STL DPB ON THE ROAD - ¡HAY COCODRILOS!

Playa Grande is a long, wide stretch of beach, much less developed, across an estuary from Tamarindo. You can take a boat ride on it to view the wonderful variety of birds and other wildlife. We've done it a few times, but not this trip. However, you don't want to let your arm drag along in the water beside the boat. 

Home late tonight. Probably need to go with Costa Rica photos for a bit.

                

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - REGAL BEARING

One of the things we frequently do when we visit Tamarindo is take a boat ride on the wide estuary that separates the town from Playa Grande. A local guide takes you out for a couple of hours, teaching about the local vegetation and wildlife. The place is crawling with iguanas. Some of them seem to have a sense of nobility.           

Angry Birds

At least that's how the first one strikes me. A snowy egret, I think, with a bad attitude. Mean claws, too.

We took a two hour boat ride on the estuary between Tamarindo and Playa Grande with a local guide, Gerardo Santana, who knows his stuff. Almost all of the waterway is undeveloped and wildlife is left to itself but for a few small tourist boats. At one point we went up a small side channel, pulled up to the shore and walked through the forest looking for howler monkeys.

The bird taking off is a great blue heron. My traveling companion and family naturalist tells me that the third is a yellow banded black heron. Not sure about that - the beaks are so different.

Oh, and not a good idea to take a swim here.