Costa Rica July 2021 - Day 6

July 11, 2021 

(Teri)  Yea!  It’s my birthday!  I love birthdays!  Mark always makes them extra special. 

This morning our driver, Steven, picked us up at 6 am.  We had a 2 1/2-hour drive to Caño Negro.  We were supposed to leave at 8 am but got a message the night before to be ready at 6 due to weather.  On the way Steven stopped for some birding and we saw some great birds.

We passed by huge fields of aloe.

Sugar cane is also a major crop here.

A breakfast of different fruits was ready for us when we arrived.

After breakfast, our boat and driver were waiting for us. 

It seemed like a big boat for just the two of us, Steven, and our driver, but it was nice to be able to move around to get good looks at the birds. 

We returned to the dock at 11:30 for lunch.  

It was really good.

While eating lunch it started pouring down rain.

We were glad we got out 2 hours earlier than planned.  We would have been caught on the river in this downpour if we had left later.

I had seen a very large souvenir shop and Mark asked Steven if we could stop on the way back to Arenal for a few minutes.

The place was enormous but I was able to find some really nice souvenirs quickly.  The cashiers were quick to wrap everything up and we were back on the road.

We got back to Arenal about 2:30. We picked up a couple of diet cokes from the restaurant and went to our room to sit out and relax.

It was still raining at 6 pm when we had our dinner reservations.

I celebrated my birthday with Sea Bass.  Mark had it the night before so I knew it was going to be good. 

Mark had tenderloin.

7/11/2021 (Mark) – Happy 65^th Birthday, Teri!!  We had originally been told we would leave for Caño Negro at 8:00, but received a message the night before that it had been moved up to 6:00.  So we met our driver/guide, Steven, at 6:00. He was from the same company that we’d gone to Caño Negro with in 2017, but this time we’d requested a private trip to avoid all of the issues with picking up other folks, sick children, etc. 

The drive to Caño Negro took about 2 ½ hours, with the last 30 minutes on a small road that runs through flooded pastureland. We got good looks at Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Northern Jacana, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Southern Lapwing, Crimson-fronted Parakeet and Caiman.

Remember - you can click on any picture to enlarge.

Crimson-fronted Parakeet

Northern Jacana

The weather was perfect when we arrived at the boat dock. They had fruit and juice set up for us, so we had a bite and then boarded our boat with Max, the driver and Steven. We first headed upriver to see the same orange Howler Monkey that we’d seen in 2017. Steven said that he was the only one, and had been run out of his previous troop by the dominant male and was now with another group. Kind of sad.

Mantled Howler Monkey - Orange morph

We then turned around and headed downriver. We saw tons of Ringed and Amazon kingfishers and Anhingas. Steven wasn’t a particularly good birder, but he and Max did a fine job of spotting birds, moneys, lizards, etc. 

Ringed Kingfisher

Amazon Kingfisher

We got great looks at Green Ibis and a pair of Sungrebes, both species lifers for us. 

Green Ibis

Sungrebe pair

Sungrebe male - Excellent toes...

Max maneuvered the boat through a very narrow channel into a lagoon, and we got out to see a couple of staked-out Great Potoos. We could never find those birds on our own, as they are so well camouflaged.

Great Potoo

We saw all three types of monkeys, Howler, Spider, and White-faced Capuchin. 

Mantled Howler Monkey

Mantled Howler Monkeys - Can you spot the male?

Geoffroy's Spider Monkey

Panamanian White-faced Capuchin

We were out on the water till about noon, and as we were returning we passed the “regularly scheduled” cruise from this company, and it had quite a few folks in the boat. As we sat down for lunch it started to absolutely pour, and we knew that we’d gotten really lucky with our early departure and missing the rain. Steven said that the other folks were unlikely to see anything with the hard rain.

We had an easy trip back to Fortuna, and I asked Steven if there was a nice souvenir shop that we could stop at. Teri had seen a big one on the way out, and sure enough Steven took us to it. We went inside and found several really nice Costa Rican items. This was clearly a shop for visitors, and they were incredibly efficient with wrapping and check-out. We were in and out in about 15 minutes!

Steven dropped us back at Arenal in the rain, and it continued to rain hard off and on through the night. We were really grateful to have gotten the bigger room with it’s large, covered terrace, and we were able to sit out comfortably in the pouring rain.

(Teri) We did have one damaged souvenir but Mark was able to glue it and the damage doesn’t even show.

Next time:  It’s time to move again - Laguna de Lagarto Lodge.

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