Puntarenas, Costa Rica - Wildlife galore

 I had intended to finish this post this yesterday, but weather happened, and I spent time shovelling snow instead. Afer the snow came a bit of freezing rain and lots of wind, so I'll be out again to clear what blew in later today.

This is another photo heavy post - when I booked the jungle river cruise I had hoped to see lots of wildlife and I was not disappointed. We arrived in the port of Puntarenas, early morning of Wednesday, January 11. I was up before the ship docked, at 5:10 a.m. so that I could capture the sunrise.

I ran into one of the other women from the singles/solo group on Deck 16 and we chatted as we waited for the sun to make an appearance. I didn't last as long as she did, so this it the best I got.

After a breakfast from the buffet, out on the deck - why anyone would sit indoors when the weather is so lovely, is beyond me - I headed down to the Provence dining room for 7 a.m. Another of our group was also on the same excursion so we sat and waited for our group to be called.

The drive to the Crocodile Jungle River cruise was about 90 minutes. Our guide, Christian talked most of the way. He gave us various information about the country of Costa Rica, pretty much all of which I've forgotten already. 

At the location, we had an opportunity to use the bano since we'd be on the boat for 2 1/2 hours, and then walked down a series of ramps to the lagoon. I didn't get a photo of the boat we were on, but basically it was a flat bottomed boat with a canopy over it, and a large motor on the back. I'm guessing it held 20-24 guests. Thankfully it wasn't full up. K and I had taken a seat near the back of the boat, and I ended up going to the rear seat near the motor in order to get photos without blocking someone else. Since I was so close to the motor, I couldn't hear what Christian was telling us except when the driver slowed the boat down or stopped. Luckily they gave us a bird guide pamphlet, and Google lens reverse search did the rest when I got home.

Within moments of boarding, we were on our way through the lagoon and this was the first crocodile we found sunning on the bank.

Across the way, was a Roseate Spoonbill. I wasn't quick enough to get a good shot of it. 

The driver circled the lagoon to allow us to view a pair of HUGE crocodiles resting. The first photo is a close-up of the female.

We were stopped so I was able to hear Christian - he explained that the mouth is open for two reasons: to regulate body temperature and to allow small birds to pick debris from the mouth. My question, unasked, was do the birds then end up being a meal for the crocodile?

The male was resting in the water. If one wasn't paying attention, I'm not sure it would be noticed. 

After circling the lagoon, we headed out to the river system. About this time was when I moved from the seat next to K, and moved to the back of the boat where I could stand. Even if I couldn't hear Christian, I could see which direction he or other passengers were gesturing.

We passed these two men in a row boat - it appears they were preparing to fish. Now, I don't know about you, but knowing there are crocodiles in "them there" waters, I wouldn't be dangling my foot in the water. In fact, when I was sitting, I kept pulling my hand in when I realized it was on the outside of the boat...nowhere near the water.

I had no desire to interact with anything like this crocodile here. I'm sure the locals are better at spotting them than I am. What caught my attention was the sunlight on the scutes (the bumps) on the back of the crocodile. I've read that these allow the crocodile to swim without causing ripples on the surface of the water while they swim underneath. Good for them, not so good for their prey.

I have many photos of the Great Egret, however many of them are difficult to see the bird as, even they, blend into the background.

Here's one that I needed no introduction to (at least not in the past few years). We've had cormorants on the pond nearby - it was nice to see where they winter. Smart birds!

Here we have a Snowy Egret. It appears to be differentiated from the Great Egret by the size of it's bill.

This white bird is an Ibis, distinquishable by it's long dark beak. 

Here is another Snowy Egret. What you couldn't see in the last photo were the yellow feet. Aren't they fun?

These are a pair of frigate birds. I've seen them many times in flight on my various Caribbean cruises but never resting. Not a pretty bird.

The males of the specie are slightly more attractive, but not much in my opinion.

At this point, we had turned around and started our trip back to the lagoon. The driver took us part way down a short tributary, where we saw this bird in the tree. Recall the Roseate Spoonbill in flight earlier in the post. This is another one settled in a tree.

I believe this is a blue Heron, although it does not match either the pamphlet or the reverse search. We saw a number of these birds, but they really were well camoflauged and difficult to photograph.

On the other hand, these were neither difficult to spot or to identify. These are Royal Terns - they are so much prettier than the gulls we see here but similar in size and shape.

This was my fun find on the camera card. I knew I'd captured a bird, but couldn't tell exactly what it was on the small image on the camera. This is an Amazon Kingfisher. Definitely one of my favorites.

We weren't far from the lagoon when the driver pointed out this iguana on the shore. I was lucky to catch a photo as it disppeared into a hole shortly after.

We saw other birds I didn't capture, sandpipers, brown pelicans, and warblers. There were monkeys in the trees too as we had started our journey, but neither my eyesight nor my camera lens could see more than dark blobs in the tree. I had hoped to see a scarlet macaw but that wasn't to be, however I was not disappointed at the variety of creatures that showed themselves to us.

We were back on the ship by about 1:30 p.m. After a quick lunch I was reading and relaxing on the Promenade Deck when a loud band of musicians interrupted my concentration. I've included a short clip so you can hear for yourself. They kept this up all afternoon, until we sailed! Not just the musicians but the dancers too.

Next up is the port of Huatulco. I didn't have an excursion booked there so it will be a much shorter post.