and everything is OK. I look again and this time
I see an old beat up stained pillowcase with the snake in it. It's the same
color us my jacket hanging in the closet. I find Steve and tell him of my
close call and some new rules regarding hot stuff. 1. No picking them up by
hand, we have a bagging system for each car. With the bagger and a snake hook
there is no need for physical contact. 2. All hot stuff is double bagged.
3. Hot stuff stays is the trunk of the car and is not taken into the rooms.
4. After picture taking the hot snakes will be put back into the trunk of
the car and immediately driven up the mountain and released.
I don't keep any hot animals at home. I did as a teenager and had some close
calls. I felt that sooner or later I'd get tagged or worse yet leave a cage
open and let him lose in the neighborhood and have to worry about someone
else getting bit. It's just too easy to lose your train of thought and make
a mistake. Oh! By the way I found my bar of soap the next day in my camera
case the next day.
At dinner the third or fourth night Dan brought his guitar and after dinner he started to play and sing. He's really pretty good and his voice wasn't bad either. Everyone was asking him to play this song or that he knew most of them and we had a few sing-a-longs. It was nice and I would like to thank Dan for be so thoughtful and for lugging his guitar all the way to Costa Rica. After the song feast we headed out for another night of hunting.
Dan, wailing away on his Guitar.
Another night after dinner we had Lindsay and Lynne show us how they used their sonar detector to find bats flying around us. They both belong to a Bat Rescue Program and have a ton of knowledge about bats. One fact they bought to our attention is the number of bat species in all of the US is in the low forties and in Costa Rica there are 104 species of bats. Later we found some hanging outside of our rooms and got some pictures. It's amazing what you can learn on these trips when you have experts along.
One morning after breakfast Lindsey and Lynne wanted to go to the waterfalls, I said I would drive them up and pick them up later when they were done. Adam decided to go along with me, it's about four kilometers from the hotel to the entrance. Once you get there it's a forty-five minute walk down and quite a bit longer coming back up. It's a pretty spectacular site. The waterfalls are six hundred feet and theres ten natural pools at the bottom for swimming. It's a lot of effort but well worth it. We were driving back to the Hotel on the dirt road when I spotted what looked like a snake in the shadows from the trees and it was hard to tell. A second later he must have seen the car because he started the move like an Olympic sprinter. I slammed on the brakes and shut the car off and grabbed a the door handle, Adam was already out of the car, of course in my excitement I pulled the handle like my car at home and the door didn't open. A second later I was out of the car and Adam was making a dive just before the snake would have made it over the edge where we would have been able to get him and live to tell about. Adam had him by the tail and I made a grab for the head and only got bit twice. But we had a beautiful 7 foot Spilotes. I would have hated to see this one get away it was just magnificent. I'm so glad I had Adam with me, I don't think all of the others would have made the dive he did and not be worry about getting bit.
One day or two before we had to leave Steve, Matt and I decided
to go on the cable ride though the rain forest. This is new at the Hotel they
didn't have it the last time. They built platforms around the trees about
fifty feet up at the beginning and end of the ride. They protected the trees
by using 4 x 4's on the backside so the cable couldn't hurt the trees. The
trees have a stairway going up to the platform all welded together with no
sharp edges and safety cables to hook onto all the way. A very professional
job especially out in the jungle.
Well, the first thing we had to do was get into a harness. This took a while
because it wasn't just the three of us it was seven or eight of the young
guys from the Hotel. I had no idea why they were going along, I figured one
or two would go or maybe they were going along for fun. Anyway, we crossed
a small river on a footbridge and started down a dry riverbed. The guys were
walking about thirty yards ahead of us in a group. I hear them talking to
someone off in the jungle in English. I said to myself that voice sounds familiar.
The voice is saying "Don't come in here there's snakes in there under
every bush, it's dangerous." I'm wondering what the hell is he talking
about half of these guys don't understand what he's saying. So, I headed in
and whom do I find but, Jeff Corwin of "The Jeff Corwin Experience"
which airs on the Animal Planet Channel. I'm sure all the herpers out there
are familiar with. Well, there is Jeff just finished taping a shot with a
Bushmaster. We got to see the snake and I told him we were in Costa Rica herping,
the night before we caught a five foot long Fer-de-lance, just a little small
talk. He was on his way out and we had to go do the cable run. You just never
know whom you might run into in the middle of the Jungle. We walked on for
another fifteen minutes, waded though another river before coming to the start.
We climbed to the platform about fifty feet up a huge tree. They had us clipped
on to a cable at all times for our safety you could fall but not far, which
is good because there is no 911 out here. At this point I find out why there
is so many guys with us. They would go ahead of us to make sure we had a soft
landing and not go into the trees. There were eight stop along the almost
half mile run. At some of the stops we would climb up the stairs they built
to gain maybe fifteen feet to keep the cable at an angle. A few time I had
to dodge a climbs or two that had grown close to the cable that kept it interesting.
It was worth the money and I plan to do it again on the next trip.
The night before leaving Costa Rica the waiter at the restaurant set up our table for us in a special way. He had decorations with candles, Flowers and palm leaves he had folded the napkins into our water glasses to look like birds. It was a real nice touch. The hotel staff seemed to like us. Being an eco-hotel they get their share of wildlife people mostly people looking at birds but us they remembered. It's hard to forget people jumping up from lunch to chase a lizard, catch him and bring him back to the table and talk to him.
Left to Right. Standing: Jim, Adam, Dan, Lindsay. Sitting: Steve, Matt, John, Lynne.
All in all we had a great bunch of Herpers on this trip we all worked well together and learned from each other. Everyone had a great time and an experience they won't forget. I'm looking forward to the next group in May '02. ---------------- BE THERE!!
Jim Kavney
