bird

Tortuguero River Tour, Part 1

Dec 312008

After breakfast this morning we visited with the resident spider, who lives on a 3 foot wide web just outside the breakfast area. She was the same type as I saw last night, which leads me to assume that they’re not too dangerous. She was busy repairing her web from, one must imagine, a busy night.

Fixing her web.

Split into three groups of about 15 each, we loaded into open tour boats for our first visit with the Tortuguero wild life. In a short amount of time we had already spotted more birds that I could keep track of, giant iguanas, spider monkeys and howler monkeys. The tour lasted about two hours, so we had time to go deep back into some of the canals and listen to the sounds of the rain forest.

Fellow travelers, monkey spotting.

White-Faced Spider Monkey

Howler Monkey

Iguana on a log.

Bigger iguana, in a tree.

Find the hidden lizard. Somehow our guide did.

Easier to see closeup.

Bats. They live on the underside of this tree’s trunk during the day.

Green Heron.

White Heron.

Back to the lodge for a break, then some more sights.

Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve

Costa Rica '08, Jan 03 '09

Jan 032009

Another 45 minutes of travel and we stopped at the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve where we had a 45 walk with a naturalist through the cloud forest. More leaf cutter ants(!) and some beautiful birds were the most visible wildlife, plus we learned more about the flora of a cloud forest.

Oliver, our naturalist guide.

Cloud forest, and me.

More leaf cutter ants! The worker ant has cut the leaf and is carrying it back to the nest. The smaller ant you see on the leaf is a nurse – she’s cleaning the leaf and will help grow fungus on the leaves inside the nest.

This leaf cutter ant nest is over 10 years old. What you see here is about 8 feet in diameter, and very fragile. If you were to step on it it could collapse.

Built on the bottom of a giant leaf, this nest is home to either bees or wasps – I didn’t stick around to find out.

One of the many beautiful birds we saw in the cloud forest.

Twenty minutes of the drive to and from the cloud forest was along a twisty two way, one lane, road. Normally not that unique or interesting, unless you’re doing it in a tour bus with small trucks coming the other way. Marcos proved his skills.

A half an hour further down the road and we stopped for lunch, then on to Doubletree in Puntarenas for the next two nights.

Crocs and Macaws

Costa Rica '08, Jan 04 '09

Jan 042009

The day started with a short sightseeing trip to Rio Tarcoles, where we watched a large population of crocodiles laze about in the sun. We had a great vantage point from directly above them on the highway overpass – close enough to appreciate their size and power, but safely up out of their reach. Though Costa Rica has made a huge commitment to eco-everything, this river is very polluted. The crocs, however, are amazingly resilient and have no problem surviving in the murky waters. Sadly, two of them had garbage stuck around their necks. Remember those lessons about not tossing your six-pack plastic rings away uncut? These were living examples of what can happen.

Tastes like chicken.

Big croc. (Image processed)

Croc/rock camo.

Peaceful co-existence (not). A few minutes later I looked away for a moment and the croc took a snap at the bull. Drat, bad timing!

Sadly this huge guy has gotten a plastic ring caught around his neck.

We then headed down to Camaronal beach, where we walked around the small beach community in search of Red Macaws. We finally spotted a pair (they mate for life) in a beach almond tree. It must have been some sight watching the group of American tourists standing under the tree gawking up at the birds, while local Costa Ricans on vacation were enjoying their beachside campsites all around us, unimpressed by what is a very common sight to them.

Wild macaws, reaching for a nut.

Got it!