COSTA RICA – THE MANGROVES

 

“So, you’re going to the MAN-grove today?” says Scott with the faintest hint of a smirk.

I laugh, feeling permanently ruined by the way he says mangrove, with the emphasis on MAN, as though we are going to some sleazy jungle night club and not the mangrove kayaking tour some of us have decided upon.  Dan and Scott are going for a long, morning walk and have just stopped by briefly at Casa Buena Vista; Dan’s “Good Morning, Naomi!” wafting down from the street above and over the cottage rooftop making me run upstairs to greet my lovely friends.

I am happy to see them since they will not be going on the mangrove kayaking tour set for the day.  I am going with Joe, John, and Bryan on the Aventuras Tropicales tour run by a man named William where he and his family all live in the mangrove.

High tide is around 3 p.m. so we depart then and ride to Damas for our kayaking adventure; some of us worry if we’ll see crocodiles and others worry about snakes.  William tells us that if we don’t want to see a particular animal, then we need to say that is the only animal we want to see.  I personally don’t mind seeing a snake and would love to see a crocodile from a kayak, even though the thought terrifies me a little. 

Actually the kayaks terrify me a little.  I don’t want to have to do that rolling thing or, truth be told, tip over or get wet in any way. 

Initially we all wanted to have our own kayaks, but after arriving and hearing that the 2 person kayaks were steadier, we had a quick change of mind opting for that instead.  Joe made the unfortunate decision to be my kayak partner.

William helped us get into the kayaks and into the murky salt water of the mangrove with brief paddle instructions and how to deal with running into mangroves or move vines hanging down in front of us without tipping the kayak. 

We each paddled a bit getting used to the feeling then we were off on our adventure. 

2nd photo in this series courtesy of John.

Quite early on a rainbow boa constrictor was pointed out to us lounging in a tree.  It doesn’t have bright colours as one would suspect from the name, but it does change from yellow to brown depending on how the sunlight hits it. 

Yes, there is a boa constrictor in this photo!!  If separated into 9 quadrants, it is in the corner of the 2nd, 3rd, 5th & 6th quadrants.

We also saw crabs, flying fish (one of which landed in Bryan and John's kayak), a beautiful white bird that was exquisite in flight yet difficult to capture on camera in its full glory, a Jesus lizard, and a tiger heron. 

This last photo in this series courtesy of John.

A boat tour approached with boring-looking people aboard and we navigated around their sullen faces.  I was a bit nervous with the navigation but did fine, and was suddenly very glad we chose the kayaks and not the boat tour.

William heard there were monkeys ahead and picked up his rowing pace to quickly get to the monkeys.  We followed, doing our best to keep up in the impromptu race.  A couple of times we stopped briefly to check something out.  At one point there were docked boats ahead next to houses.  John and Bryan rowed smoothly past but all of a sudden, our kayak is pointed towards the stationary boat and, not being able to turn quickly enough, we just ran right into the thing.  I laughed, embarrassed and feeling a little out of control in that kayak.

Photo Courtesy of John.  We look steady and in synch here but don't be fooled!

 

We ran into other things along the way, and I suppose each time I would get this panicked look on my face when I realized we weren’t going to be able to maneuver around whatever it was, and then would see John laughing and laughing at us. 

John and Bryan at times looked as though they were on some rowing club, while Joe and I just ran into things occasionally, a look of half surprise on my face like I couldn’t believe I didn’t have the kayaking skills I thought I secretly possessed.

We did finally see monkeys – a whole lot of white-faced capuchin monkeys actually.  We watched them for some time and turned back to a point where trees provided a perfect monkey bridge crossing and one by one they would go flying overhead. 

 

We saw more boats along the way back, sometimes just with a few locals in them, other times boat tours all with the same boring looking people inside of them.  There was only one towards the end that I was scared we might run into, but the thought of tipping over into the murky water I think was enough for us to row ourselves away unscathed.

One of the coolest things we saw was a yellow-crowned night-heron.  William said it was a young one and that he was nocturnal and had infrared eyes.  It was both creepy and very cool to see him during the day “looking” at us with infrared eyes.  I had to ask if this was the youngster’s version of “staying up late” and continued admiring him until he flew to another branch.

We also stopped off at a special spot where there was one particular monkey William cajoled with an egg to come down on an overhanging branch and try to reach the egg, hanging in those typical cute monkey poses they effortlessly do.  At first I was horrified about the egg thinking he was going to feed it to them.  It is a really big deal to never feed any animals but especially the monkeys because the bacteria on human hands can make them sick, plus a host of other reasons to never feed the monkeys.  Thankfully it turned out William had no intentions of feeding the animals, just coaxing them down into poses for photographs.

 

After the power rowing to see the monkeys, then the slower row back along the mangrove canal and jokes about it taking 3 hours to get to the ocean, we were ready to go back to land.

I took some pictures of the property while William’s wife finished the home cooked meal provided with the tour.  We had grilled fish, rice and beans, and fresh vegetables that William and his family grow hydroponically on their property.  We heard about how they have lived there for years and it used to be a rice plantation until the government paid them money for part of their land to protect the mangroves and help rebuild them to what they are today. 

It was interesting to hear the family history of the place and some of William’s own personal history of leaving home for college and work in San Jose then returning years later and embarking on his own business.  Meeting his wife, son, and even his father added to the local feel and personal touches throughout the tour. 

Aside from a couple of heavy insect attacks and the credit card machine being out of order so I had to use cash rendering me in a temporary cashless crisis for the evening, the tour was fantastic and I think we picked the best one to go on. 

Not seeing any crocodiles along the way was a little disappointing and a bit of a relief all at the same time.  That was okay since with my luck and poor kayak navigating skills, I probably would have run right smack into the crocodile with the kayak and this blog posting would have been totally different.

I’m fine with the way it all turned out, and afterwards we all rejoined our friends for a cocktail at the “other” MANgrove.