Now We Have Time To Travel

This morning the rainforest sounds awakened us about 0530.  Butch got up and showered and went for a walk down by the ocean.  I laid in bed, savoring the peacefulness I felt as I listened (with my one good ear!) to the wonderful oropendola and other birds.  Suddenly, that peace and quiet was interrupted by what I thought was a big barking dog.  I couldn't imagine first why someone would bring a dog to this quiet paradise and secondly why they weren't shutting it up.  The din finally drove me out of bed and into the shower.  Butch came hurrying into the room and asked me if I heard it -- like I could miss it!  He said there were howler monkeys in the trees right behind our rooms and they were making the noise.  I threw on some shoes and went out to see and hear them, so exciting.  I read later that they don't seem to mind people but if they do get annoyed with you, they might defecate on you from up in the tree --- and they have amaz...

Today was all about Tortuguero National Park and the Tortuguero village. After breakfast, the entire group boarded 3 open air boats and glided through some of the canals and waterways of the protected wetlands around Tortuguero.  Each boat had a local driver and guide -- our guide was Donnie and he was great! The first thing we saw was a small pod of Bottlenose dolphins.  Even though they are salt water mammals, they come into the lagoon in the early morning to feed.  They were heading back out to the Caribbean. We followed them to the place where the two waters meet but our flat-bottomed boats couldn’t go into the ocean, so we turned around and headed into the Tortuguero waterways.  I wasn't able to get a great picture of them because you never knew when or where they were going to surface, but there appeared to be about 4 of them swimming together.  Bottlenose Dolphins We had to stop to register and get tickets at the park entrance.  ...