Puntarenas, Costa Rica

May 3, 2023

Our trip is winding down, and today we took our last planned shore excursion. This was another independent tour. About 34 of us were on the tour arranged by one of our fellow cruisers. This tour was jam packed with activity and all of it could be gotten to with short walks only. That turned out to be a godsend because it was incredibly hot and humid. In the afternoon, it was over 100 degrees and the humidity around 85%.

The tour was provided by Ricky Ricardo tours in Costa Rica. The organizer had done this tour many times with Ricky and said we would love it. She was correct. Our group was divided between two very nice vehicles and our guide was Ricky himself. On a side note, Ricky’s wife is named Lucy. Really.

We started out with the usual drive through the city before we headed out to find monkeys in their native habitat. Puntarenas is a small town which runs on fishing and hasn’t really been gussied up for tourists.

Driving along the coastline, we headed on our way.

We turned off onto a narrow dirt road. Ricky told us to watch for the Capuchin monkeys, but warned us that we probably wouldn’t see one by the side of the road. The mango trees were covered in ripe fruit and that is what the monkeys love to eat and where they’d be. I did glimpse one along the way. We stopped in front of a building at the end of the road. There were mango trees and, in them, many monkeys. I think this was a small business/rehab center, however all the the monkeys were free roaming. They came and went as they pleased. They were friendly if you let them approach you first. Evidently the alpha male, who wasn’t around, could be quite aggressive.

The owners of the business brought peanuts out and, those who wanted could feed the animals. A person would hold the peanuts in their hand and the monkey would scamper over to get it. This is an example.

Brian took a turn, too.

One woman was trying to take a selfie with a monkey on the tree behind her. This happened.

The monkeys were everywhere.

This visit was an amazing start to our tour!

Ricky had another friend nearby with the type of trees macaws liked to visit. The benefits of this tour were rapidly becoming apparent. No large buses could have gone where we did.

The owner of the property welcomed us in and she, and her adorable son, led us around. There were a number of macaws high in the tress putting on quite a display. Unfortunately, my camera lens wasn’t strong enough and the sun was in the wrong place, so I couldn’t get a picture of them. The family had rescued a macaw that had fallen out of the nest and was injured. They nursed it back to health and it hangs around now. It is also free roaming and does fly away, but it always comes back.

It was time for a bathroom break, so we went to a very large souvenir store with clean restrooms. I’ve found that there usually is a souvenir store wherever we stop to use the toilets. However, this one was large and well organized with anything you might want to purchase, from beautiful woodwork to coffee. As a bonus, there were no high pressure sales.

Before our next adventure, we made a very welcome stop at a fruit stand run by, yet again, another of Ricky’s friends and his family. There was cut up mango, watermelon, pineapple, and papaya. If we asked about any of the other fruit in the market, samples were freely given. There is nothing quite like the taste of fruit right off the tree.

It was now time to go look for crocodiles. We were going on a Jungle Crocodile Safari tour. We all loaded on to a, thankfully, covered boat and went motoring up the Tarcoles River. The shade and cool breeze felt wonderful! We had a guide and a driver who both knew the river quite well. Our guide pointed out the multiple kinds of birds while our driver, Jose, kept a lookout for crocodiles. He spotted a number right from the boat. However, when he wanted to attract a particular crocodile, Jose would mimic the call of a baby croc or jump onto the shore and beat on the ground like this:

Here he was trying to attract the alpha crocodile, Mike Tyson. All of the crocodiles have names that were given to them by locals. Mike is about 90 years old and weighs 1100 pounds.

He was big!

We saw other quite large crocodiles, too.

This one wasn’t quite as long as Mike Tyson.

A few years ago, the tour operators fed the crocodiles but that is no longer allowed. They fend for themselves.

We saw other wildlife, too.

The river cruise lasted about an hour and, before we headed back to the dock, we went down to the mouth of the river on the Pacific Ocean.

Now it was time for lunch at Restaurant Vista Mar. The meal was included with the tour and we were offered a choice of sea bass, chicken, shrimp and rice, or hamburger and fries. Everyone was given watermelon juice to drink. Brian chose sea bass and I had chicken.

We were seated outside on a covered patio and, while the food was delicious, it was very hot. Periodically, we’d get a breeze from the beach which felt wonderful!

The final stop of the tour took us up a mountain for a scenic view and, maybe, some toucans. I think it was way too hot for the birds, but the view was lovely.