The Sounds and Colours of a Rainforest

Shelter Bay Marina is right next to a National Park and what used to be a US Army base called as Fort Sherman. The national park is known for bird watching, butterflies, frogs, sloths and monkeys. We've been here over a week and it was time to explore.

Jens and I took a bike ride down the road towards San Lorenzo hoping to spot a sloth. We heard the usual forest sounds of birds, insects and frogs. And then we heard the Mantled Howler. Their loud grunts and roars are something out of a horror movie. We stopped to listen for a while and although we couldn't see the Howlers we spotted some White-faced Capuchins in the trees. Unfortunatley we forgot the bug spray and the Mosquitos soon found us, forcing us to retreat back to the road and back on the bikes. We tried to spot a Toucan, but just saw a lot of butterflies. The easiest to identify are the Blue Morphus Butterfly. They are really beautiful to watch as they flit along, but so very difficult to photograph.

I decided to head back to the forest this morning determined to get some photos of the monkeys. I spent almost three hours in the thick of the forest, heard the Mantled Howlers but didn't see any monkeys. So instead I took some pictures of the flora.

I've not yet given up on the monkeys though. I'll buy more bug spray tomorrow morning and give it another go. Stay tuned...

I tried looking up all the flowers...this one is a type of wild ginger. I wasn't so successful with the others.

Above is a termite nest. Below is also some kind of nest, but I couldn't find a reference of it anywhere on the Internet. Some kind of wasp? It was growing on the trunk of a palm tree. If anyone knows what it could be, please send me an email.