Costa Rica Day 5: March 28

Howler monkeys woke us up at 5:00 with their deep, guttural woofing. When we saw them eating the previous day, they had been quiet. I was thrilled that we got to hear the calls. Check that off the list. At 5:45, the troop of capuchins moved through, dropping pods all over the place.

We were up at the Lodge promptly at 6:00 for breakfast. Tebs told us that the hot breakfast choices included huervos rancheros with “mashy beans,” a phrase that struck me as being quintessentially British. Nigella Lawson says stuff like that all the time. I also recognized it as a life-changing moment. I may never refer to refried beans again.

We met our guide for the day, Randall, at 6:30. Diane and Tom knew Randall from previous trips, and knew that he was very good. We boarded the boat and took off for the mangrove forest. We hadn’t gotten far before Randall pointed out some bird activity in the distance and directed our captain, Edwardo, to take the boat to it. It was a school of sardines. Sandwich terns, royal terns, brown boobies, and brown pelicans were busy picking them off by diving in the water while frigate birds swooped overhead, stealing fish from the other birds. When we were above the school of sardines, we could see skipjack tuna cruising through the smaller fish. I could only infer that the sardines weren’t having a good day.

Brown pelican, left, and brown boobies fishing for sardines

We rode the surf up the Sierpe River into a 30,000 acre mangrove reserve, the largest in Costa Rica. We saw many wondrous things. Randall had an amazing ability to see wildlife. “There! In the top of that tree! There is a pair of sloths. They just mated.”

Mangroves

Female sloth with algae-covered fur

How did he know that? He went on to explain that the males and females are only seen together at mating time. The female finds the male through vocalization and pheromones. I wonder what a sloth call sounds like. Randall correctly predicted that the male would stay in the top of the tree while the female moved off to find her own territory. Paradoxically, she moved very slowly, but I found it impossible to get a video. The algae growing on her fur made it nearly impossible to find her on the video screen. I had better success through the still picture function.

So many birds! The snowy egret has yellow feet and black tarsus. It stands in the mud and wriggles its toes. Fish can’t see the black legs and think that the toes are worms.

Snowy egret. Note yellow feet and darker legs. This is a juvenile whose legs are not as dark as they will be as an adult

We had seen juvenile Jesus Christ lizards everywhere along streams in the rainforest. We saw our first mature pair in the mangroves. The male had a characteristic crest on his head.

Jesus Christ male with head crest

Just before lunch, we stopped at the tiny town of Sierpe for a bathroom break. Despite its size, it is the closest town to a road in these parts. All of the supplies--gas, food, beverages, everything--for the ecotourist resorts, including La Paloma, come into this town and are moved by boat to the resorts.

"Downtown" Sierpe, the terminus of the nearest road to Drake Bay. Yes, it does say "Las Vegas" on the sign.

I think perhaps the best thing would be to just go with pictures and captions for the rest of our tour.

Little green heron

Purple galino

Scarlet macaw pair

Tiger heron

Scarlet macaw eating fruit

Great egret

Caimen

Squirrel monkey

Julie and Andy, a very nice couple from the D.C. area, had been with us on our tours. They invited us over to their ranchero at 5:00 to see the toucans that seemed to be there every day. Indeed, one showed up right on schedule.

Toucan