Walking in the Rainforest

We had a wonderful opportunity to visit a special rainforest preserve.  A friend of ours (who also blogged about the visit) arranged the visit with friends of theirs who teach at the university.  This preserve is not open to the public.  It's a private preserve that the owner has set aside and protected and then allowed the university access for research.

It's a fabulous place.  It's hidden at the end of a dirt road. There are no signs to get there - you'd have to know where it is.

We met our guide at the entrance and started hiking into the rainforest.  It was just beautiful. The trees made a wonderful canopy and there were so many interesting things to see.

We saw some amazing mushrooms

and poisonous berries,


















an armadillo hole,

bright red mushrooms,

a beautiful chrysalis,

and a termite nest (they're big helpers in the forest since they eat all the dead wood - they clean it all up!)

We saw the trees that Tarzan uses (and who knew that they really grow from the ground up - they're just very bend-y so the monkeys can swing from them as they rest against other trees.

And hummingbird nests 








Our guide showed us the river where there were different kinds of snakes and fish,

and a tiny frog.








We hiked for about 45 minutes and then we came to the research bungalow.

 In addition to researching the plants and animals in the area, they also have a lot of animals that have been rescued and are protected and rehabilitated before being released back in the wild.

Unfortunately, many of these animals have been rescued from poachers who capture them to sell as exotic pets.  It's very sad.

We saw monkeys from the Amazon,

and a sloth.  She moves very, very slow but if you make her angry, she can move her very sharp claws super fast.  We got to stroke her back.

 Her fur is very thick with two coats.  The overcoat is designed to shed water and the undercoat is very thick to keep her warm.  It's gets cold when you live in the tops of the trees!

This guy isn't a snake, but a giant worm.  He moves by wriggling his coils up and down - like an inchworm.  It's really kind of icky because he's so big - about 2 feet long.  Think scarey worm thing from Land of the Lost!

This armadillo blends right in with the forest floor.  She was struggling so hard to get away, she dug a hole for half her body in about 5 minutes!

a type of porcupine / hedgehog.  Her quills were fun to stroke - as long as you went the right direction!












And what's this???

And we got to hold boa constrictors!

 

We had a great day day learning new things with our friends!