Animal Explorers - Sierpe

Maggie, "Today I woke up earlier than usual...we had to hike up the mountain to the car.  (We feared the car would not make it up the hill due to the rain)  I was kinda grouchy by the time we reached the car, but I kept it to myself.  Then we started the LONG drive to the mangrove tour place.  We got settled and we were the only ones on the tour other than the guides.  We saw so many amazing things like squirrel and capuchin monkeys, an alligator, iguanas, and so much more!"

Jonah was eager to get his hands on the guide's
binoculars.  It didn't matter to him whether he
was looking in the right end.  Actually, we
couldn't convince him to turn them around.

Rather than taking us to the mangroves, we
motored up and down a couple of rivers.  The
kids scoured the creature identifier fold outs.

They pulled the boat over to a guava tree
on the side of the river and pick some for
us to try and for them to take home.  Yum (-ish)

They also grabbed a few coconuts.  They
popped one open with a machete for us
to share. 

A small caiman hiding beneath some palms.

An intrepid explorer braving the blinding
sun, and roasting heat.  We all sweat almost
constantly, but so do the Costa Ricans.

We saw some beautiful herons (right) and macaws (left.)  It was so exciting to see these gorgeous birds in the wild.  Macaws are so neat because you almost always see them in pairs.  They can live 40 to 50 years for and they mate for life.  The story goes that if one dies then it's mate will follow within a couple months.  

This Capuchin did not seem happy to see us.  After a little while it couldn't make up it's mind. 

Tessa, "One of my favorite things was the monkey hissing and then tilting his head upside down, looking at us funny, then him hissing again and then repeating it"

Look closely, very closely, there are two
small boas sitting on a branch together about
half way between the top and Maggie's head.
The guides must know that these are here all the
time because I don't see how they could have
spotted them from the river.  

Max, "The first thing we saw was a lizzard, lazying on a branch.  It was more than a foot long.  Some highlights were a Capuchin monkey that was in the wild and dangerous, it growled and bared it's teeth, some snakes that looked like they hadn't moved in weeks, a caiman that is like a crocodile but half the size, and when coming back a giant full size crocodile that moved into the water and disappeared in spectacular camouflage.  This was an interesting experiment."