Dec 31 – Costa Rica 2008

Tortuguero River Tour, Part 1

Dec 31 Tagged with: bats, bird, fauna, flora, iguana, monkey, river, spider, tour

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.

Tortuguero Beach and Village

Dec 31 Tagged with: beach, Eric, family, Kevin, tour

Dec 312008

Following a short break back at the lodge, we headed over to the Caribbean Conservation Corporation where we saw a movie about the sea turtles that the CCC was formed to study and protect. Because of the CCC, Costa Rica created the Tortuguero National Park, and set aside 15 miles of protected beach for the turtles to lay their eggs on. They also tag the turtles to study their migratory and other habits. Turtles born here travel throughout the entire Caribbean Sea and return here to lay their eggs.

Eric and Kevin on the beach.

Warning sign. This isn’t turtle egg season, so the beach was safe for us.

From the CCC we walked up the beach to the village of Tortuguero, which supports itself on fishing and tourism. There were about an equal number of tourists and residents.

I was enjoying not being on line, so we just walked on by.

Tortuguero River Tour, Part 2

Dec 31 Tagged with: fauna, flora, rain, river, sloth, tour

Dec 312008

Lunch was back at the lodge, and then another boat tour of the river and channels. We started out spotting a sloth and her baby hanging in a dense tree almost over the water, so we were able to get very close in the boat. Even though there were fifteen or more of us, she didn’t seem concerned at all about our presence, and the two of them continued eating.

Mother sloth with baby.

As we were traveling up one of the canals, it began to rain. By the time the boat’s pilot had pulled out the ponchos and passed them out it had become a tropical torrent. It was warm out, but everything not under a poncho was instantly soaked, and before a few minutes were up, those of us on the right side of the boat had our feet in about three inches of water. Kevin, being on the port side, was able to keep his shoes dry.

It’s called a Rain Forest for a reason.

Luckily I had my waterproof point-and-shoot camera with me, so I could take riveting shots like this.

The wildlife viewing isn’t so good in that kind of downpour, so we headed back into the lodge.

Once dried off, napped and cleaned up, we headed into the bar before dinner for some cards, New Year’s Eve libations and live Calypso music.

New Year’s Eve

Dec 31 Tagged with: fauna, flora, flower, iguana

Dec 312008

After dinner, Eric and I went on another frog hunt – no frogs this time, even in the lodge’s ‘Frog Garden’, but we did encounter a couple of iguanas and another giant spider that took a particular interest in Eric. We were able to take close up pictures of a small iguana that was standing on a flower using a flashlight to light her up with. She wasn’t bothered at all by our presence, even though we got within a foot of her for some of the shots. She was still there at 5:30am the next morning when I stopped by to see her.