Day 17. 19.4.16. Lomas del Volcan – Canõ Negro Boat Tour. GT day # 4.

Up at 5.10 and out, I could hear the howler monkeys howling from my room. Saw them in the trees, but too dark and distant to shoot. Also saw parrots, bush turkeys again, hummingbirds, squirrels and lots of little and sometimes colourful birds too. Out till about 6.45, then to breaky and ready for Canõ Negro day tour.

Better one of trumpet flower, more had bloomed overnight, and the scent was delicious in the early morning.

Parrots in the tree.

Bush Turkeys, that have another name, Great Curassow.

We loaded onto a 22 seater, with Jovarni our driver and Jani our guide.

On the drive to Canõ Negro, Jani was full of information (unlike Omar).

Costa Rica has 300 Volcanoes, 100 within this mountain range, 200 in the Pacific Ocean. The volcanoes are a source of many things for Costa Rica including:

Geothermal Energy

Minerals – Silica for microchips

Hot springs, lots of spa type resorts around

Good soil

Rocks for roads.

We drove through San Carlos area towards the Nicaraguan Border. The area is mainly agricultural with high productivity in pineapples, yucca/cassava, oranges, lemons, dairying and beef. Costa Rica exports orange juice as their oranges grow green so are not viable as ‘eating’ oranges. 

We stopped at Iguana Restaurant again, the iguanas were not out on the pavement today, but across the road in the tree tops.

Iguana sunning in the treetops, with his old orange beard.

Some of the housing along the way.

In both Cuba and Costa Rica, there are many, many ‘living fences.’ Basically they plant a stick as a fence post and it grows. In parts of Cuba they used a cacti called “catch a nigger” – the fences were used to keep the slaves enclosed. Nasty looking fences they were too – I only just remembered today, when trying to get some photos of the living fences here in Costa Rica.

Living fence.

Living fence.

Soon after, we turned off the major road onto smaller roads for a ‘tropical massage’ needless to say it was quite rough.

Today we needed to bring our passports, we soon learnt why. This trip brings us within 25 minutes of Nicaraguan border and we may be checked at any time. It didn’t happen, but solved the mystery of passports.

On the journey into the river- Rio Frio, we saw some wildlife in the paddocks including; Great Egrets, Tri-colour Egret, Tiger Heron and Caiman.

Tri-colour Egret.

Living fence.

Tiger Heron.

Arrived at our destination for a snack – pancakes with honey and juice. 

View of the boats from El Caiman snack area. There were two boats, ours is the closer.

Bridge over the Rio Frio.

Rain Tree, with the pink flower.

Rain tree flower up close. Similar to the one we saw in Cuba too.

A tarantula crawling across the lawn at the restaurant.

A perfect hole in the palm nut, made by squirrels who use these hard nuts to keep their teeth in check. The teeth keep growing evidently.

Rain tree. I really liked this one.

Onto the boat and boy what a trip. We saw:

• Howler Monkeys – many. They were really vocal
• Rain Tree – with the soft pink flower.
• Spectacled Caiman
• Green Iguana
• Anhinga
• Little Blue Heron,
• Bassilisk (Jesus Christ) Lizard – green with blue spots
• Amazon Kingfisher
• STACKS of Spider Monkeys – a whole troop
• Nicaraguan Slider Turtle
• Ringed Kingfisher
• Jacana
• Social Flycatcher (our little yellow bird)
• Green Heron.

We cruised downriver for a couple of hours with many stops for the wildlife. Jesus, our driver was fantastic at manoeuvering the boat to everyone’s advantage. It was also good, as there were enough spare seats to move around and out onto the bow as needed. 

Heron - she called it the Snake Headed Heron, maybe it was also the Tri coloured Heron..

Same guy hanging out to dry.

Same

Howler Monkey

Just lazing around.

The river.

Howler again.

Literally hanging around.

Spectacled Caiman.

More of a Spectacled Caiman,

Two smaller caiman.

Green Iguana

Two Green Iguana, the greener ones have freshly shedded.

Two little blue headed swallows, they swooped in and around and under the boat all trip.

A Green Iguana.

One of the Herons.

Spider Monkeys.

Another one.

That most handy prehensile tail.

Running across the palm to next tree.

Literally running, at speed

Mother and baby.

Basilisk Lizard.

Another of the Herons

Nicaraguan Slider Turtle...

...sliding in

Me on the boat.

A Tri-coloured Heron again.

The bigger vista.

Jani was also excellent in sharing her knowledge. She was pretty excited by the sight of a Spider Monkey coming down to the river to drink, right beside the boat. She indicated they don’t need to drink from the river as they get water from the leaves and rainwater in the trees. I was excited to get some pictures of that too.

Spider Monkey, coming down to drink. A rare sight.

As you can imagine I took a stack of shots. I liked the reflection here.

Turning sideways.

Up in the trees.

and again. These guys in a troop were so entertaining.

Who is watching who?

Holding on with all FIVE appendages.

A Social Flycatcher.

Amazon Kingfisher.

Flying off.

Our driver, Jesus, was ever watchful, as were Margot and Glenda.

Jani - our Guide.

Trees and the canopy.

Another Green Iguana.

A Tri- Coloured Heron, this is why they are called Snake Headed Heron. He had caught a fish and now needed to manipulate it to swallow HEAD first. This required, throwing it up, losing it, recapturuing it and getting it the right way to go down the throat.

Bashing it dead, after losing it once.

Trying to get it head first.

Success. and down the chute it goes.

Jesus, ever watchful.

Spider Monkey lazing around.

Jeannie and I on the bow.

Here we all are, very happy with an excellent day out.

Great Egret.

Blue Heron...maybe.

Green Heron...Maybe.

Caiman, sunning on the bank.

They were quite big buggers.

Living fence.

There are many viscious speed humps all over CR, Caught a sign on the way home.

Country living...with Satellite dish.

Satellite dish here too.

Sugar Refinery.

Living fences, strip feeding?

We arrived home at about 3.45, time for a drink, a wander around the gardens (hoping, but not successful in hunt for Hummingbirds). Dinner at 7 and bed.

That bird again.

The male of the bird.