Blue Jean Frog

aka Poison Dart Frog. These colourful creatures are very common in the rain forests and wetlands around the Caribbean side of Costa Rica: getting a photo of one is more problematic as they like dark, damp places, grow no bigger than your thumbnail and don't sit in one place for very long.

This one obliged me early in the morning while we were awaiting our speedboat trip back to Cano Blanco and our journey on to Sarapiqui.


These are the frogs which the indigenous peoples used the toxins from to smear on the tips of the arrows and then kill prey and, sometimes, human enemies. It would be nice to think they trained them to sit on the tips of their arrows and then inject their poison on impact, but the more prosaic, and less harmful to the frogs, truth is that they rubbed their arrows against the frogs' skin. The toxin is only poisonous if it gets into the bloodstream.

Sarapiqui is in the heart of the rain forest and proved it by greeting us with torrential rain all afternoon and evening. We braved a stroll (under covered walkways) then settled down to some birdwatching from the bar.

My lens was suffering severe feelings of inadequacy alongside those of some of the serious enthusiasts who gather here!