Valentine animals & a search for UFOs

After yesterday, the Roulier/Jones crew was eager for a more mellow and fun day today.  This morning the boys combined two of their favorite pastimes, Legos and insects.  It was great sport to make cars for a few millipedes they found in the house and transport the unsuspecting bugs by Lego out the door.  Apparently yesterday Sullivan gave a beetle a ride in a matchbox car as well.

Finest ride ever for a millipede

We continued to have great success with our bird feeder and actually heard this large and loudly flying Montezuma Oropendola land before we saw it.  They are majestic colorful birds that make impressive hanging nests that are a few feet long.

Montezuma's Oropendola

Our to-do list of things to accomplish today was significantly smaller than yesterday, fortunately.  After a relatively lazy morning we ventured out to revisit a local park here in Neuvo Arenal.  It provides access to get down to Lago Arenal itself and primarily consists of wide open spaces with accompanying vistas to boot.  There is no sign from the main road and we don't recall seeing it in any guide books.  I'm not sure it even has a name.  But it's a great spot and it's likely to become a favorite for our family.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We marveled again at the extremely long leaf-cutting ant trails and at how hard they were working.  The trails of a particular group of ants can go on for 100 feet or more.  They actually wear a path in the vegetation from the extent of their activity working to take leaves into the nest.  In our limited experience, they are widely distributed over Costa Rica.

Henry carefully investigates the trail of the leaf-cutting ants, the Zompopas

We cooled off with another round of smoothies from the local drink shop in town and headed down another dirt road we hadn't yet explored.  Just because.  Wound up picking up a great local animal identification card and the hammock we've been looking for on the way home.

Nuevo Arenal commute

We continued our day of relative leisure at home and chowed on some leftovers before the exciting adventure planned for the evening.

Our best purchase in years

As the crew has been clamoring to go back up to Lake Cote at night to look for UFOs, we figured that there is no time like the present.  At dusk we headed up the bumpy dirt road for 10 minutes and pulled over with a view of Lake Cote (or Lake Coter in some sources).  This lake is reported to be frequented by UFOs and I figured there'd at least be a nice view of the stars tonight.  We did manage to eat the rest of our Valentine's chocolates, scare away any animals that may have been nearby with our chatter and get a relatively clear look at the stars from this latitude.  Every night it seems like Orion is right above us.  But no UFOs.  Maybe next time.

What we think was a rather large Cane Toad (Sapo Gigante) greeted us at home, even demonstrating his hopping and climbing skills.  This spry critter was about the size of a softball.  After a fun day exploring, everyone should sleep well tonight.

Welcoming party