128Canopy Blog

Costa Rica offers tourists a wide variety of habitats which range from the lowlands to rainforests, cloud forests and paramo (wet desert).  All of these regions are great locations for hiking and will certainly exceed anyone’s expectations when adventuring into nature.

Since hiking and trekking has rapidly become a preferred activity among locals and tourist, it is important to be well informed of the area you are about to explore before hand.  Due to Costa Rica’s tropical climate and terrain, special attention should be paid to snakes.

One of the country’s most abundant species is the terciopelo or fer-de-lance.  This is a venomous pitviper species which can be commonly found in Central and northern South America.  The terciopelo, which means velvet in Spanish, is found primarily in the lowlands and often close to human habitations.  Among the 500 snake bites reported each year in Costa Rica, more than half are from the fer-de-lance.

This snake species can grow to be quite large and are considered quite nervous.  An interesting study in which the Costa Rican Pacific species was compared to the species found in the Atlantic Coast.  The study was recently published by the Clodomiro Picado Institute, The University of Costa Rica’s Medical School and the Spanish Institute of Biomedicine in Valencia.

Scientists gathered samples from the venom of each species and ran lab tests in order to compare the venom’s chemical components.  The study showed that the fer-de-lance species from the Costa Rican Pacific Coast had a higher composition of toxins that destroy human muscular tissue.  As for the venom composition of the snakes from the Atlantic Coast, their composition shows a higher component in chemicals which cause blood coagulation or clots.

Even though a subspecies of the bothrops asper has not been classified, the differences between the Atlantic and Pacific species in Costa Rica may suggest that there actually exists a subspecies.

Scientist believe that since Costa Rica’s Atlantic and Pacific Coasts are separated by a central mountain range, that this range has become a natural border that separates the fer-de-lance which does not dwell in areas higher than 4,900 feet above sea level.

The terciopelo snake bite can cause serious damage to internal organs as well as to muscle tissue if not treated promptly.  There has only been a 7% death rate among those bitten by a terciopelo who did not receive antivenin treatment.

Las Vegas, Nv. August 8, 2008 — Oriens Travel & Hotel Management Corp., an emerging Travel and Hotel Management Company operating online travel booking site 128 Trip and hotel management subsidiary Hotel PURE  representing over 25 hotels in Costa Rica and Nicaragua to date, is pleased to report it has completed its application to Pink Sheets to publish its financial statements according to regulatory bodies’ requirements.

In order to provide more transparency of Oriens’ corporate progresses to its shareholders, the company has recently completed its application to Pink Sheets financial quotation service web site (http://www.Pinksheets.com) in order to adequately publish its financial statements and corporate progresses according to the regulatory bodies’ requirements. This is the first step of the process of becoming a fully reporting issuer so that shareholders can expect to be updated regularly on its financial statements and progresses. The unaudited financial statements will be published on the Pink Sheets financial quotation web site as soon as Oriens has received the authorization to do so, which is expected to be completed within the next two or three weeks