With such a beautiful sunset at sea the night before we arrived in Costa Rica you would think that it portended a marvelous day the next day, wouldn't you? I'll let you decide if the fairy tale had a happy ending or not.
We sadly passed by Manta, missing a dive for Karl, a rainforest tour for me, and real Panama hats from Montecristi for both of us, but with the recent civil unrest in Ecuador it was decided we'd be rerouting. I'd been working with the owner of a company called Manta Tour Guides for about a year, setting up five tour groups with him and it was extremely disappointing to have to cancel with someone who had been so great to work with. Tom, the owner, told me I was the nicest customer he's almost done business with. If you ever plan to go to Ecuador or the Galapagos Islands let me know and I'll give you a referral!
On another note, our good friends Chuck and LeaAnn joined the wonderful world of the Royal Caribbean Pinnacle Club, which means they get a lot of nice benefits every time they cruise with Royal from now on. As Chuck likes to put it, all these "free" benefits were really just on a layaway plan they've been paying with all the cruises it's taken to get their hundreds of loyalty points. We had a nice dinner with the usual group to celebrate and our "genie" facilitator friend, Steve, ordered this pineapple cake as part of the party. The pineapple is apparently a pinnacle symbol, just don't confuse it with one turned upside down on someone's cabin door because that has a whole different meaning.
And now, back to our once upon a time story. We had a private tour for eight arranged for us by our friend Laura Christensen in Puntarenas on February 3. The tour was described as Highlights of Costa Rica's Pacific Coast so we were looking forward to a great day.
Things started off pretty well with Laura's contact there to meet us at the terminal where he then handed us off to another guide, a young woman who told us to just call her Flori. Her English wasn't the best but it was okay, she told us we'd be off to the Monkey House.
Now if I'd read the fine print I would have remembered that we were supposed to see "Monkeys in their natural habitat.... We also have fun taking you off the beaten paths." Hmmmm, as you can see this little guy above, a White-faced Capuchin isn't exactly in the wild sitting here on a table, which was really in someone's back yard.
But these little guys were cute and photogenic so we began snapping pictures. Almost as cute were the human monkeys who were waving to us and hollering "Ola!" as they swam in their "pool" as we walked in.
This monkey was on the lookout, plus pooping up there on the rafter above us so we scattered quickly to avoid anything dropping on our heads.
There's just something ancient and wise in primate faces that you have to love. Another group had arrived before us and we watched as the monkey climbed over them and they snapped pictures. We figured it would be our turn once they left.
The baby monkey was pretty cute, but you can see that mama wasn't too happy as she snarled in the photo on the right. Shortly after this point Flori told us it was time to go and hustled us back to the van, no pictures with monkeys apparently we hadn't paid enough for our tour to include that option.
We were going to a scenic overlook next. On the way we got in some pretty slow traffic, pretty much because of the bridge in the photo above. It crosses the Tarcoles River which is famous for being the habitat of lots of crocodiles so people slow down and crane their necks for a look as they pass over the bridge. We made a bathroom stop here so after using the baño I walked out on the bridge to see the crocs.
It should have been a perfect day for lots of crocodiles with their long, slender snouts to be out and about, hot and humid, just the way they like it. This big guy was the only one I saw out of the water.
There were nine more over along the shore but the river wasn't exactly what I'd call teeming with the creatures. Now I'm not sure, but I think this must also have been our "stop at local store for coffee and souvenirs with lots of woodcraft". It was a small place with both of the former but I didn't notice much of the latter, nor were there "local artisans working the wood and others at this same stop". I'm not even sure what "others" might have been unless it was working the blender to make smoothies!
Flori told us our next stop would be a scenic overlook. We traveled about 20 minutes uphill on a bumpy road to arrive at this lovely spot. And no, I'm not kidding. This must be the place where we were supposed to "jump off the van and enjoy the scenarios and sights".
If you zoomed the camera lens for the view past the dumpster then you got a sighting of the countryside below. Crazy thing was that there was a small restaurant up there, owners of the dumpster I presume, where you could pay $3 to enter, have a cold drink and look out over their treeless balcony for unobstructed views. Again, either we didn't pay enough for that to be included or Flori thought we were too cheap to pay for a better view, so dumpster it was.
She really wanted to point out to us that from our "viewpoint" we could see Serenade out in the distance, the extreme distance. If you can't tell it's that little white spec in center left. By this time we were shaking our heads a laughing a bit but there was more to come.
Next we were told we'd be stopping at the Villa Lapas, a hotel nestled in the hillside as we descended. I figured that must be where we were having lunch. Nope, this was the destination for our walk in the rainforest, described as the "lovely villa lapas and their Santa Lucia church and old town surrounded by lush forest and gardens.". Not sure what happened to the old town as we never saw it, the gardens were lovely and the little church all decked out for a wedding ceremony.
Flori wasn't exactly full of information either. As we walked the grounds she pointed out this sign and told us it was a cacao tree. Interesting but not as impressive as the ones I'd seen in Grenada, this one looked like it was on the struggle bus.
There were some lovely plants on the property but if we wanted the names we had to look them up ourselves.
This tree with the vines was pretty cool, but as you can see I wouldn't call the forest around it exactly "lush".
A stand of bamboo did get pointed out to us and there was a nice little stream running through the property.
As I mentioned, the hotel property was getting ready for a wedding, so there were decorations all over the grounds. Our friends Amy and David decided a photo next to their initials was in order. I missed the sign that had the actual names of the bride and groom on it so I just started calling these two Andrea and Diego, we're still laughing about it.
Our tour blurb said we'd able to "spot hummingbirds, butterflies and other wildlife depending on the time of the year". I saw a dragonfly and a bat, that was about it, guess it was the wrong time of year.
Now I do love orchids and there were some lovely ones in pots by the entrance of the hotel, which is good because the tour said "we don't suggest long hikes on these area due the big humidity and very warm weather often found overwhelming for foreign tourist not used to this tough weather." No hike just a leisurely ramble, no need of the warning.
We took our "easy walk in the shade and passing one suspended bridges above a nice little creek" , but unfortunately for us it didn't allow time to stop and lounge along this beachfront space with the plastic loungers. The water was definitely clear though as you can see in the photo on the right.
I was looking forward to this next part of the tour because I figured now was when I'd get to see all those crocodiles I'd heard about.
Our boat looked just like this one but as you can see we weren't exactly in what was described as a "unique mangrove forest". I will say that this ride was much quieter than the airboat we took in the Everglades in December.
We saw this guy as we waited to board the boat, nice to be able to see a bit of wildlife, and he even posed for me.
Part of the tour was supposed to have been to "the Carara rain forest park to learn more of the rain forest and looking for scarlet macaws and toucan birds in their nesting area." Not sure where that place actually was because we never saw it but I got this brief view of three macaws flying overhead. You can barely see the red on one of the wings. They are extremely fast flyers and by the time you get the camera on them they're gone. This group would have been a family of three, father, mother & child. Scarlet Macaw males and females mate for life and if one dies the other goes soon afterward.
Now possibly these are mangrove trees but just different than I've seen before. The Tarcoles River is subject to the ocean tides and you can see here what the daily high water mark is.
First wildlife near the water that we saw was this little croc hiding on the riverside. I'm not sure how the boat driver even saw it. The splash of green that was this iguana was much easier to spot.
First, and only large crocodile we saw on this river ended up being this one that they call Donald Trump because he has a big mouth (Haha). He went back under the water shortly after I took the picture and we never saw more of him.
Tour description said "there will also be a spectacular crocodile show when the captain of the boat gets closer to the largest croc". Guess this is as spectacular as it gets when the crocodile is only about three feet long! People did "oo" and "ah" though. One interesting thing about the crocs here is that although they prefer fresh water these can live in salt water or brackish water.
This croc was one of only a couple we saw lounging on the shore. Eventually the boat guide had to admit that on the days when a cruise ship is in port and there are lots of boats on the river they don't see many crocodiles, the animals don't like the noise the boat motors make so they head for the brush, never to be seen, defying all the tourist expectations and tour descriptions.
I'll be the first to admit that the part of the tour describing the Tarcoles River as a "bird watching paradise" was totally truthful. We saw some really unique and beautiful birds, much more interesting than the crocodiles. This one is a small Blue Heron.
A truly unique bird was this Tiger Heron. It had beautiful colors that both camouflaged it and made it easy to spot once you knew what to look for.
These birds are a baby crocodile's worst nightmare since that's their favorite food. Mama crocs aren't very maternal so after they lay and hatch their 60-90 eggs those little guys are on their own. It's beware this big predatory bird for them!
One of few water birds that have no oil on their feathers, a Snake Bird has to spread its wings to let them dry. Taking this picture is also when I knew for sure that Flori hadn't done many tours as she was standing to take pictures just like the tourists!
There were several of these Stilts walking through the water and mud at low tide to find something to eat.
Definitely the coolest bird that we saw was this Roseate Spoonbill. From a distance they looked a little like flamingos but once we were closer I could definitely see the difference, although until I looked even closer at my photos and cropped them I couldn't see how unique that bill is. They get their color the same way flamingos do, from eating shrimp.
This one's called a Phalacrocorax, a type of cormorant that fishes for its food.
You know the guide is digging deep to find something to say on a crocodile tour when they point to mountains in the distance and say "See those mountains over there? That's where they filmed the first Jurassic Park". Honestly, some of the time I felt like we were on the equivalent of a Costa Rica Jungle Cruise.
By this time we were definitely ready for some lunch and were off to the Vista Mar Restaurant, which did have a view of the sea, at least for half of the diners. Lunch was delicious, I had chicken with rice, beans, and plantains, Karl had the same sides with beef. We had some kind of refreshing lemon drink as well.
Here's the most up close look we got at a super colorful bird all day, just too bad it wasn't real.
Back in the van we were expecting a "visit to a local village to learn about the real Costa Rica and our Pura Vida lifestyle" and a "quick stop at local farmers markets to learn about some important fruits and taste real flavored fruits naturally grown." Instead we were heading back to Puntarenas with the radio playing and Flori talking more to the driver than us, occasionally pointing out such highlights as "here's a cemetery", here's a supermarket', "here's a university that's very important". As we drove through the town seeing nothing out of the ordinary we finally came to a spot where Flori informed us they have the local farmer's market but that it was closed that day. By this point we all had to just give one another incredulous looks and laugh.
It's not that the day was a total loss, we saw some cool stuff, had a good time with some excellent friends, got to laugh, and got the makings of some great stories. Tours are like that, some are better than others and you just take what you get and enjoy it. The End.
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