Ep 61 - In search of the Poison Dart Frog! - A jungle to the ocean bushwhacking trek in Costa Rica

The mission here was simple... get a 26 km ride from my beachfront hotel, gaining 600 meters in elevation, high into the Costa Rican jungle, then walk back, looking to spot the iconic Poison Dart Frog in the wild. The “direct” route back was only 13 km, mostly bushwhacking, following steep valley bottoms which were ideal habitat for the elusive Poison Dart Frog.

My search was for frogs in the family Dendrobatidae. This frog has striking colors, and is a symbol of Costa Rica. It is called the "Poison Dart Frog" due to the aboriginal South Americans' use of their toxic secretions to poison the tips of blowdarts. Poison dart frogs' bright colors, displaying vivid patterns, warn potential predators of their toxicity.

The green and black poison dart frogs, that I was searching for, secrete high levels of lipophilic alkaloid toxins.

The Green and Black Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates auratus) is found in the coastal rainforest lowlands of Costa Rica, and face threats from habitat loss. These frogs are small, sometimes less than 1.5 cm in adult length Finding these beautiful, tiny, elusive frogs can be difficult, compounded by their rare or endangered standing.

Interestingly, chemicals extracted from the skin of Poison Dart Frogs may have medicinal value. Scientists have used this poison to make a painkiller 200 times as potent as morphine, called epibatidine; however, the therapeutic dose is unfortunately very close to the fatal dose.

Costa Rica is a megabiodiverse country, so there are numerous living things in the jungle that can ruin your day. The 30c+ temperature at the time that this bushwhack was enjoyed needed to be managed as well. Following the small stream not only allowed for cooling-off wallows, but also conformed to the ideal habitat requirement of the Green and Black Poison Dart Frog during the dry season.

13 km with 600 metres of vertical drop may normally be just a nice walk, but with no trail, in a tropical rain-forest, all bets are off! I took a close look at this route on Google Earth and topo maps, then did 3 drone flights during the bushwhack for on the ground reconnaissance.

Here are some key moments:

1:32 – The plan
4:07 – The end of the drive-able road, with a look down to our way back
13:34 – A view down to the ocean from up top
16:26 – Starting the bushwhacking down a gully
21:20 – The gully bluffs out
24:12 – back into the gully, below the vertical drop, and we now have water!
27:40 – All the dry leaves were actually slippery, and completely covered the water in spots, which made it basically impossible to keep the feet dry.
31:38 – They are tough to see on camera, but there were a lot of these spiky vines everywhere, many dry.
35:01 – Nope, not a Poison Dart Frog, just a little lizard
37:38 – A Poison Dart Frog!
41:20 – It was over 30C, so I learned from the frogs, and took a quick wallow in the little waterfall pool
42:23 – Right near my wallow pit, another Poison Dart Frog! I think I was still barefoot, so I did not follow it
47:17 – The confluence of my gully and the main creek rewards us with a beautiful waterfall and pool!
48:23 – A drone flight of the waterfall, and scouting the remaining route to the ocean
53:38 – A Cooling dip in the beautiful pool!
57:38 – A really nice spot!
59:14 – Underwater view in the pool, with some small fish
1:04:43 – Another Poison Dart Frog! Maybe the best encounter.
1:08:43 – Another drone flight along the jungle creek, and scouting for the final push to the ocean.
1:12:37 – Peaking underwater, and we see tadpoles, maybe they are young Poison Dart Frogs? Also some tiny fish
1:19:12 – Massive butt on this tree!
1:20:22 – Hard working Leaf-cutter Ants
1:21:52 – More minnows
1:27:32 – Be careful where you grab, or bump your head, those ants sting!
1:30:04 – Cool how we can walk under the roots of this tree
1:30:45 – Lots of fluffy tree seed cotton
1:32:15 – Hydrating back at my hotel lobby, with some guests maybe thinking I'm a new traveller, wearing trail runners instead of flip flops! ; )
1:32:28 – We close out with 2 minutes of my much longer swim in the ocean. After a long day of bushwhacking in the Costa Rican jungle heat, this sunset swim was sublime.

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