Costa Rica - Puerto Viejo - 13th Oct

Hurray we have a day off from sloth duties, so no 0530 hrs alarm call, instead we have an 0600 hrs alarm call.
The reason for this small change is that we have to catch the bus into Cahuita to choose a tour or trip to occupy us for the day.

Cahuita international bus station

We went to "Willies Tours" (that's right get all the giggling over with now), and booked a few hours kayaking on the sea and in the rivers.
The Kayak guy (Rene) wasn't free 'til twelve so we had a look around downtown Cahuita

...Downtown Cahuita...

So when we'd done that after 5 minutes we decided that Paul needed a haircut...

...Nervous me, never...I've got nothing to lose...

Then when that had been done after 5 minutes we went to look at the beach which runs into Cauhita National Park...

...water temp about 25 C...

...One of the many local crabs fishing on the shore line; they are not fussy about whose home they move into...and they are
 very very quick runners.

We bumped into Rene back at Willies downtown HQ and we went to pick up the kayaks at his neighbours. There was a slipway leading out to sea, but we had to negotiate a narrow rock sided channel just under the water. Rene said he would guide from shore, but he did not know his left from his right so we just clipped the rocks. The paddle across the bay, you saw above, took about 25 minutes or so and then we dragged the kayaks across the sand to a lagoon to do some wildlife watching and generally getting caught up in the undergrowth and sunburnt.

A local resident. Some kind of Heron, didn't stop to ask his name. ( Chris can you help out here??).

 Some experienced kayakers we bumped into....

No through creek? Not for these two intrepid fools.....got grounded on a log later....

Spot the Howler Monkey resting in the heat of the day on a liana...

OK this is the same Howler Monkey but can you spot the Ringed Kingfisher (about 16 inches long)....

OK same Howler Monkey different photo, but can you spot the small rarely seen feckawe centipede in this photo?...... only kidding

This is a juvenile Yellow Crowned Night Heron.....obviously and hopelessly misunderstood that Costa Rica does not use Daylight saving time so he is up during the day, crazy fool.....

 And this is a Hermit Crab scutlling for cover, he's counting the grains of sand on the beach

Anyway enough nonsense, as if we weren't tired or sunburn't enough, Rene our guide and his son Rene, persuaded us to kayak back across the bay full into the onshore breeze. Well 40 minutes later we crashed onto the slipway, v tired. The waves were approaching a 2-3  sea state which made life interesting and a little adventurous; however as you approach land these get a little more unruly and made our landing onto a convenient 45 degree slipway difficult to say the least. Nevertheless we made it.

 A great day out though and a bit different from sloth wrangling  - Cahuita, Pura Vida.


Will add some more sloth antics tomorrow, Keep watching if you like and comment if you don't.