December 11 (Friday) was spent at sea. I took a few pics, but nothing worth posting.
Saturday, we got up at about 7:00 and looked out the window to see that we were approaching the port of Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We watched the approach to the dock for a few minutes then headed for breakfast. We had to be in the Bordeaux dining room, where we have dinner most nights, at 9:00 to get organized for our all-day shore excursion. We boarded a 50+ passenger bus at 9:30 and began our 1 1/2 hour drive to get on a river boat in the Tarcoles River.
There, we spent about 90 minutes cruising the Guacalillo Estuary and the mangrove swamp where we saw lots of crocodiles, birds, iguanas. Many of the birds we saw we have also seen in Florida, like the Anhinga, Wood Stork, White Ibis, Osprey, Crested Caracara and several more. When we got back to shore, we had a snack of several native fruits and juices. Before reboarding the bus and heading for the Rain Forest Adventures located in Pacific Park Jaco, a protected area.
When we arrived, we had lunch in the jungle. Then we boarded the tram for an hour long trip up to the rainforest canopy. It was very interesting to see the changes in the forest as we climbed up through the various levels of the forest.
We saw fig vines that were hundreds of feet long. The monkeys and birds eat the figs and deposit the seeds up in the trees. The seeds germinate and grow toward the ground, getting their nutrients from the sun, rain, and air. Once the vine reaches the ground, it develops roots and starts to grow, often killing the host tree by robbing nutrients and shading it from the sun.
After the tram ride, we went on a nature walk that included a butterfly garden and various animals. One really cool thing was the leaf ants. You've probably seen them on nature shows. The ants chew off pieces of leaves and small plant parts and carry them back to their nest. There were several colonies of them on our walk.
