The first time we tried to go to Gandoca Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge we got rained out. But I’m glad we waited and didn’t try to go in the rain, as the next day was beautiful and we saw so many amazing things. And of amazing things, we saw lots of snakes. The poisonous kind, mostly. I don’t think I’ve seen a snake since Wyoming, and certainly not a poisonous one.
Now, I’m not a huge snake person. I grew up with a healthy fear/awareness of rattlesnakes, since I saw both Mom and Dad chop the head off more than one with a shovel. Rattlesnakes are no good around dogs…or kids…or horses. But I’m not that scared of snakes, on land that is. Now, put me in water with a snake and you will see a girl that probably won’t ever enter that body of water (or any body of water) for a good 10 years.
My Mom spent lots of time in Baja, Mexico, and in our garage was the skin of a yellow-bellied sea snake. Of which I am now terrified. She has tried to convince me “they don’t have those there”, or “I never saw one”….to which I now say, “of course not, that skin just swam itself all the way from the Indian Ocean?” Speaking of all things crazy, check out WhyWasteAnnualLeave’s post and recent photo (just scroll down). Holy shit. That’s all I can say. And that I will likely never, ever snorkel there. Yes, I realize this fear is totally irrational, thanks.
Back to Manzanillo.
It takes a 20-30 minutes of wandering and looking at things to get from Manzanillo, the town, to Gandoca Manzanillo, the wildlife refuge. Florentino, our guide, stopped all of us (we were in a group of 5), as soon as we got to the entrance, and had to move from a wide walking trail to a path. “Look, if you are going to fall, you fall on the ground. Ok? You do NOT grab a tree. There are a lot of eyelash pit vipers and you won’t see the brown ones. So you grab on a tree–which isn’t a tree–and they bite. Do we all understand?”
We got it. It’s strange how second nature it is to grab on to a tree when you are losing your balance…needless to say, Florentino’s words rang through my head every time I slipped in the mud. But seriously…how many pit vipers is one really going to see? Snakes are so hard to find sometimes. However, eyelash pit vipers are pretty common in the jungle and we saw quite a few. From a beautiful yellow, to a crystal green, to yup–one that completely blended in on the tree. They are incredibly pretty to look at–from afar, of course. Unless you are my husband, who may not have a particularly healthy sense of snake-fear. He kept trying to get closer…and closer…and closer.
Eyelash Pit Viper (Yes, I’m Using My Zoom)
A Little Eyelash Pit Viper
I Blend In! Don’t Grab Me…
The most poisonous snake in Costa Rica is the Fer de Lance. When you read about the Fer de Lance, it inspires a healthy caution. Most snakes: you don’t bother them, they don’t bother you. Now the Fer de Lance can be a bit territorial, and is known to be unpredictable and a wee bit agressive. So, while I was looking forward to seeing lots of things in Manzanillo, I wasn’t really looking forward to seeing a Fer de Lance.
So, Florentino starts walking slowly and poking around in trunks and leaves. Slowly and slowly…pretty soon he turns around and says “so, the last few times, there has been a huge Fer de Lance here. But I don’t see him today. Sometimes I walk past him and the third person sees him, but that hasn’t happened yet either.” I couldn’t decide which was worse–to not see him (and therefore not know where he was), or to see him right beside the trail. Either way, it was too close for comfort. As we continued walking, I started to think that we weren’t going to see a Fer de Lance in the jungle.
And then we happened upon a baby. He was not particularly happy. Even with my zoom I really couldn’t get a good shot. As he went off the trail a bit, Florentino told us we could come a bit closer. But I was good. DH on the other hand, hopped off the trail and went to snap pictures of the Fer de Lance. So thanks to DH for the Fer de Lance photo! He doesn’t even have much zoom on his camera, but he still got some good photos.
DH’s Fer de Lance
We also saw one cute little harmless snake; DH must really like snakes, as they had a little bonding session. He didn’t mind being held and didn’t really try to escape. I’m sure there are far more of these cute little fellows in the forest than the Fer de Lance.
Happy (or at Least Not Angry) Salmon Bellied Racer
I’ve never seen so many snakes in the wild–in fact, I’ve never really seen any snakes when I’ve traveled except for a black mamba in Zimbabwe, which was quite far away. That’s probably a good thing. I’m all about leaving snakes where they be and enjoying their pictures in wildlife guide books, really. But it was a great deal of fun to see all these snakes on our hike in Manzanillo (thanks Florentino!). Those eyelash pit vipers are truly stunningly bright.
Have you seen snakes in the jungle or on safari? What kind?
Thanks so much for the mention Heather – and my apologies for totally putting you off snorkelling in that part of Thailand 🙂 These snakes would seriously freak me out! I too just really don’t like them (I don’t know why that water one bothered me less!) I saw a lot of snake charmers when visiting India as a child but there’s something about the idea of them wriggling around in the wild and how venomous and lethal they can be that totally freaks me out! That yellow one does look beautiful but your husband sounds like rather a brave man!
Hi Shikha! Of course! I love that picture of yours, even though I’m very glad that was not me in the water 🙂 I think part of it is the unpredictability; not a fan of the surprise snake.