Costa Rica: Road Trip 2-Playa Verde

As we arrived at Palo Verde, our guide, Juan Carlos, had just finished telling us about the education system in Costa Rica. In 1945 the president decided there was no need for Costa Rica to have an army. He felt the money being spent on an army could be better spent on education. Because of that decision, ninety five percent of the people in Costa Rica today are able to read and write. Everyone is required to go to school through eleven grades and the government provides all materials as well as uniforms. They are taught Spanish as the main language but then must choose either English or French as a second language. Juan said the boys choose English and the girls choose French since it is sexier.

The first thing we saw as we arrived at Palo Verde was a long bridge extending across the river. It looked like two different bridges that had been joined together.

Very soon our river chariot arrived.

We all got aboard and our captain headed out on to the river. Almost immediately we saw a crocodile relaxing in the mud along the shore.

With my telephoto lens, I was able to get pretty close.

And a little closer to another one,

And a little closer,

And really “up close and personal” to this one.

We saw a total of twenty five crocodiles. They are all salt water crocodiles since this water is a combination of fresh and salt water.

In addition to the crocodiles we saw lots of other animals and birds.

For example, we were boating along and Juan had the captain of the boat stop and told us to look up into the tree. Nobody saw anything. Juan tried to tell us where to look. Nobody saw anything. Finally, Juan took out a mirror and directed the ray of sunlight into the crotch of this tree. There it was—an anteater asleep. With my telephoto lens I was able to capture this picture.

You have to look close at the picture to see him and I don't know how Juan was able to pick him out at all in that tree.

We traveled further down the river. This was a beautiful river ambling through the mangroves.

Juan showed us how these mangroves actually “walk”. That is, they sprout new roots closer to the water and discard the old. You can actually see their tracks in the soil along the side of the water.

We traveled further.

Juan had the captain stop the boat again. This time he got out the mirror right away and pointed to this tree trunk.

It was covered with bats. These are called "Long Nose Bats" and are the only mammal that flies. I was able to get up really close with the lens of the camera--ugly little guys.

As we traveled further along the river we saw many, many different kinds of birds. There were several species of Herons—Blue Heron, Green Heron, and Tri-color Heron, for example.

We saw what Juan called the “croc eater”. It is the bird the crocodiles fear the most because it eats their eggs.

We also saw a number of Osprey eagles. They are great fishermen. Every time we saw one it had just caught a fish and was taking it home or it was getting ready to catch something. They are the only bird that can rotate their “hands” like humans which helps them when they catch a fish and immediately go airborne with it.

One of the most colorful birds we saw was the Rosetta Spoonbill. It has a bill shaped like a spoon and moves it’s head back and forth using it’s bill to collect small objects from the water.