Costa Rica - November 14, 2012

After a couple of days at sea, it was nice to dock at the port of Puntarenas, Costa Rica.  Our full-day shore excursion today started with a train ride through the countryside and mountains of Costa Rica and then a boat ride on the Tarcoles River for a Jungle Crocodile Safari.

This is a view of the Gulf de Nicoya--taken from the
bus that was taking us from the port to the train.

Jim and Gayle waiting for the train to depart--notice the windows are open!  No A/C!!!

One of the train cars....

Here are views of the countryside from the train....

A man tending his goats....

...and many fields with crops--much of which is shipped
to the United States.

A pretty stream...

We saw several villages....

...along the route.

After a couple of hours, we reached a train station and were transferred to buses, which took us out into the jungle to the Jungle Crocodile Safari.

Jim aboard our little boat...

A view of the Tarcoles River from our boat...

...another view--notice the mountains.

Although an overcast day, it was still very beautiful!

Our first sighting of a crocodile!

And he was coming ashore...

...so he could be fed!--Boy, was this scary!!!

Our boat driver feeds this guy chicken....

...and then calmly walks back to the boat...

...while the croc returns to the river!

The entire area was filled with a great variety of birds--many of which I could not identify; here are some of them....

a heron

an egret

this egret has just taken off

another egret

Amazing to see cows out here!

This cow is watching us watching him!

an ibis

a stilt

And an entire family....

...of stilts

A grackle....

...quite a beautiful black bird.

A tree full of egrets!

Retracing our river trip back to the dock, our driver stopped once again and got off to feed another crocodile!!

Once back at the dock, we were served delicious fresh fruit before we were bused back to the port and the ship.