A travel guide to Costa Rica
Let’s not beat about the bush (rainforest?). Costa Rica is one of the richest countries on this planet for wildlife, with an exceptionally diverse range of birdlife, flora and fauna. With over 800 species of bird (more than Canada and the USA’s put together, and over 40 types of hummingbird) it’s truly a birdwatcher’s paradise. Expect close encounters with many of these hummingbirds plus toucans, trogons, motmots and tanagers. Then there’s the sloths, monkeys, frogs and iguanas, and rainforest, volcanoes and beaches. Enjoy our write-up of this beautiful part of Central America. Pura vida!
First impressions? Very serious about sustainable, eco-friendly tourism, peaceful and welcoming, rich in wildlife, beautiful but ever-changing scenery, hot!
Places to visit in Costa Rica
This 14-day trip was booked through TUI (UK) as an organised package, the itinerary covering most of the popular locations in northern Costa Rica, flying from Gatwick to Liberia. Accommodation was generally very good though sometimes basic, but the real highlight of course is the outdoors. In terms of food, expect some Western food – pizza, burgers, fries and the like – depending on location, but always the fairly dry local staples of beans and rice.
Rincon de la Vieja
Just a 45 minute drive from Liberia airport is Rincon de la Vieja in the Guanacaste province, our first stop in Costa Rica. Too excited to sleep, we’re up before sunrise to take a walk around the hotel grounds to beat the jetlag. There are toads on the pathways and numerous birds tuning up for the dawn chorus. At breakfast we’re accompanied by rufous-naped wrens, who pick at your scrambled egg the moment you so much as look away.

Rufous-naped wren at breakfast table
A quick wander to a look-out point to check out the views, this time accompanied the hotel’s family of dogs, we get a taster of the diversity of birdlife that the country has to offer: masked tityras, great kiskadees, brown-crested flycatchers, turquoise-browed motmots, parrots and our first hummingbirds (see photo gallery), despite a light drizzle. This is gonna be one hell of a trip!

Mrs SnappyTravels at Rincon de la Vieja look-out point
The first adventure laid on for our group is horse-riding through dry scrubland and woods to the river. It’s still morning and the heat is building, large sunbathing lizards scuttling away disturbed by the vibration of hooves.

Horse-riding at Rincon de la Vieja
At the river there’s optional white water tubing adventures to be had (check your holiday insurance before you leave if you plan to engage in such activities). We chose to chill around the forest instead to take in more of the local wildlife, our reward being a double-toothed kite, and, in adjoining bushes, a white-throated magpie and pale-billed woodpecker. The woods around this area contained a lot of kapok spiny cedar trees which have a very spikey bark and seeds that open to reveal a strange fluff ball that you’ll commonly see hanging off branches.

Kapok spiny cedar tree, Rincon de la Vieja
Next it’s a drive through parched landscapes dotted with Guanacaste trees (from which the region takes its name) on to Arenal, home to a rather large fiery hill.
Arenal
The 3 hour transfer from Rincon de la Vieja to Arenal skirts round Arenal Lake, a major geographical feature – 33km width at its widest, a greatest depth of 74m and fed by 132 rivers. There’s a lunch stop along the way with far reaching views over the lake and its surrounding red earth and lush rainforest greenery. Nearby we pause to look at a tree with two foot long hanging seed pods …or so we think. It turns out they’re not seed pods but the intricately weaved nests of the Montezuma oropendula and you can see these birds swooping in and out. In flight it’s a vivid flash of black and bright yellow. A common sight is palms growing out of the tops of trees, sometimes pineapple plants which provide the ideal moist environment for blue poison dart frogs to lay their eggs.

Montezuma oropendula visiting its nest
In the district of La Fortuna you’ll see the huge Arenal volcano, still active so often billowing smoke and from time to time spewing lava and hot ash. Fireflies are an intriguing sight of an evening, bright yellow dots whizzing about the trees. During the day there are birds everywhere so get used to your accommodation being a noisy place (but isn’t this why we travel?), not least the vocally-talented great tailed grackles who make some great whoops and shrills. Our hotel was superbly manicured yet still natural, our patch of front garden home to a long green iguana and regularly-visiting hummingbirds. And at night, an unidentified visitor churning up the lawn – probably a raccoon though at the time I was convinced it was an anteater.

Resident hummingbird at the Arenal Springs Hotel
Arenal hanging bridges (Mistico Park)
This ecotourism reserve provides walks in the thick of the rainforest, and as the name suggests, a good number of wobbly wire bridges which can take some getting use to if you’re not good with heights. In this nature reserve we spotted coati, toucans, poison dart frogs, eyelash vipers, a sloth, howler monkeys, leaf cutter ants, agouti and bats.

Hanging bridge across the rainforest canopy
It’s about a 90 minute trek, each group of 8-10 having a guide who will knowledgefully point out animals and plants of interest, including the ‘broccoli’ tree. Don’t stray off the path as there are some pretty dangerous and very well-camouflaged things that live here, not least the snakes which can be aggressive. The pit viper below, for example, is small and easy to miss – if you walk along brushing your hands or arms against foliage you may get a seriously nasty surprise. But don’t be put off by heights or fear of creatures, this is a wildlife-rich experience not to miss.

Coiled eyelash viper (venomous)
Don Juan Eco Farm
Next up is an excursion to a educational eco farm, near La Fortuna town in the foothills of Arenal volcano. Here you’ll meet charismatic owner Don Juan, an entertaining character who has a few surprises in store as he guides you around his working farm. You can sample organic jalapeño chilis, peppercorns and local coffee, see livestock, understand the organic and eco-friendly practices of growing fruit and veg (making natural compost, burning methane from the cows etc) and make sugarcane juice. There are also a few games along the way – lassooing, dodging the sugarbeet as Don Juan slices pieces off a stick at velocity with his scary machete, and an eye-watering peppercorn endurance test. I’ll leave the rest as a surprise in case you do pay a visit.

Farm worker at Don Juan Eco Farm
La Fortuna
As the gateway to the Arenal national park, La Fortuna is a compact backpacker town full of hostels and useful for supermarkets and souvenir shops. On clear days you get a great view of Arenal volcano looming over the town. Though the town is pleasant enough it’s really just somewhere for stocking up and having a wander round, perhaps a people-watching session from a pavement café.

La Fortuna town with Arenal volcano as its backdrop
Tabacon Hot Springs
Just a 15-20 minute drive from La Fortuna is Tabacon Thermal Resort & Spa, which takes advantage of the hot water springs in the foothills of nearby Arenal volcano. Its complex of pools and channels is fed by the Tabacon thermal river, and you might be surprised at how high the water temperatures can be. It’s a popular place for tourists and locals alike; it’s a great way to relax after a long day and it stays open long into the evening. The golden rule that ‘if locals use it then it must be good’ definitely applies here. Lounging in a hot, natural volcanic pool while the sun goes down is a pretty special experience. Healthy too, so they say.

Bathing in the thermal springs at Tabacon Resort & Spa
La Quinta de Sarapiqui
Our home for the next couple of days is a lodge nestled in the forests of Sarapiqui, beautifully abundant in wildlife. An interesting transfer there too, driving through seemingly endless pineapple plantations. Costa Rica is a major exporter of pineapples. Take a closer look at one next time you’re in the supermarket; chances are the label says ‘Product of Costa Rica’. The plantations are huge – 44,000 hectares with 60,000 plants per hectare. A quick tip for a juicier pineapple, courtesy of those in the know: store pineapples upside down so that the sugars run to the top of the fruit. It works!

Golden-hooded tanager
Like many lodges and hotels, La Quinta has a bird feeding station topped up with fresh fruit every morning and evening. This attracts much of the nearby birdlife. In one sitting we saw toucans, tanagers, honeycreepers and orioles, all brightly coloured and a photographer’s dream – they’re literally just feet away from you. We’ve since heard that the sustainability powers that be are banning this practice at hotels since the unnatural food sources negatively impact the birds’ longer term feeding habits.

Collared Aracari toucan
Also at this lodge is a small pond which the iconic red-eyed tree frog frequents (when taking photos don’t use a flash as it damages the frog’s eyes), and an easy meandering walk through the woods to a small woodland lake, via a butterfly house. See if you can spot any caimans in the lake.

Red-eyed tree frog
Near the lodge entrance, high up in the trees, we found a sloth. Hard to see, even harder to photograph – take good binoculars and mega zoom lens. These guys barely move and they’re incredibly well camouflaged, sometimes with grey-green algae-covered fur making them blend in to their surroundings even more. Not joking, we’ve spent minutes staring at a large dead leaf in a tree canopy, waiting for it to move.

Two-toed sloth
La Selva Biological Station and rainforest reserve, Sarapiqui
Being a tropical rainforest research station, La Selva Biological Station is a very academical set-up. It’s made up of primary and secondary rainforest (technically a tropical pre-montane wet forest ecosystem) and the walk guides are nerdy scientists, not tourist guides, so expect lots of in-depth knowledge but little in the way of travel guide skills. It’s a shame as it can mean you miss some important information or sights as the scientist is pacing off ahead. As ever the sloths here are very hard to make out, just still grey lumps in branches.

La Selva Biological Station and rainforest reserve
The walk takes in a couple more bouncy hanging bridges, one overlooking a river in which you can see caimans. On the birding front, there are heaps more here, some rare such as the Agami heron which we were excitedly told we were very lucky to see. Stick to the concrete paths, not just for the usual safety reasons (snakes, spiders and the like) but also because the unmarked trails are for bio researchers only – this is a working scientific environment.

One for the birdwatchers – a rare Agami heron
Use your ears as well as your eyes as wildlife is all around. Leaf-cutter ants follow you along the paths, howler monkeys grunt and wail from above, peccaries run amok and poison dart frogs hide in wet leaves. Jaguars and pumas are present here but are very rarely seen, in fact around 90% of the station’s wildlife activity is nocturnal.

All eyes on the trees!
Limón banana plantations
Next we’re into the Limón province which encompasses the entire Caribbean (east) coastline, stretching from Nicaragua down to Panama and representing a more culturally diverse area with its noticeable Afro-Caribbean population. Cutting eastwards across the country en route to Tortuguero, we pass the large Chiquita and DelMonte banana plantations. These plantations employ so many people that they have their own ‘banana towns’. These communities are basically Butlins-like pre-fab housing estates built purely for the plantation workers with on-site medical care facilities, necessitated by the frequency of spider bites and machete accidents.

‘Banana town’, Limón province
Beside the Limón highway you see thousands upon thousands of banana trees, with their bunches of fruit covered in blue plastic bags. These serve a dual purpose providing pesticide-free protection against insects whilst creating a microclimate for the even growing of the bananas in the top, middle and bottom levels of the fruit stem. The long network of rails and tracks you see are for transporting the crops to the packing plant, long mono rails with occasional road crossing gates and pulleys where the traffic is held up until the bananas have passed through. The plantation even has its own airstrip.

Banana transportation via monorail
An amusing encounter en route was a visit to our guide’s friend who has a bush in his front garden that rhino beetles (cornisuelos) favour. So on board comes the friend, brandishing a stick with several large beetles clinging to it. These things are tennis ball sized, and as I found to my own expense, they have very sticky, sharp claws.

Rhino beetles (cornisuelos)
I recommend not using your finger as an extension to the stick as they will crawl onto your hand, hook on and not let go. Extricating myself from that clever experiment took several helping hands. It’s good to get up close and personal with nature though, right?

How to get a rhino beetle off your hand
Eventually, after an hour’s drive along a very bumpy, stoney track we reach the river port where we board our boats for Tortuguero, only accessible by water.
Tortuguero
In the north-east corner of the country, Tortuguero is the third most visited national park in Costa Rica. It is made up of rainforest, mangrove forests, swamps, canals and lagoons and is therefore home to much wildlife. Being a humid tropical area it has more rainfall than other regions and is noticeably greener than say Guanacaste in the north west. The main attraction is here is turtles who lay their eggs on the beach – in Spanish Tortuguero means ‘turtle catcher’ – but the park also contains manatees, jaguars, pumas, ocelots, tapir, armadillos and rarer monkeys, though most are shy and wary of humans.

The Tortuguero canal network is complex and needs its own signposting system
We reach our accommodation by boat, navigating the network of natural and manmade canals. Best not dip your hand in the water, there are crocs and big, bitey fish here! After disembarking, an initial explore of our accommodation’s lush grounds reveals golden silk orb spiders, colourful blue land crabs (‘Halloween crabs’) popping in and out of their burrows, unidentified rodents, howler and spider monkeys, basilisk lizards, geckos, iguanas and a thin green snake or two. Sleep well!

Beware of crocodiles!
And on the birding front, a black hawk, white collared manakin, another toucan, more hummingbirds, scarlet tanager, another Montezuma oropendula and a blue heron, the latter just a couple of metres from us. Other than a handful puffer fish, we missed the underwater wildlife which includes the tropical garfish, catfish and the wonderfully named fat snook, dog snapper and Atlantic grunt. We’ll leave the fishing to the pros.

Spider monkeys on our accommodation roof
Tortuguero Village
Just across the canal, and again only accessible by boat, the village is vibrant with a range of B&Bs, hostels and food shacks along its 300m “high street” – pretty much a dirt track rather than a road as such. On its outskirts is the Green Turtle Museum where you can learn about the turtles’ fragile existence and make a donation to help their plight. Just beyond the museum is the Caribbean coast, and therefore the obligatory photos and toe-dipping in the Atlantic Ocean.

View of Tortuguero village from Pachira Lodge
In the village itself we were lucky to see a pair of great green macaws fly by. The guide books tell you these are endangered and that you’re very unlikely to see them. But it seems numbers are strengthening; we’d seen a pair a couple of days earlier in Sarapiqui but this time round they weren’t silhouetted, allowing their true colours to be seen:

Great green macaws
Tortuguero canals
Tortuguero’s network of canals is a mixture of natural and manmade, the latter constructed by USA companies for teak logging activity in 1930-50s. Keep an eye out for old rusted machinery that was dumped when the Americans vacated having mostly destroyed the primary rainforest. The oldest trees visible today are the twisted ones that they didn’t cut down since only the straight ones were of profitable use. Thankfully the rare and now protected great almond tree, the tallest one there, survived. For similar reasons jaguars, pumas and ocelots are incredibly rare and elusive here – historically they have not experienced a happy relationship with humans.

Tortuguero canal network
Tourism now funds the area’s habitat preservation and protection. Alongside the diverse array of wildlife in the water, on the ground and in the trees, the national park’s flora is also impressive. Your guide may show you the pretty Pachira tree flower which is from the same family as ylang-ylang, its oil used as a Chanel No 5 substitute. These flowers are also collected by locals and pressed between clothes to create the same fragrance on the cheap.

Pachira flower
Birds spotted around the canals included rufescent tiger heron, northern jacana, green heron, little blue heron, great potoo, purple gallinule, reddish egret and the anhinga (aka ‘snake bird’ or ‘needle bird’), the latter often seen holding its wings out to dry after a dive. If you see a vivid almost iridescent flash of blue go by, that’ll be the blue morpho butterfly in flight.

Anhinga ‘snake bird’ drying its wings
San José
Leaving Tortuguero by boat and bumpy road, we cut south west towards the capital, San José. This drive takes us alongside the Rio Sucio where you can see rusty orange waters flowing down from the volcanic hills. Then it’s up into the cooler climate of the Braulio Carillo National Park, through clouds and very different cloud forest vegetation, like the large-leaved ‘poor man’s umbrella plant’. We pass through the country’s only tunnel and down the other side into the central valley and San José, a real culture shock after a week’s appreciation of Costa Rica’s beautiful inland natural environments.

Entering San José
In the city we’re careful crossing roads since there are daily accidents and fatalities. The wide, deep rain gutters built to deal with heavy rain showers are an added hazard. Then there’s the hawkers, beggars and homeless, and the resulting heavy police presence but it’s the same as any other city in the world – you get good people and bad people. Our advice is to stay central and be ever vigilant.

San José city centre
Despite a two hour guided tour of the city there’s not too many special sights. The centre is compact and does have some interesting architecture and history, eg the Teatro, the historic central mercado and the farmer sculptures. Maybe we’ve been spoilt by all the national parks and peaceful nature but it seems the Costa Ricans are a noisy breed (they admit this themselves). Or maybe it’s just city life and ‘pura vida’!

San José suburbs
The road out of the city takes us past poorer housing areas, in effect favelas, then in contrast past the new, financially-burdening national football stadium, La Sabana Park (the site of the old international airport) and an oddly high number of hospital/hotel complexes. These we’re told are for foreigners coming to Costa Rica for cheap (compared to their own economy), high quality plastic surgery, which is a big earner here, hence the sheer number of them.

Roadside soda (drinks outlet)
Out of the city proper and on the highway to Punta Arenas, we stop at a roadside fruit market for coffee, cashew fruit, medlar, guaba and other local produce. (The cashew nut we know is the green stem after shelling and baking to remove toxins; the locals eat the actual fruit too.)

Cashew fruits (the green bit becomes the nut we know)
Also in Alajuela province there’s a brash souvenir shopping trip to a gift superstore run by single mothers, where we’re at least spending money towards a good cause. Outside in the trees are a pair of scarlet macaws and a massive iguana. The macaws aren’t such a rare site here though, they were rescued from captivity and live here, happy to entertain visitors in exchange for treats and attention.

Scarlet macaws
The further west we venture the hotter it gets and countryside gradually turns brown and dry. Time for a nap on the coach – there’s only so many roadside sodas (bars) and brown fields you can see before you eyelids start to get travel-heavy.

Another roadside soda
A while later we’re back in Guanacaste province, where we spend our last week at a beach resort for relaxation. But don’t think that’s the end of our wildlife and nature experiences…
Playa Matapalo, Guanacaste
On arrival at our hotel, the Riu Palace, we’re told it’s situated at end of the San Antonio fault, and suffers regular tremors. Eek. But it’s ok they say, the last big earthquake was 10 years ago and it was only a 7.5. In its own way the hotel’s great after all the small hotels and rainforest lodges, it’s all beach, pools, restaurants, cocktails, comfy bed, jacuzzi and optics in the rooms. But where’s all the wildlife we’ve got used to?
Well, the pools have regular visitors in the form of iguanas and occasionally snakes, the beach itself has these too plus pelicans, parrots, capuchin monkeys and crabs, the car park has howler monkeys and bats …you get the idea. Basically you’re never far from cool wildlife in Costa Rica.

Capuchin monkey lounging on a branch
Walking along the beach you soon stumble upon the Monkey Bar, so named as there are so many white faced capuchin monkeys nearby. From there is a 10 minute forest path walk (signposted the Monkey Trail) back to the hotel which we found to be incredibly rich in birdlife. Check the photo gallery below but here we saw a squirrel cuckoo, black-headed trogons, a Hoffman’s woodpecker, various hummingbirds, white-throated magpie-jays, a tropical kingbird and a brown-crested flycatcher. Walking whilst looking upwards for bird life take care not to loose your footing. It’s not just tree roots that are hazardous, there’s a big burrow which is almost certainly home to a tarantula, so you probably don’t want to get your foot stuck in there!

Black-headed trogon
And in the hotel grounds itself streak-backed orioles, rufous-naped wrens, turquoise-browed motmots, a scarlet tanager, a banded wren and more.

Turquoise-browed motmot
There are one and two day excursions to be had from Playa Matapalo – along the beach there are canvas-covered shops, fishing/diving boat trips, yoga huts and local tour operators. We’ve heard positive feedback about various operators, though we used and recommend Luis from Prime Tours, who is located a five minute walk along the beach (facing the sea turn left and he’s at the end of the path that leads to the Monkey Bar). You can pay in USD, prices are fair and he’s a nice, honest guy. Through Luis we booked the Nicaragua day trip and the following boat excursion.
Santa Rosa boat trip
Our final excursion was an afternoon/evening boat trip to Santa Rosa in the far north west of the country, also booked through Luis. With on board food and drink and a friendly crew, the handful of us on the trip enjoyed the sun and sea air, watching prehistoric-looking frigatebirds wheel in the sky above us and below us in the water manta rays, sea snakes, jellyfish and turtles.

Santa Rosa boat trip
A particular highlight was a sudden sardine and tuna storm, one of those frantic whirlpools of fish flying everywhere that you see on TV nature programmes. Two minutes later and the sea was as calm as before as though nothing had happened. We’ve seen similar from a distance in Sardinia, but this was special as we were so close.

Sardines and tuna feeding frenzy
The fishing equipment came out next for those that wanted to partake, catches including tuna, red snapper and black tuna. The latter was barbecued on board to provide a tasty and fresh-as-you-can-get addition to lunch.

Fishing for tuna
Once we reached the destination beach it was time to relax on the white sand, watch the crabs scuttling about and take a swim in the warm sea. Oh, and a couple of cold beers of course. On the return journey it was all relaxation and sunbathing on deck, with the odd Titanic moment for photos on the arm of the bow. The finale as we sailed back towards the hotel beach was a sunset turning from golden hues to a deep red sun, more perfect Instagram photo opportunities.

Red sun
And so closes the Costa Rica trip. Special thanks to the fellow travellers in our group – a lovely bunch – and to Eduardo, our amazing guide. Pura vida!
Travel tips for Costa Rica
- Keep a torch handy. Many accommodation lodges are dark and have beautiful natural grounds which means wildlife too. You don’t want to tread on a snake!
- Take binoculars and, if photographing, a good zoom lens. There are over 800 species of birds here and many of these stay high up. A lot of the wildlife is well camouflaged. Everyone wants to see sloths and these guys are very hard to find with the naked eye!
- Sand gets very hot – bring aqua shoes with soles.
- Also on the beaches, beware of rip currents which can quickly become a serious problem even for strong swimmers.
- The equatorial sun is brutally hot – take lots of sun cream, hat etc, and as the sun is directly overhead (this is the equatorial bit) watch the top of your head, your shoulders and feet.
- US dollars are widely accepted, though some local currency (colón) is useful for small purchases and tipping.
- Remember to set aside exit tax, approx 30USD, which you’ll need to pay at the airport.
- Only smoke in designated areas or risk fines of 300USD+. It’s the country’s law not the hotels’. And don’t leave fag butts or other litter. It’s a beautiful country, let’s keep it that way.
Costa Rica photo gallery
Please allow a short time for the gallery to load – with wildlife in such abundance we took quite a few pictures! Click on a photo to view a larger version. All images are copyright ©snappytravels.uk – please do not use without permission. To purchase hi res photos email hello@snappytravels.uk
Wildlife seen in Costa Rica
There are numerous guide books and websites that list birdlife and other wildlife you can expect to see in Costa Rica, depending on which areas you visit. We certainly recommend a good bird field guide as you’ll see so many varieties that sooner or later you’re going to want to know what you’re seeing. In no particular order, here’s our full list (NB we haven’t attempted to identify which of the 40+ varieties of hummingbird we saw!):
Bird list
- Great kiskadee
- Masked tityra
- Brown-crested flycatcher
- Great-tailed grackle
- Rufous-naped wren
- White-throated magpie-jay
- Pale-billed woodpecker
- Orange-chinned parakeet
- Double-toothed kite
- Swainson’s thrush
- Montezuma oropendula
- Red-capped manakin
- Passerini’s tanager
- Blue-grey tanager
- Palm tanager
- Black face tanager
- Scarlet tanager
- Golden-hooded tanager
- Clay-colored thrush
- Rufous-collared sparrow
- Yellow warbler
- Crested guan
- Variable seedeater
- Gray-headed chachalaca
- Social flycatcher
- Rufous motmot
- Bronze-tailed plumeleteer
- Grosbeak (?)
- Sunbittern
- Buff rump warbler
- Agami heron
- Great green macaw
- Bat falcon
- Broad-billed motmot
- Long-tailed tyrant
- Collared aracari toucan
- Red-legged honeycreeper
- Green honeycreeper
- Black-cowled oriole
- Black vulture
- Turkey vulture
- Black hawk
- White collared manakin
- Wood thrush
- Orange-fronted parakeet
- Bare-throated tiger heron
- Rufescent tiger heron
- Anhinga (needle bird/snake bird)
- Great potoo
- Little blue heron
- Northern jacana
- Purple gallinule
- Green heron
- Reddish egret
- Crested caracara
- Scarlet macaw
- Streak-backed oriole
- Hoffmann’s woodpecker
- White-fronted parrot
- Turquoise-browed motmot
- Black-headed trogon
- Great egret
- Osprey
- Ringed kingfisher
- Brown-crested flycatcher
- Western kingbird
- Tropical kingbird
- Banded wren
- Blue-grey saltator
- Squirrel cuckoo
- Magnificent frigatebird
Other species
- Coati
- Agouti
- Raccoon (?)
- Two-toed sloth
- Spider monkey
- Howler monkey
- White faced capuchin monkey
- Peccary
- Blue morpho butterfly
- Swallowtail butterfly
- Veragua postman butterfly
- Rhino beetle
- Toad
- Red-eyed tree frog
- Poison dart frog
- Variegated squirrel
- Caiman
- Iguana
- Gecko
- Basilisk lizard (Jesus lizard)
- Eyelash viper
- Leaf-cutter ants
- Bats
- Blue land crab (Halloween crab)
- Golden silk orb weaver spider
- Manta ray
- Sea snake
- Sea turtle
- Puffer fish
- Sardine
- Tuna
- Black tuna