El Remanso -- Oso Wildlife

We just got back from El Remanso, a rainforest wildlife preserve down on the Oso peninsula.  We flew down on a 12-seat puddle jumper from San Jose to Puerto Jimenez.  PJ is a tiny airport with one runway, no tower and a tiny tiny little store that is the "terminal."   After that its an hour drive on dirt roads and across at least two rivers with no bridge to the resort.

The resort is like a magic castle inside a jungle.  Cut out of the forest, they have their own water, electricity and fine dining.  Throw in good accomodations (some of the newer buildings have their own plunge pool) and a decent wine list and it would be a nice place to stay just on the merits.  But the height of value, of course, is being in the rain forest.  We took three hikes -- a night time hike to see evening animals; an early morning birding exhibition and a mid-morning hunt for birds, insects and monkeys.  Pretty successful all around.  Here's a gallery of pictures:

 Sunset at the lodge, over the Pacific Ocean

The red-eyed tree frog -- national frog of Costa Rica.

Scorpion at night.  Turns out they shine under UV light and are easy to see.

 Scarlet Macaw

Keel billed Toucan

Horned (?) owl.  He was reluctant to be photographed.

The white-tailed plant hopper.  Believe it or not, this is a  bug.  The tail is grown so that it looks like it is infected with fungus.  And that, in turn, stops the birds from eating it.

 Spider monkey

 Red crested wood pecker -- Woody!

 Howler monkey.  Huge noise for a small animal.  Woke us up at 430 AM every day.

 Tiger heron.  So named because of the stripes.

Scarlet taniger

 Anteater (of course), hanging out by the side of the road for his portrait.  And below is the world's tiniest air terminal at Puerto Jimenez