The Tempisque River originates in the uplands of Costa Rica and Nicaraugua, draining from volcanoes down the the Pacific to its estuary near the Palo Verde National Park. We took a boat tour with David as our tour guide, and he and our boat captain maneuvered us close to monkeys, crocodiles, iguanas, and many lovely birds.
The drive from Los Almenos to Palo Verde is about 1.5 hours, and the roads are challenging as you pass deep into agricultural lands of rice, sugar cane, canteloupes, and cattle. The boat dock is on a side tributary to the Tempisque, and shows the huge tidal fluctuation of the estuary--greater than ten feet high to low.
As we entered the main channel of the Tempisque, we say many egrets--the most numerous bird around on this trip:
Herons of various colors and sizes were also plentiful--boat-billed (seen but unable to capture a picture), blue, juvenile great blues, adult great blues, green herons--they were fishing the shoreline avoiding crocodiles.:
The crocodiles were there also--such as the one at the top of the blog--and another swimming in the middle of the river:
We were fiortunate to first encounter a large group of white-faced Capuchin monkeys, who climbed all over our boat (and us):
We also saw Howler Monkeys (which actually roar), but kept our distance from these territorial animals which will fling poop at you if you get too close. These were eating some white fruit in the treetops.
Iguana's were plentiful, from this nearly grey one high in tree foliage...
To tan ones to orange ones:
We also saw a group of bats hanging in a line on a tree--mimicking a snake, we were told.
Tomorrow is another day at the beach!
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