Honeymoon Day 5 (5/11/11): River tour

On Wednesday of our trip, we started early in anticipation of another trip through Tours Your Way. We were going on a river boat tour, excited to see crocodiles and monkeys up close in the wild (at least Tim was excited, for sure). After a quick, early breakfast, we headed to the front gate for a 7:30 pick-up. We were pleased to see Elvis was going to be our guide again, although Carlos had the day off. Tim enjoyed seeing Elvis wearing a Bulls t-shirt, after they had talked about a shared interest in the championship teams of Jordan and Pippen on Monday.

Just away from the Riu, Elvis pointed out a cashew tree that had a single fruit hanging from it (it was well after the prime season).

Cashew treeCashew fruitThe nut/seed is encased and hanging under the fruit. According to Elvis, they are expensive in the area. Further down the road we were slowed down by some cattle being taken to water….right down the middle of the road.

Cows in Guanacaste roadWe drove towards Elvis’ hometown of Filadelfia, which he spoke fondly of. The Tempisque River runs near it. Elvis drove on a ridge along the river, telling us about workers that were shoveling silt from the bottom of the river into wagons pulled by cattle. It looked like a hot, tiresome job. We pulled into Filadelfia for a quick stop. While Elvis went to the grocery for some supplies, we walked around the Central Park.

Filadelfia Central ParkSurprisingly, to us, the park was the home/sanctuary for a bunch of 3-foot long and bigger iguanas. They were everywhere, almost like squirrels. From up in the trees…

Filadelfia tree iguana…to on the sidewalk…

Filadelfia walking iguana…and chomping on mangos even while getting sprayed by sprinklers.

Eating + showering iguanaAfter leaving Filadelfia, Elvis saw several Howler monkeys, like we had on Monday.

Mantled howler monkeyBut they didn’t care for any car horn honking! (haha…)

We drove into Ortego to the tour operating center, Palo Verde Boat Tours for a bathroom break and for Elvis to coordinate with other tour guides for a shared boat trip. From there we caravaned to the river, driving on unpaved back roads to a private ‘dock’ on the river.

Tempisque River dockThe three of us were the last ones on a tour boat, which had several other small groups on it. As we took off, one of the guides did the majority of talking about the river and area while the boat captain would find animals and point them out by reflecting sunlight with a mirror. It wasn’t long before we understood why the guides said his nickname was “Eagle Eyes.” Just after starting several groups of iguanas were spotted along the side of the river.

Iguanas on Tempisque shoreWe saw some white-faced monkeys, but it was after seeing this one that the captain pulled to the side and a guide tied us to a tree.

White-faced capuchin monkeyIt didn’t take long for several monkeys to scamper onto the boat, looking for handouts. Elvis is to the right, in this picture, in his black Bulls shirt. Eagle Eye is next to Janie in the picture, with a dark hat on. Notice the coolers that each guide, including Elvis, brought on board with ‘supplies’, including water that we were grateful for.

The monkey is on a boat!This little guy stayed between Janie and Tim’s feet, getting several banana pieces to munch on.

Monkeys like bananasThis monkey perched right behind Tim, with another checking out the tourists from afar.

More monkeys!

But, he wouldn’t wait around for a joint photo-op. 🙁

Monkeys weren't always photogenicThey sure weren’t shy about taking food from Tim.

Or hopping on the guy in front of Janie.

Monkeys weren't afraid to hop on peopleThis monkey even ate while perched on a personEventually the monkeys ran off the boat and we moved along. We came upon more iguanas on the shore, which one guide tossed some bananas. This big lizard snapped most of them up.

More Tempisque shore iguanasWe saw this bird several times, which is known for eating baby crocodiles – their only predator (aside from other crocodiles).

This bird eats baby crocodiles(see it on the tree root over the water?). The Tempisque River means backwards-flowing (or something similar), a reference to the inland-flow of the river when the tide is high, like it was while we were on the boat.

The Tempisque RiverSince the river was at high tide, we were only expecting to see a few crocodiles swimming, which we did. Then this guy was spotted and he showed an interest in us.

Something tells me it has experienced chicken bits tossed into the river before.
An approaching crocodileThe crocodile stayed at our boat for a while, tempted by the tasty morsels tossed his way, giving all us tourists plenty of great photo-ops.

Crocs can jump!Crocs can doggy paddleDoes he want it?Coming at ya!Crocodile side profileSwimming croc

The guides mentioned several times there are about 100 crocodiles every mile of the river!! We are sure that there were many more crocodiles that saw us than we saw. The day got nicer, and warmer, when the sun came out.

The Tempisque RiverCan you spot the crocodile closer to the river bank, below?

Croc near shoreThis gnarled tree provided an interesting foreground.

Gnarled Tempisque treeAnother of the many large birds we saw hunting along the river’s edge.

Hungry birdThis family of resting howler monkeys wasn’t too interested in howling at us.

Family of howler monkeysThis is an Oriole nest – a relative of the Baltimore species.

Oriole bird nestAnother croc! This one was taking a siesta and ignored us.

Sleeping crocThese bats were spotted on a tree hanging over the river. Another tourist on the boat went up front by them and was looking close when they all flew off, almost scaring him into the river! It was funny (to us).

Sleeping batsAfter finishing the 2-hour boat tour, Elvis took our picture.

After the boat tourA short drive from the dock, several macaws were spotted high in the tree tops.

Scarlet macawsFrom there, it was back to the Palo Verde Boat Tours headquarters, which also had a restaurant, for lunch. Once again we had an enjoyable lunch, eating local “typical” fare.

Lunch stopAfter lunch, Elvis dropped us back off at the Riu around 2pm. We had a great time on this tour also – maybe enjoying it more than the first due to less time in a car. The only negative was sharing the boat with some other tourists that weren’t as considerate as they could have been. Elvis was really enjoyable to talk with! From other reviews Tim had read on TripAdvisor, it sounds like all of the guides with Tours Your Way are excellent, but we still felt lucky he was with us. And, we were definitely happy we did personal tours rather than hopping on large buses with a bunch of other tourists at the resort.

Back at the Riu, we re-applied sunscreen and went down to the pool for some shady relaxation and swimming. That evening we tried the Italian restaurant. This restaurant was ‘a la cart’ – we could order one of several main dishes and also had a buffet area with a wide variety of food. Tim got a stuffed chicken dish which was excellent.

Stuffed chicken at the Riu Italian restaurantAnd Janie got a seafood risotto dish that she liked but wished there was more risotto and less seafood (especially the mussels).

Seafood risotto at the Riu Italian restaurantWe liked the Italian restaurant better than the Chinese restaurant. After dinner we walked back to the shops near the resort and looked in each, finding a few souvenirs we planned to return and buy. We also stopped at the photography shop and looked at the ‘professional’ pool photos from Sunday. There were a handful we liked, but overall we weren’t sure. We figured maybe we can have some taken on the beach and then we would return to look at those. And with that, we were ready to crash, with plans for relaxing the next day.

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