Costa Rica - the Caribbean coast

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Limón » Puerto Viejo de Talamanca
January 1st 2015

Published: January 18th 2015

Costa Rica is a wonderfully beautiful country that deserves it’s progressive and environmentally-minded reputation. This was a short trip and we were only in the Puerto Viejo area, on the Caribbean coast south of Limón, but we saw and did so much, I have plenty to write about! The three-toed sloths, the bottlenose and tucuxí dolphins, the beautiful beaches, the two-toed sloths, the frogs, the... Read Full Entry

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Heather Jasper

Ezeur

I live in Cusco, Peru and will be posting mostly about my trips around Peru and South America. From August 2012 to June 2014 I lived in Dhaka, Bangladesh and blogged about living there and traveling around Southeast Asia. This blog also contains my stories from living in Istanbul, two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, and some other travels. ... full info

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Dolphins!

This is just south of Manzanillo, very close to the border with Panama. We saw dozens of both bottlenose and tucuxi dolphins.

Fins

The easiest way to tell the two species apart is their fins. Bottlenose dolphins have curved, harrow dorsal fins. Tucuxi fins are shorter and shaped more like an equilateral triangle. Note how big the swells were. We often lost sight of land.

Tucuxi

The tucuxi are also a lighter color than the bottlenose and it was easier to see their smiles when they flashed by close to the boat. Some of the swells they were playing on were so big that from land they looked like islands that rose up on the horizon, only to curl a strip of white at the top and roll back down into the succession of waves.

Playing

As the boat captain explained, all of the dolphins we saw that day were out playing. They jumped forwards, did back flips, rolled around each other and swam in circles around the boat. It was beautiful and so joyful I was tempted to jump in the water to play with them too.

Storms

This was the rainy season and every day we got some rain. Most days it was an hour or so in the morning, followed by a sunny day. Some mornings were sunny and gave way to afternoon storms like this, looking north from Puerto Viejo.

The Howlers

On our last day we stopped along the road to watch a family of howler monkeys. They were running along the branches and we saw several adults and two very small babies. As cool as it was to see the animals in the sanctuary and rescue center up close, it's so much more thrilling to happen upon them in the wild.

Goodbye Buttercup!

I hope to see her again some day.

19th January 2015

Maria Trebby
non-member comment

Me encanta Costa Rica!
I am so glad that you were able to make this trip, Heather. Costa Rica is a wonderful country and the people are so friendly and proud of their country. They have taken an active role in preserving the flora and fauna of their nation so that many generations will have the same opportunities that you have had. I see Karen Weinberg from time to time as well as some other friends of your family and always check in to find out how you are doing. I hope the job in Seattle is a good one--fulfilling and rewarding. Please let me know when you are next in Boise. Perhaps we could get together for lunch. Take care and enjoy your visit!

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Costa Rica - the Caribbean coast

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