Costa Rica Favourites

"My name is Max. Welcome! You are fortunate to be part of my group in bus 11." And so began our 8 hours in Costa Rica. Max was right! He was an exceptional guide, speaker and scholar. He had a degree in biology and environmental science. He took every opportunity to remind us of Costa Rica's fantastic environmental record and sing its praises for having 23% of its land protected. He also talked non-stop during the one hour bus ride each way about most facets of Costa Rican life. "You should be a politician." someone called out. "Aren't I smarter than that?" he retorted.
"First we will go to the very special Tarcoles River where I hope you will experience a wildlife overload so you will not expect too much on the aerial tram." It played out almost exactly as Max called it. The river was a banquet of wildlife, especially crocodiles. We saw macaws, egrets, kingfishers, and many other birds. The locals feed and play with the crocodiles so they don't kill kids and livestock, consequently our driver was able to jump onto a sandbar and coax a 10 foot crocodile to stand on its tail and hind legs to grab at a towel. Everyone clicked away in awe. "I think it's better that they feed these animals than kill them!" Max said. Fresh fruit was available after our hour and a half on the water. Needless to say eveyone was dripping wet from the 90º temperatures and happy to reboard the cool bus.
The second stop was a major development with restaurant and gift shop at the base of very steep jungle hill. It was swarming with tourists taking walks in a tropical garden, riding a gondola over the canopy or taking a zip line through the forest. We sweated through lunch and a lineup before boarding the gondola which slowly carried us up the hillside and back. Each car of 8 carried its own naturalist but animals were hard to spot. Most of the discussion was about plants. The walk through the garden was great. We were able to touch and smell many plants such as ginger and nutmeg. We also saw a poisonous frog and learned much about jungle snakes which were in terrariums along the route. Again we rejoiced when our sweating bodies boarded the bus.