Serpentario

I took the kids to the Serpentario in Monteverde. Mélanie has a fear of snakes so she opted out of this visit.

The Fer-de-lance is the most dangerous snake in Central and South America, and causes more human deaths than any other American reptile. It is the deadliest creature that one can encounter in Costa Rica. When I mentioned to our guide that a friend of ours in Atenas found a Fer-de-Lance in her bushes, he confirmed that this species of snake likes our small town. I passed on this information to Mélanie and it was clear from her expression that she was already mentally packing our bags.

In some regions of North America, the order of the bands of color on a snake distinguishes between the venomous coral snakes and the non-venomous mimics, inspiring folk rhymes such as:

Red touch yellow, kill a fellow.
Red touch black, venom lack.

Our guide explained to us that this old saying doesn`t apply to Costa Rica. Instead, to identify a venomous coral snake, in Spanish you would say RANA: Rojo, Amarillo, Negro, Amarillo (red, yellow, black, yellow). This acronym is easy to remember because “rana” is “frog” in Spanish.

On the subject of deadly snakes, our guide let Gabriel pet this one as it was strangling its lunch to death.

The Serpentario does not only contain snakes. We also got to see some huge toads and colourful frogs.