March 5 – Palo Verde, El Viejo and Guanitil Tour

Today was an all-day tour with a cruise in a private wildlife refuge, lunch at a hacienda, and a stop to see some indigenous pottery being made.

Along the way the driver stopped, ran over to the side of the road and came back with a couple of cashew fruits.  The “apple” is edible and the cashew nut (actually a seed), is a crescent shaped protrusion on the end, called the drupe.  This is the cashew nut.  In this state it is toxic so it needs to be roasted for about 8 hours (according to the guide) before it is edible.  Most interesting.

The area we are driving through has a lot of sugar cane fields.  

We saw a field crew harvesting cane and they were loading the wagon by hand.  Hard work.

We saw a sugar cane processing plant…

and a nearby radar array that tracks space junk.

We had a short bathroom break before heading to the boat launch.  There is just us and our guide and the boat captain on the cruise.  The cruise on the Tempisque River in the Hacienda El Viejo Wildlife Refuge, a private refuge.  On the way to the boat launch we saw an iguana…

and a pond with a large mix of waterfowl that included Black Bellied whistling ducks (with an orange bill), black necked stilts, northern jacana, sandpipers, and a juvenile snail kite. 

Nearby was a blue-winged teal, another new species for us.

Once we were on the river in the refuge...

there was a lot to see:

Ringed Kingfisher (the captain was very good about maneuvering so that see this tiny bird)

Jesus Christ Basilisk (Brown Iguana)

Great Blue Heron

Lots of American Crocodiles

Little Blue Heron

Green Iguana

Bare Throated Tiger Heron

Long Nosed Bats

Sandpiper

Barn Swallows

White Faced Capuchin Monkeys  

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Video of White Faced monkey
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Great Egret

Howler Monkeys

Brown and White Kiskadee (Flycatcher)

Great Blue Heron having Lunch

Green Herons

Tropical Kingbird

Green Kingfisher

Anhinga (Snake Bird)

Grooved Billed Ani

Snowy Egret

After the cruise we drove to the nearby Hacienda El Viejo for lunch.  The building and grounds were lovely.

Then it was on to something entirely different…a potter demonstration.  Costa Rica has a number of indigenous tribes and we are visiting some members of the Chorotegas tribe.  We stopped in the small town of Guanitil where we met Jesus a member of the tribe who is a potter.  He makes pottery the way the tribes have made for centuries.  

He pounds his own clay into powder and uses it with a mix of other ingredients to make his own clay.  

The colors (black, white and red) are made from natural, local materials.

He made a pot while we watched…

The big oven is heated using wood fires.

and then we did a little shopping. 

There was another potter also making pots.

We were back at the hotel by late afternoon.