Cuba & Costa Rica blog
About this blog
Written by Cuba and Costa Rica expert Christopher P. Baker, this blog will update readers on life in these two diverse and exciting countries.
Recent Posts
- New Air Service Helps Costa Rica Tourism Rebound
- Senator Byron Dorgan to address U.S.-Cuba Travel Summit
- Costa Rica's Tourist Board fights disinformation about turtles
- Cuba to require mandatory travel insurance for visitors
- New traffic rules in effect for Costa Rica
- Early 2010 Cuba tourist arrivals fall, prices fall
- Coco Loco Gallery Spotlights Costa Rica's Indigenous Art
- Excellent New Guidebook Serves Cuba Climbers
- Medical Tourism Shows Healthy Growth in Costa Rica
- Cuba's Infotur opens tourist information bureaus across Cuba
- Costa Rica Elects its First Female President
- Costa Ricans Assist Haiti Earthquake Rescue & Relief
- Second U.S.-Cuba Travel Summit Scheduled in Cancun
- National Geographic Expeditions cruise to traverse Panama Canal
- Castro's Guerrilla Headquarters in Cuba open to visitors
Exploring Costa Rica's Bat Jungle in Monteverde
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Costa Rica is home to 109 species of bats, which number fully half the mammal species in the country. You're sure to come across them during a visit. By day, certain species are easy to spot snoozing by clinging like vines to treetrunks. Another species gathers huge banana leaves together and weaves them into a kind of coccoon nest. Others, including Costa Rica's three species of vampire bats, inhabit nooks and crannies in the roofs of caves. All are communal.
My favorite species is the fishing bulldog bat, a mammoth-size critter with a wingspan 24 inches across and great gaff-like claws like eagles. It's so named for its feeding habits. Tortuga Lodge, in Tortuguero, is a great place to spot them swooping low over the lagoon to hook fish.
To learn about the ecology of these amazing creatures, head to Bat Jungle, in Monteverde. This two-year-old museum provides a fascinating insight into the lives of bats. Eight species flit, feed, and mate within a sealed enclosure–the bat flyway–behind a wall of glass. You can even don giant bat ears to gain a sense of their incredible auditory abilities.
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Posted by Kalo on January 10, 2010 at 10:01 pm
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Posted by Mark Rochefort on December 16, 2009 at 4:12 am
Now this is one piece of information you don't hear about when you take in the exciting vacation ideas of Costa Rica. I am not a bat person so thank you for the warning about these creatures. casino en ligne