Crocodile lurking in the water

This crocodile lurking in the Tempisque River shows why Palo Verde National Park is  a good place to go for wildlife viewing, as long as one keeps your arms and feet inside the boat.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos posted  on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  This week we are showing photos of Budapest, Hungary.

Baby Crocodile

Yes, there are crocodiles in some of the rivers of Costa Rica.  Floating by on a raft or boat is a pleasant way to see them.

Local people do swim and fish in the rivers, but they must know where it is safe to do so and where to avoid.

This week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site we are showing photos of the people who have gathered for a festival in Punahka, Bhutan.

Yikes! Jumping Crocodile.

Usually when you see crocodiles in the river, they are gliding smoothly and the blend in with the surface of the water, barely visible, such as the photos I showed a few days ago.

This crocodile took a lunge upward, giving us a nice view of his snout, jaw and teeth. Crocodiles can move very fast, especially in the water. I have gotten splattered by the mud of a crocodile rushing from the river bank into the water while I was photographing him.

The bite of a crocodile has more than ten times the pressure than the bite of a great white shark. I don't intend to test the difference.

This week we are showing photos of the Villa Melzi on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site. If you have not been to the shores of Lake Como in Bellagio, Italy, come take a visit by clicking on the link to our website.

Here's looking at you, kid

Crocodiles have excellent eyesight above water, but not very good underwater. They have excellent hearing though little slits instead of ears. They can even hear their young calling from inside their shells before they are hatched.

The sex of their young is not determined genetically. Males are created at around 89 degrees F (31.6 C) and females produced at lower or higher temperatures.

The crocodile's eyeballs strike me as rather strange. They are marbled to match the coloration of his skin, with what appears to be a slit-shaped pupil. I would not want to get into a stare-down with a crocodile.

This week we are showing photos of the Villa Melzi on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site. If you have not been to the shores of Lake Como in Bellagio, Italy, come take a visit by clicking on the link to our website.

Crocodile's teeth

I promised a closer view of the crocodile's teeth. The way to tell a crocodile from an alligator is that crocodiles have a more pointed snout and the fourth lower tooth of a crocodile sticks up outside the upper jaw.

If you are in the wild and not in the safety of a boat and you see something that looks like this photo coming towards you, I recommend that you quickly snap a photo and then run away and not bother to try to get a close look at the fourth tooth. You can blow up the photo on your computer to look for the fourth tooth later.

Do you think it is possible to get a closer look at this crocodile? As usual, the answer will wait until tomorrow.

In Costa Rica, we have crocodiles and not alligators. I can remember this easily because there is a restaurant in Tamarindo named El Crocodilo. There is no restaurant named after an alligator.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site. This week we are showing photos of the Villa Melzi on the shores of Lake Como in Bellagio, Italy.

Crocodile, up close and personal

Several of my treasured and favorite regular readers during the past few days, such as Brattcat, Kate, Sharon, Jarart, Lois, and more have left comments saying that one should not get closer to the crocodile than the photo shown yesterday.

Sorry to disagree, but one of the purposes of my river trip is to get close photos of a crocodile. I appreciate your concern, but do not worry. I was safely inside a boat. Would anyone like to get a better look at the crocodile's teeth?

We are showing photos of Yosemite this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

My, my, look how large this crocodile is

As the crocodile came closer, we got a better opportunity to assess its size. Yesterday's photo from a distance revealed that he was wide, and presumably large. Today's closer photo of the crocodile confirms that he is large. Even though he is mostly under water, the length of his tail is visible in the ripple of the water.

We are showing photos of Yosemite this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Look who's coming

Yesterday I showed a photo of the crocodile lurking in a river. Today's photo shows the same crocodile as he glided slowly and silently towards us.

He is showing a little more of himself in today's photo. Yesterday we only saw his eyes. Today, we can see some of the little spikes on his back. He looks fairly wide, so he may be a large crocodile, but it is too early to guage how long he is. We will need a closer look for that. He looks like he is coming to give us a closer look.

We are showing photos of Yosemite this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Come on in. The water's fine.

I have showed lots of photos of the beach lately, popular with swimmers and surfers. Would you like to go swimming in this river? Better take a careful look before deciding to jump into the water.

We are showing photos of Yosemite this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo of a fierce, hungry crocodile

OK. This is not a nice crocodile. This is a photo of a large, hungry crocodile.

Several people yesterday left comments that they hoped my crocodile photos were taken with a telephoto lens. They were not. I took this photo from a distance of about 6 or 7 feet, a little more than 2 meters. I was in the safety of a boat.

You can tell from the angle of the photograph that I was shooting down on the crocodile at close range, as I could not get this angle if I were far away from the crocodile.

Once I was taking a photo of a crocodile on a river bank at such close range that when he scampered into the river he splattered me with mud.

Because of the comments I had yesterday, I will change my post for tomorrow and show the type of boat used for the wildlife trips for photographs such as these.

We are showing photos of architectural details of Budapest, Hungary, on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Nice Crocodile

The crocodile in this photo does not look mean, does he? He looks almost friendly, if you can overlook the many sharp teeth.

Crocodiles look menacing when lurking at the surface of the water. Crocodiles look terrifying when their mouths are open.

Tune in again tomorrow. Today's photo is a tease.

I took this photo while on a wildlife boat trip in Palo Verde National Park. I recommend these trips to the people who rent our condos in Tamarindo.

We are showing photos of the architectural details of Budapest, Hungary, on our Viva la Voyage travel photos site.

crocodile on the river bank

This is a more traditional view of a crocodile. Compared to this crocodile, yesterday's crocodile looks like a dolphin at Sea World doing tricks.

Crocodiles can move surprisingly fast. Once I was photographing a crocodile on the river bank, from the safety of a boat, of course, and he darted into the water so fast that he splattered me with mud before I could pull back into the boat.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site. Our photos this week show the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. If you have not been there, please check out the our website this week. You are in for a treat.

Crocodile coming up out of the water

Here is a different reptile than the calm, harmless iguanas that I have shown several times during the last month. Unlike the iguana who was very close to me in the photo I showed yesterday, or the series of the iguana at the Tamarindo airport that I showed several weeks ago, here is a crocodile that you would not want to encounter in the wild, except from the safety of a boat.

Yes, this crocodile is in the wild. I was in a boat, no more than 4 or 5 feet away (less than 2 meters). He was expecting the wildlife tour boat operator to throw out some food, so he came up out of the water to get a look and to be positioned to chomp on the food.

It is common to see crocodiles on wildlife boat excursions in Palo Verde National Park. Usually, however, they are lurking just below the surface of the water with just their eyes and nose visible or lying in the mud on the river bank. It is very unusual to see the head of a crocodile angling all the way out of the water.

This week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo website we are showing photos of Peru, particularly Machu Picchu, one of the wonders of the world.

Crocodile thrashing

The crocodiles that I have shown on this website have generally been rather still. I therefore decided today to show a crocodile in motion. I realize that you can't see very much of him, as he has kicked up a splash that has obscured the view of him as he lunged and spun in the water. A portion of his back is visible to the side of the splash. I stayed safely in the boat.

I once leaned over the edge of the boat so I could get an angle shooting up at a crocodile on the river bank and he darted into the water so close that he spattered me with mud. He surprised me with how fast he moved. The splash of the water in this photo gives an indication of the speed and force of crocodiles when the move in the water.

Spooky crocodile for Halloween

Lurking in the river.

Blood without heat.

Eyes of a killer.

Trick or treat.

Crocodile and his teeth

I count 32 teeth in this photo. Assuming that the crocodile has the same number of teeth on the other side, that would make 64 teeth to grab, slice into and chew its prey. The extra large fourth upward tooth is distinctive of a crocodile and is a way to distinguish between crocodiles and alligators.

I am relieved that the crocodile did not attack the heron that I showed during the past few days. Fortunately, the crocodiles in the western hemisphere are not as aggressive as the Nile crocodile, but people should keep their distance nevertheless.

When people who rent our condos in Tamarindo ask about activities for their children, I always recommend the nature tours on boats in Palo Verde National Park. I describe it as being similar to the Jungle Cruise at Disney World or Disneyland, except that the animals are real, and the tour guides do not recite a memorized script of corny jokes and puns.

I think it is an enriching, entertaining and educational experience for young people, and for us adults too, to watch wild animals in their native habitat. The people who stay in our condos often tell me that they have enjoyed the excursions and that their children have returned home with enthusiastic stories to tell their friends of seeing crocodiles, monkeys and other animals in the wild.

For more photos of animals in the wild, at least the coral reef version of underwater wildlife, you may enjoy checking out our Viva la Voyage travel photo website. This week we have posted underwater photos from Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, west of French Polynesia.

Safety for the heron

Fortunately, the crocodile was more interested in going into the water than attacking the heron. Maybe the bird consists of too much feathers and bones and not enough meat to interest the crocodile.

I suspect that the bird knew that the crocodile would not attack it, as it did not fly away, or even walk down the river bank, as the crocodile moved along side the bird and then went into the water.

Tomorrow I will show you 32 of the 64 reasons that this bird should be pleased that the crocodile went right past the bird and into the water.

Today is Sunday, so we have posted new photos on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site. This week, we have photos from the Cook Islands. We have featured some underwater photos because in the South Pacific, the beauty that you see above ground does not even scratch the surface of the beauty below sea level.

Is the crocodile moving in for the kill?

As we watched the crocodile lurking in the underbrush along the muddy river bank, the crocodile slowly slithered through the mud towards the heron.

I felt like I was watching one of the episodes of the old television program Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Where was the voice of Marlin Perkins calling to Jim Fowler, 'The heron could make a tasty lunch for the ravenous appetite of the relentless predator crocodile, whose sharp teeth and gaping mouth would devour the bird in one lightening quick strike."

Did the bird see the crocodile? Should we interfere with mother nature and shout at the heron to alert her to the danger? Answers tomorrow.

Danger lurks

Here is the crocodile that was lurking just to the right of the heron in yesterday's photo. Would this cold-blooded killer move in closer? Would the heron escape? You will have to return to this blog tomorrow and the next day for the answers.

Our boat in the Tempisque River in Palo Verde National Park idled in the river so we could watch this episode of nature play out live in front of us.

Crocodile lurking below

I took this photo exactly 12 seconds after the photo of the bird posted yesterday (as shown by the time data of my digital camera). With a crocodile like this lurking in the water, it is smart for the bird to be very careful when walking on the branch that extends over the water.

During a wildlife boat trip in Palo Verde National Park recently when this photo was taken, we saw dozens of crocodiles, all from the safety of a boat.

Today is Sunday, so we have again posted new photos on Viva la Voyage, our travel photo site. This week we are featuring photos of Papeeta, Tahiti. If you have not stayed in an over-water bungalow, come visit the website and enjoy the view.