White faced monkeys

What a great day.

There are 4 species of monkey in Costa Rica, and we’ve already met 3 (though I failed to get any photos of the howlers) and lots of other things.

The day started early, but we were awake anyway, so actually it worked fine for us. E, our CEO (Chief Experience Officer) is half Costa Rican, half Jamaican, and has shown himself to be competent and knowledgeable. Including him, we are a group of 15.

We drove out of San Jose and up into the Braulio Carrillo National Park – a cloud forest. It was raining. After traversing that, we stopped for breakfast.  I photographed a bird which I think was a great-tailed grackle. 

Soon after setting off, several buses and cars parked at the side of the road alerted our driver to the probability of something to see – and indeed there were two sloths slumbering in a tree.

We drove on, arriving at La Pavona, where we left the bus and embarked on a boat. We meandered gently down the river – spotting much wildlife – birds, including herons, egrets and kingfishers, reptiles, including iguana, green basilisk and a little turtle, species unknown, and howler monkeys.

We reached our lodgings, in Tortuguera National Park, for the next couple of nights just in time for lunch.

After lunch we set off back to the boat, but before even leaving the lodge grounds, E pointed out a spider monkey in a tree.

Back on the boat, another meandering journey, during which we came across this troupe of white faced monkeys. They were posturing and threatening – there was another group on the opposite bank of the river.

We stopped at the sea turtle conservancy, to learn a little about its work. Sadly, it’s the wrong time of year to see turtles nesting or hatching, we have to make do with film and photos.

From there, we walked down to Tortuguera village, and had a wander, before the boat picked us up and returned us to the Lodge. By the time we got there, it was fully dark.

We’ve had dinner, and are all retiring early, because we have another early start tomorrow – E assures me that not every day will start at 0600! – and another action packed day to look forward to.