Tuesday 7th April
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Puntarenas is a port on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It is situated on a four mile isthmus. We arrived early this morning and the temperature was already very high. After leaving the ship there was a long pier to walk along and we spotted some rays swimming by the pier. We joined a minibus tour to see some of the local area and wildlife. We drove further around the bay to a wooded area near the beach where we first of all saw a type of raccoon and then we saw a small group of white faced monkeys. The photo shows three of them sitting in a tree. These three were looking down at us but others were just flopped over the branches. They were very sweet looking. We travelled on to a bridge over a river where we could look down to see a large group of crocodiles. Some were swimming in the river while others were on the river bank. Some of the crocodiles on the bank had their mouths open to help them to cool down. We drove through the very large grounds of a hotel resort and had a good view down to the sea and also the river. The next place we stopped was another wooded area near a beach. We had to wait for a cart pulled by two oxen to move out of the way before we could drive along the track there. We were here to find some macaws. A lovely Canadian couple invited all our group into their garden as the macaws were in their trees. It was a really gorgeous garden with a lovely traveller's palm at the end of the swimming pool. Above us in the trees we could see four macaws. They were very beautiful and extremely noisy. Two of them were pecking at each other but we were told they were just playing. After a while the birds flew away and after thanking our hosts we returned to the bus and drove back to the ship.