Amazing wildlife along the Rio Frio!

The Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge is in the northern part of Costa Rica, very close to the Nicaraguan border.  The bus drove through some nice farms and pineapple plantations on the way there.  We got on the boat at the town of Los Chiles and went up and down the Rio Frio, sighting more than 20 different species of wildlife in the couple of hours that we were there.  

It was an amazing boat trip as you can see from the photos below.  I wasn't able to capture everything we saw as they were not all within range, for example, the howler monkeys were way up at the top of the trees and the sloths were almost impossible to photograph as they were well camouflaged.  I have our guide Rafael to thank for finding and naming all the wildlife and giving us interesting backgrounds on them.

The Rio Frio

Howler monkeys taking it easy - they made frightful howling sounds

Tropical King bird

The beautiful Anhinga, in its many poses.  It's a water bird, like a cormorant but much more graceful with a long tail.  It spears fish with its long beak.

Yet another anhinga preening...

Great egret stalking

A caiman - looking wickedly unreal

So these are "long-nosed bats".  According to Rafael, this is a harem of 18 females with the male at the top, a typical domestic arrangement.

We were lucky to see the unusual "Jesus Christ lizard" and not just one, but two of them!  It got its name because it's so fast it could sometimes walk on water...

This marks the Nicaraguan border.   The boat actually sneaked into what would be Nicaraguan waters.

A painted turtle - the only turtle we saw in Costa Rica eve though the place is supposed to be famous for turtles (it's not the right season for sea turtles)

A multi-tasking howler monkey - hanging by its tail and reaching for food, with its young wrapped around it

I have had to email Rafael for the name of this bird - an "immature yellow-crowned night heron" (now how does he know it that precisely!).  It's the "immature" part that threw me off when I tried looking it up - most sites would show a mature bird.

A boat-billed heron - a very unusual sighting, according to our guide

A blue heron - watching a cormorant who is watching an anhinga who is watching the heron - that's why they were all standing so still waiting to be photographed...;-)

 

All in the family - and one of them caught something...

Beautiful pastoral scene at Los Chiles

And of course a Los Chiles cat...

On the way back to Arenal, we visited this restaurant south of Los Chiles - the property was crawling with iguanas.  And here's an amazing story of redemption that our guide told us. Apparently years ago, an iguana showed up at this restaurant owner's property.  He picked up an axe and was about to kill the iguana when at the critical moment, the iguana established eye contact with the man.  He couldn't do it.  He spared the iguana's life and word must have gotten around, more iguanas arrived and his place became a tourist attraction.  Business was booming and he had the iguanas to thank for it.  He became a vegan because of this incident - a story that all vegans are happy to repeat. 

I took this photo from the bus the first time we passed this place - what a surprise to see this huge beast on the tree!

 After a long day, it was great to return to the beautiful Arenal Manoa, which is more like a tropical paradise than a hotel.  It's lush and green and full of wild life, including a colony of egrets.

Lush grounds of the Arenal Manoa

View of the volcano from our room

California Hwy 1 and Montana de Oro State Park

It was not the first time we had driven down the Pacific Coast Highway (Hwy 1) in California but it was the first time that we had dry weather and enjoyed a spectacular drive all the way without worrying about rain.  Obviously the drought had something to do with it.  We stopped briefly in Monterey to revisit 17 mile drive and gawked at the always impressive Pacific Ocean.  I was happy to see that the lone cypress was still standing but it was surrounded by a retaining wall - no longer in a natural environment.  

We proceeded down the coast and stopped at ocean vistas along the way, including the famous Bixby Bridge completed in 1932.  We did a short hike to see McWay Falls in the Big Sur State Park and stopped many times to capture cattails against the setting sun along the highway before reaching our destination for the night in Morro Bay. 

Montana de Oro State Park was a short drive from Morro Bay.  There are many trails in the park but the coastal trail was the easiest and very accessible.  It was definitely a worthwhile trail with abundant wildlife along it - pelicans, cormorants, turkey vultures and we even saw an egret stalking and capturing its prey.  And what I love most was that the ocean was always there, showing off its power and might - I could spend hours watching it.

Morro Bay State Park also had its share of wildlife with its own nature reserve.  There were trees along the beach where pelicans were nesting, although we were told that the trees were dying off.  At sunset, there were lots of birds on the beach in the reserve, feeding in the receding tide.   It had been a very pleasurable few days driving down the coast.

Pacific Ocean at Monterey

Lone Cypress - 17 mile drive, Monterey

Vista along Hwy 1

Historic Bixby Bridge built in 1932

McWay Falls at the Big Sur State Park

Cat tails at sunset

Pelicans and cormorants at Montana de Oro State Park

Turkey vulture in flight

Heron capturing lizard right beside the trail

Spectacular views along the coastal trail in the State Park

Powerful ongoing erosion, lots of arches and caves along the coast

  

This one reminded me of the Queen Nefertiti bust (similar one in Yehliu Geopark in Taiwan)

Pelicans in flight

Panorama from the coastal trail

Pelicans' nests in Morro Bay State Park

Morro Bay State Park at sunset