Froggeria

As both the Monteverde Butterfly Garden and the World of Insects just weren't enough for Clairy in one day, she figured we should go check out the Froggeria too (it's official name was the Raneria). Who was I to argue.

It proved to be pretty darn amazing as well. The main building was a large barn like structure, with lots of nice vegetation throughout. The froggies were all in separate tanks suited to their individual climatic needs. We were shown round by a cheerful young local who enjoyed trying to make us find the little buggers with torches. Virtually all the frogs were asleep as it was early afternoon and they're mainly active at night. This meant that flash photography wasn't allowed, and they were also often tucked away in the tiniest of spaces.

Here's the pleasantly named blue jeans dart frog. So called due to its bright blue legs.


This was just about the only moving fella out of the lot. Check out his Levi's!


Oh hi! We can see you in there.


Best shot eva! This is the green and black dart frog, the biggest of the 8 Costa Rican dart frogs. If eaten, his poisonous skin would kill most predators, although that's possibly not much consolation for him mind. I've never really understood how that helps in the long run. It's not like the dead predator can tell any of their friends not to eat them either!


The hourglass tree frog.


The brilliant forest frog. You can't quite see the lovely colours from the photo. Honestly...they were brilliant.


Another brilliant forest frog.


Our guide pointed out where a cricket had munched these patterns into a banana palm leaf. Apparently when the leaf is young and curled up, they chomp round in a circle. Clair thought it was mental!


These beauties had the texture of blancmange amd are called Fleischmann's glass frog. They are found all around Monteverde. The glass frogs are immensely delicate. Their name comes from their translucent skin. You can actually see their internal organs through their tummies. Our guide told us that some small ones can be injured by a large raindrop.


This one had bright blue underarms, but was quite content to sit there and not show them to us.


On the walk back from the Froggeria we came across another absolutely huge leaf cutter ant colony. We followed them for a good hundred yards down the side of the road until they went off into the distance via a water pipe.


Quite a day really. I had some extremely busy dreams that night.