Mommy, Mommy! We went on a Safari today!
In America, they have record snowstorms; in Costa Rica, scorpions, crocodiles, iguanas, monkeys, and snakes. But luckily, only the scorpions are allowed inside. (For the record, we’ve now been here 10 days, and the score is: Creepy Critters In Our Home: 0; Wayne: 3.)
Palo Verde National Park is a 75,000 acre preserve in the Guanacaste (northwestern) region of the country. To get there from our place: Drive south for 1 hour over the terrible gravel roads, turn left at the Del Monte cantaloupe distribution center, pass by the oxen-driven carts hauling sand from the river (wave to the hard working sand farmers), go through towns with “houses” you can’t even imagine living in (the one above is a “nice” house; the bad ones were so bad I couldn’t bear to ask the people hanging out on their “porches” if I could take a picture), then continue through the woods, and sure enough ~ you’ll come to Rio Tempisque!
We went on a cruise up and down a river looking at birds, monkeys, iguanas, bats, and crocs. Nice…
These three guys here, for instance, were all in the same tree. The snowy egret is in no danger from the orange iguana. The orange guy (no relation to John Boehner) is an herbivore, and only interested, at the moment, in the green lady on the left. When male iguanas are orange it’s like them putting on cologne. Get my drift? He’s hoping she’s got the drift.
These, left, are BATS, hanging out for the day (finding bats is a bonus, they told us). On the right is a tiger heron. They are one of the only animals that can control the crocodile population around here. No, of course they’re not EATING the crocs, they eat the crocodile eggs. They got the name “tiger” because of their coloring.
So tonight, I taught myself how to turn my little Sony camera videos into a movie. I shot the video below from our boat (sit down if you feel seasick!). Have I mentioned the monkeys yet? Don’t stop till you see the sweet little guy lickin’ his fingers at the end!
Enjoy! In the jungle
(Meanwhile, time for me to get
back to writing!)