Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, I am thinking about going to Costa rica herping next summer. Does anybody know where I can find out a guide down there? A guide that will be willing to look for herps and walk throught the jungle.

ron

Costa Rica does a good job of training their nature guides. Its a national industry - thankfully, they take their natural heritage seriously (I wish our president Bush would do as much!)

We saw more in a day with a couple guides then we did in a week on our own - and I went down there thinking I wanted nothing to do with guides. We drove and hiked to a very small area that had some of the rarest poison dart frogs - never would have found it without help. Our guide yelled at me to stop the jeep once because he smelled a tree anteater - really.

What part of the country are you going to?

Joe

I am not sure of what part of country i am going too. Do you know of any guides that i can contact? I don't want to go with greentracks or hiss-n-things, just want to have one guide that i can meet up with and he can show me around to look for snakes, caimans, etc....

If you know of any guides or of any guides somebody else has had, please let me know

thx

ron

Costa Rica is full of guides. You can ask at any of the lodges you stay at. The bigger, expensive-er lodges have resident naturalists. We went to the south west part of the country to Corcovado National Park and Osa Peninsula, one of the wildest parts of the country. We met Mike Boston at our lodge's outdoor cafe/bar. He's relaxed, enthusiastic and well versed in herps of the area.

http://www.osaaventura.com/

I would recommend you go in something other than the dry season if your looking for herps! We went at the height of the very dry season and saw few herps. Here's the pics:

http://www.herpnet.net/costarica/

Joe

If you haven't been before I would recommend going with this guy.
http://www.hiss-n-things.com/
I had a great time...it was cheap and well worth it.