Desert Wanderers: A return to Costa Rica and a fitting end to 2022

Many, many years ago my daughter Anna took me on a trip to Costa Rica. Since that time, I have always had fond memories of this country. It was the first time I saw plants with leaves as large as my head, people with the warmest hearts and sunshine, lots and lots of sunshine.. oh and rain, daily rain. We visited in August during the rainy season. Today’s visit was like stepping back in time … except no rain only sunshine!

Coming into dock we joined a clipper ship already docked and unloading

It was a beautiful looking ship but I imagine it rocks lots more than Ours….

After being cleared by the port authorities we were headed out for our excursions. Today Al and I are gong our separate ways. He and Steve (our traveling buddies ) have opted to try their hand at eco biking in the jungle while Susan and I go on an eco jungle crocodile safari.

Since Im writing you’ll have to be happy with my pictures ( can’t imagine how Al will ride a bike and take photos!)

The river we are going on is the Tarcoles river. It is in the heart of Mangroves.

Our bus ride through the outskirts of Puntarenas and the surrounding countryside gave us a nice view of both the industrial nature of the town and its lovely hillside ranches.

Never tire of this view

After turning on a dry muddy bumpy road we came across the rancher’s cattle. This breed seems to be the favorite here. Guess it must be the breed best suited to the climate. Anyway, had to take this pictures for my son,Brien, who loves cows!!

An excursion can certainly be enhanced by a great bus driver. When your bus driver slows down its not because of traffic or a problem… Its because he see MONKEYS…

I am only using my iPhone for pictures so sometimes its hard to see. Look for the black bumps!

Once we made it to the boat ramp we boarded our boat and took off in search of Crocodiles!

The river is brown with mud. Since It empties into the Pacific Ocean making it a brackish river that has its water level changed every six hours by the tides.

There is no way I could see anything in the water….

Can you find the crocodile? Or instead find a “logidile” the ellusive floating log.

This was not a log.

Kindly he waited till we got our pictures before heading into the water.

See those two sticks? Yep two baby crocs.

And remember when I was kinda complaining about not seeing birds? Well, today I saw birds,birds and more birds. I’ll only share one picture because, Hey, its birds….

When I look at my photos of birds, I realize two things: i need a better phone camera and I need photography lessons! Anyway, take my word, the birds we saw were pretty spectacular

Two varieties of mangroves. Each takes up the brackish water and gets rid of the salt, one by developing a large outer ball on the trunk and the other by secreting salt out on the underside of its leaves.

The river was peaceful and quiet with just the sounds of nature around us.

After a relaxing informative hour or two it was time to head back to the ship. As we drove back down the dirt road to get to the highway, once again our bus driver spotted more howler monkeys in the trees and a large green Iguana in the middle of the road. We waited for him to wonder along the road and head to a tree. Look closely for the orange head!

Costa Rica has heavily invested in Eco tourism and seems to be reaping the benefits of this plan. They have actually increased their acreage of rainforest. I certainly have enjoyed this adventure today and feel like I am lucky I got to see everything.

Welcoming committee back at the dock

Since Al went on an Eco bike ride, I asked him what I should say.. here goes:” I had a good time. I didn’t fall down. There were hills in the jungle” So with that our adventures were over!

Today is December 31,2022. For our last day of the year we dressed up and had a wonderful dinner

helping a friend celebrate his New Year’s Eve birthday and then….