On our last full day in La Fortuna, we splurged a bit and paid for a guided hike through the rain forest.  We were hoping that paying for a guide would allow us to spot more critters.  Unfortunately, our guide seemed most interested in ants.  Yes, ants.  She probably spent 30 minutes talking to us about leaf cutter ants and army ants.  Hmmm….not really our cup of tea.

She did spot a few things we likely would never have seen on our own.  Check out this crab.  Who knew crabs lived in the rain forest?  Apparently, they do…In holes around the roots of trees.  And they wave their claws around madly when irritated by amateur photographers…

A crab in his hole

She also spotted a small parrot snake.  (Edited to add:  I’ve been told by someone who knows snakes far better than I that this is actually a type of vine snake…).  It was incredibly hard to get good photos of the snake because it blended into the scenery so well, but Robert did get a nice close-up as it tried to move from one plant to another.

Parrot Vine snake

She spotted a bird (although it would have been hard not to spot it as it crashed through the forest).

Crested guan

And a lizard on one of the bridges we crossed.

She also took a nice photo of the two of us between a couple of trees.

In the rain forest

And we saw some amazing scenery.

View of Lake Arenal

Robert spotted this really cool frog.

Masked tree frog

And I, as usual, spotted flowers and butterflies.

Unfortunately, we still haven’t seen a sloth.

Tomorrow we head to the Caribbean coast for some beach time.  Fingers crossed we see a sloth there…