Sunday March 14th off to Sarapiqui River cruise

Off quite early today to cross the continental divide and descend toward the Caribbean to arrive at the Sarapiqui River for a 2 hour river cruise. Drifted quietly downstream in a large riverboat, listening for monkeys resting curled high up in the trees, we only saw them from afar as the trees they chose were very high, they were howler monkeys, but they rest when it's warm, and feed in the early morning apparently. We saw caimans, small crocodiles, resting on the muddy riverbanks, their camoflage is very good. It was a surprise to see whole families of local people swimming in the green opaque river, when there are also caimans and crocodiles there.

We also saw anhinga birds, which looked like cormorants, a pretty kingfisher, some white cattle egrets, and a row of bats sleeping in a vertical line on a tree trunk, with very good camoflage.
The driver of the boat together with our guide and the paramedic were very good at spotting things in the trees and along the riverbank. The water moved along quite rapidly, but the boat was quite powerful. It was pretty peaceful as we quietly motored along, and it was interesting to see all the smallish houses along the top of the riverbank. We saw a few large iguanas laying out on river logs, or over the banks of the rivers, mostly on fallen trees or the like.

When we got back to land we had lunch cooked over a wood fire, it was delicious, very satisfying, we tasted breadfruit for the first time, drank juice, and were very satisfied by the meal. Typical costa rican fare is black beans and rice, their staples, but we had tons of things besides that. Chicken, plantain bananas, it was all so tasty.

The restaurant is a roof forming a shelter, and long tables and chairs under that. An elderly man played the marimba for us while we ate lunch, he used 4 sticks and was pretty talented. There was a small gift shop. They called it a ranch where we ate, and took the riverboat. The flowering vegetation there is so pretty, my favourite was long pinkish flowering trumpets, but so many plants have flowers or pretty reddish leaves. There is a huge flower producing industry in the country. We drove through the Braulio Carillo National Park. The bouganvilla flower grows in bushes, small shrubs or huge walls of bright fuschia pink, or an orange color.

On the way home the driver stopped at the most wonderful farm fruit stand, the farmers served us all kinds of new fruits that they had, we bought a kilo of wee bananas, very sweet, the size of your middle finger. We tried papaya and mango, also oranges, and some people bought fruit right from the stand as we did. So many tropical fruits it boggles the mind, watermelon and other melons grown right there, an orange fruit with black fleshy seeds in it, some other mystery fruits. All local produce and available in stands right at the side of the road.

Ate dinner at Denny's.