wildlife-watching in Laguna de Apoyo

Whilst the Laguna de Apoyo has been designated a nature reserve, that hasn't stopped people building houses there, cutting down trees, burning rubbish, etc, so I didn't really expect to see much wildlife there.  & it's true that I didn't see any of the more exciting stuff like armadillos, ocelots, skunks, etc that are supposed to still exist there.  However the howler monkeys were everywhere, seemingly unconcerned by the presence of humans, so I was able to take quite a few photos of them (and moan to myself when they woke me around 5am every day with their roars).

There were some sizeable tarantulas around the area.  They would come out of their holes from around 6pm onwards.  We saw a few scorpions too.  & plenty of birds, including some very attractive species (the photograph below shows a white-throated magpie jay, which is very common there although difficult to photograph as they will not sit still for more than a couple of seconds).

& whilst not specifically looking for them, we came across six snakes, of four different species.  Here I am holding a scorpion-hunting snake.