Costa Rica specializes in close encounters of the wild animal kind. No cages, just animals doing what they do in the untamed wild. These are our favorites so far.
Sloth love. By far, our favorite animal here. They look so cuddly and awkward, with their lanky arms, small round heads, and slow motion movements. We saw then in trees outside our bedroom, hanging out in the canopy, or crossing busy roads.
What’s not to love about a tree full of toucans. When we stayed in the rain forest we saw many of these. The close-up picture was at a sanctuary, but the frolicking toucans we saw in the wild.
Monkeys. These are also easy to find in certain locations. We lived close to Howler Monkeys in Tamarindo and heard their fierce growling from the trees.
Scarlet Macaws. They are everywhere and they’re spectacular. We see these in huge groups of 10-20 flying past our balcony or walking to school. They are easy to find because they are noisy.
Starfish in the ocean, in large numbers.
Colorful crabs.
Anteaters. This is a picture of one we saw in rehab. We didn’t have a camera along to catch the one we saw walking across the road right in front of us. He was big, healthy, relaxed, living the pura vida life.
Sand Dollars. Esterillos Este Beach was covered with these.
Frogs! Green-Eyed, Halloween, Poisonous Red Dart.
Coati, we saw these on a number of occasions just hanging out by the road.
Crocs in huge numbers.
Beautiful Blue Morpho Butterflies.
Giant lizards and house Geckos. Never a camera around when you need one. House geckos. Not everyone wants these in their house, but they’re still pretty cute.
