We drive through the small town of Tarcoles (which means Crocodile) and arrive at the boat landing pier right on time. There are quite a few companies that share the pier – and the NCL tour arrives here as well, but are boarded onto another company’s boat. We are going with Jose’s River Tour – and (as we find out later when comparing notes with our friends) Jose is a great choice.
First of all, he’s funny and talks non-stop with a whole host of interesting tid bits about the crocodiles and the area (which of course I’ve forgotten). Our first sighting is a “Jesus Christ” lizard – so named because it “walks on water.” We don’t have any pictures because it is way too fast, but the thing really does walk (or I should say run) on water. Then we get our first crocodile sighting: Osama Bin Laden (all the croc’s have nick names). He’s the biggest and oldest croc here at over 20 feet and 85 years. Our pilot jumps out of the boat and starts whacking the water with a piece of chicken – and here comes Osama. Ready for his treat. Totally wild.
Oh, and that last picture? The pilot is actually just finished kissing Osama on the head. Better you than me Gunga Din.
We continue on down the river, which is quite beautiful, taking in the Yellow headed cara caras (hawks) playing – and fighting - on the river banks…
… and spotting the baby lizards on tree trunks – pictures of which did not work – and generally enjoying the scenery.
Then, of course, it is time for more crocodiles! Our next experience is with Pretty eye – who only has one eye – but still comes running – well, swimming – for snacks!
Next is Tornado, who is 19 feet and a ham – obviously – because he hangs out for us to take lots of pictures and this video of our pilot feeding him.
A little bit down river, we encounter another croc whose name I can’t recall, but she/he is really big and really old. Once again, the Pilot feeds him/her and we get to take lots of photos.
…explaining its brackishness.
Back to the minivan where our guide explains that he used to work here at Jose’s tours. So he is familiar with all the crocs and is impressed that we saw the Jesus lizard and the 2 big crocs. He said that was unusual all in one day. Ok – we’ll believe that (and really, he seemed very sincere).
Now we go to eat, but first the van driver takes a side road, driving really slowly down this sandy, rocky track toward the water. It dead ends with nothing there, and we turn around, as another van does the same thing. Ok. We drive a bit farther down the main road, past little houses and village stores, then turn down another road past a restaurant (which we figure is where we will eat). No….he’s still driving very slowly toward the beach, looking all around. Are we lost? What’s going on? Now we’ve got a line of cars behind us as well, which is just weird. We pass an ox drawn carriage…
…out in the middle of nowhere…still driving at 2 mph looking for what we haven’t a clue! Finally, the guide tells us they are looking for Macau birds. Oh, OK, we get it now. Too funny.
Since there were no birds to be found, we head to Lisa and Steve’s – the restuarant where we will have lunch. We are having Casada, which is a traditional Costa Rican style of food, with beans and rice. The word also means “married” which sort of fits, since all these foods are served together.
We spend a nice 45 minutes or so chatting and eating and enjoying the shade of the restaurant’s palapa hut. Then its time to move on to the scenic view point above Puntarenas and the river we were just cruising down. On the way, we finally spot a macau. Not sure if you can see it from these photos, so I added an arrow to one. It was far away, but with the naked eye it was still a most beautifully colored bird.
As we headed back down to the port area, we stopped on the side of the road to watch some more monkeys at play. There were tons of these guys in the trees, and we got to watch them hop about for a while. These are more aggressive than the monkeys we saw at the farm, so we all kept our distance. But it was nice to see them truly in the wild here.
For the last part of our tour, we drove through the town of Puntarenas for a little city tour. It’s a cute little town, with lots of restaurants, shops, etc. At the end of the road – literally – you can see off the coast the original “Alcatraz” – an island where that used to house a prison here.
Back at the pier, some of our gang choose to hop off and walk around the tourist stalls set up on the waterfront promenade. We decide to head back to the ship – it’s hot and we’re really not interested in any souvenirs. So back aboard we go to enjoy the air conditioned coolness of our room until we can stand on the balcony and watch a lovely sail away.
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