The Hercules Beatle can hold about 5 pounds on its "nose" -- and crush your finger when it gets mad

 

 

One of the guests at the butterfly garden

 

 

One of these vines in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve measured 4 km (almost 2.5 miles) long

 

 

It's the Golden Gate Bridge, Costa Rica style...

 

 

..about 150 feet above the jungle floor

 

 

This nasty creature, known as the assassin bug, sucks your blood like a mosquito and then turns around and craps a parasite in the wound--sound yummy?--but wait, it gets better; the parasite stays dormant in your system for 15-20 years, and then goes hog wild, causing your heart to expand 2-3 times its size, more or less exploding

 

 

What looks like a tree here is really the remains of one, thanks to the strangler fig, which plants itself inside the tree and breaks it apart

 

 

 

Don't forget to stop and smell the...er, whatevers

 

Back to where it all begins...