Tortuguero Jungle Cruise (by John)

In our last episode the dynamic duo had just checked into their cabin in the rain forest. In this episode they undertake two equally dangerous endeavors – the all-inclusive buffet lunch and a jungle cruise into the depths of the tributaries of Tortuguero National Park. The former was actually a perfectly adequate, by Costa Rican culinary standards, buffet lunch. Self-serve water, juice de jour and coffee provided hydration for our upcoming sit-in-a-boat excursion. Lunch, like every meal, included rice and beans along with typical buffet fare – salad of sorts, bread, veggies and two meat dishes. Our lunch dessert for day one was Tres Leches Cake.

[Footnote: Cindy is actually quite fond of Tres Leches Cake, especially the delicious variety made by Leo and his wife while Cindy worked at COOP Financial Services.] John on the other hand …

Do you like Tres Leches Cake? (by John)

I do not like it for Christ’s sake. I do not like Tres Leches Cake. Would you like it here or there? I would not like it here or there. I did not like it in Tortuguer’. I do not like Tres Leches Cake. I do not like it for Christ’s sake. It’s all soggy like a bog. I would not feed it to my dog. As if dos leches weren’t enough. They had to add more “lechy” stuff. [from Cindy – I guess we know how John feels about this dessert!]

I make it a point never to order a “philly” steak at a horse track and, as a corollary, never order a dessert with “leeches” in its name while in the rain forest. Sage advice. You’re welcome.

Anyway, back to our story. After our perfectly adequate, by Costa Rican culinary standards, lunch, we had a little time before our boat tour, the first of three excursions included in our basic two-night, three-day package. I took advantage of the free time to shoot a few photos around the lodge using my macro lens.

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When 2:30 rolled around we headed to the dock to embark on our boat excursion. Dockside, we were greeted by our guide, Bernardo. Two other couples would join us. (The nice young people we sat with at breakfast, and the Spanish-speaking couple from our van ride early this morning, all staying at our lodge.) The boat arrived with a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be Tico Nick (okay I embellished that last part a bit). I have no idea what our driver’s name was but his ability to spot wildlife was truly amazing. The boat was smaller that the one we rode in on, easier to maneuver through the smaller river tributaries. It also did not have a roof to provide shelter from the sun and rain like our transport boat. The lack of a roof, however, provided an unimpeded view up into the trees.

We headed out and, before long, encountered our first wildlife sighting. I quickly identified it as a bird. Our guide said it was an Anhinga – a relative to the cormorant. Technically, I think we were equally correct. The official bird list published by the Costa Rican Rare Birds and Records Committee of the Asociación Ornitológica de Costa Rica (AOCR) contains 919 species as of November 2018. We checked off bird number one and proceeded on our way.

The next wildlife encountered were Capuchin monkeys. They are one of three types of monkeys we encountered on our trip. The other two were howler monkeys and spider monkeys. Capuchin monkeys are extremely cute, that is until they urinate and/or worse onto your boat from the trees above. We were warned on multiple occasions to open our mouths at our own risk.

Shooting photos of wildlife in the wild is not easy, not like at the zoo. Animals tend to be obstructed by limbs, leaves, etc. Sharp contrasts between sun and shade and shooting from a rocking boat all pose problems. Shooting with a large lens and having essential tremor only magnifies the problems. Thus, many of my photos were blurred, overexposed and underexposed. Were it not for the magic of Adobe Lightroom, many of these photos would have been left on the digital cutting room floor.

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Our next wildlife encounter was with long-nosed bats. This encounter was of special significance for both of us. The Pestotniks feel a kinship with anything long-nosed while the Hewetts are all about bats. No less than 6 members on the Hewett side of the family have undergone rabies shots for potential bat encounters, 5 in the last 6 months. So many that Cindy must now, when filling out medical history forms, include that as a medical risk that runs in her family.

We saw quite a number of Basilisks throughout the boat excursion. I’m not certain how many varieties we saw. They are also know as the Jesus Christ lizard because of their ability to run across the top of the water when they are threatened. No lizards were threatened as a part of our excursion so we didn’t see any water walking. One lizard was kind enough to heal the leper aboard our craft though so we felt pretty good about that.

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We did see our first Sloth during the excursion. I was unable to get a good photo but we are pretty sure it was alive. It moved a claw once during our 15 minute viewing. Sloths purportedly only descend from trees once a week for a much needed bathroom break. I’ve heard it’s of epic proportion.

I was thrilled to see Toucans during our adventure. Sloths and Toucans were two of the must-see items on my bucket list. For all of the aforementioned photography challenges mentioned previously it was difficult to get a close-up, in-focus shot of a Toucan. The photo below is the best I could do.

We’d already seen Caiman on the boat ride into the lodge so we were fortunate to see this little guy – a small crocodile taking a swim.

All-in-all the boat tour was a great excursion. Did I mention we did this on my 60th birthday? Upon arriving back at the hotel we promptly retreated to the bar to celebrate our mini-vacation and my 60th birthday. I started with with my traditional first drink of the vacation, a piña colada  replete with rum and a tilde. Cindy enjoyed a margarita. Our friendly bartender then regaled me with a complementary, mas grande shot of tequila with all the fixins’ (2 lime wedges and salt). Then it was off to dinner and our next adventure of the day / night (the Green Sea Turtle excursion at the beach). Stay tuned for the next exciting episode as told by Cindy.