Day 77 Puntarenas, Costa Rica

August 4

Today we arrived at the port of Puntarenas. The port itself is not a place that would attract tourist, however the rain forests nearby are stunning.

We had a bus ride for about an hour to a 222 acre conservation park, and took an aerial tram ride. Afterwards, we had a guided nature walk and passed through a medicinal plant garden (sorry no marijuana), and then we visited a little 'Serpentarium'.

Black sand beach of Puntarenas.

Many crocodiles. Some of them have been given names. One of them is Mike Tyson, there is a big female called Monica Lewinsky, among other names that I won't mention in order to avoid popular google searches landing on my blog.

I was lucky to get any good photos from the bus, we were driving fast and most of the beautiful scenery was blocked by trees along the road. I had about two seconds to take this one.

The site of 'Rainforest Adventures', actually, this is the gift shop entrance. They gave us a free sample of their chocolate covered coffee beans. Costa Rica is famous for its coffee, however funnily enough, their largest export is computer chips or something like that.

Leaf cutter ants. These little female worker ants are fascinating. 

A well travelled leaf cutter ant path!

The ant path close up. I wonder how they choose their victim plant.

Rainforest Aerial tram. We were lucky enough to be placed in the front seat. Score!

And up we go.

Water fall.. More of a trickle. It is actually the rainy season in Costa Rica. We were lucky and got a nice sunny day.

On our way down. I saw a Monkey, two Humming Birds, a Toucan (but it was scared off by people in our aerial car because they couldn't help but shout out and scare it away, so no photo), a massive Squirrel, and hundreds of Butterflies. I thought I may have spotted Predator, but then realised that I was in the wrong country for that one.

Out and a about for a nature walk.

Out and a about for a nature walk.

Out and a about for a nature walk. The Humming Birds love these flowers.

Out and a about for a nature walk. Some sort of trumpet flower.

Out and a about for a nature walk.

The Ouch tree.

A young Boa Constrictor. Beautiful behind glass.

Some tiny yellow snake that would probably kill you.

Some angry looking green snake that could be mistaken for a garden hose, and then would probably kill you.

Black and yellow, you're a dead fellow.

"Bring me Solo and the Wookiee".

More bus snaps.

More bus snaps.

More bus snaps.

 As a comedian put it: "Puntarenas is Spanish for Stay on the ship"

I didn't see a building that didn't have bars on every window, and barbed wire on fences. One cement wall I saw, had broken glass bottles embedded into the top of the wall. There must have been issues with breaking and entering at one point in time or something.

Black sand beach. They had black sand castles, but you had to pay a dollar to take a photo.

Now we have five days at Sea.