A Trip to Panama and Costa Rica
From Transitional to Deciduous Forest: Carara and Curu
At our next stop, Chuck went on a hike with Alfredo (everyone called him Antonio Banderas) while Pat went birding. The forest in Carara was dryer and more open than Manuel Antonio.
But there was still lush foliage and many flowers. Were these leaves alive? They were moving across the trail, but it was because they were being carried by leaf-cutter ants.
Conrad led the birding walks, which were productive but very hard on the neck Usually the birds were very hard to photograph, but this protonotary warbler obligingly posed on the trail.
We walked to a lagoon where we found a caiman sunning himself. At a later stop we found crocodiles on the river banks.
There was also an iguana. In Curu, Carla poked a termite nest. These nests are found all over the various forests.
There were more scarlet macaws flying around. Curu is classified a deciduous, or dry, forest, although it certainly looked green to a southern Californian.