View of Tamarindo Bay and Playa Grande

This is a telephoto view from our Diria condo across the southern part of Tamarindo Bay to part of Playa Grande.  There are a few houses on the hillsides and there are others tucked behind the trees.

The preservation or development of Playa Grande is very controversial.  This beach is the main nesting site for the endangered Pacific leatherback tortoise.  They swim here from the Galapagos Islands to lay their eggs.  If there is more development, the lights from buildings will confuse and deter them from nesting here.

The beach at Playa Grande is part of the Las Baulas National Marine Park.  My wife went on tortoise watching outing with a park ranger.  They take people in small groups out on the beach at night, with red night lights, and wait for tortoises to come ashore to lay eggs.  None came the night she went there.

This week we are showing photos from Cabra Castle, a castle-hotel northwest of Dublin Ireland, on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Tamarindo estuary mangrove reflections

I took one of the little boats in yesterday's post on an excursion up the Tamarindo estuary, on the north edge of town.  This is a protected area, as it is part of the Las Baulas National Marine Park.   These are mangrove trees that line the estuary shores.

Tamarindo is separated on the north and south by the Tamarindo estuary and the Langosta estuary.  This makes the area sort of like a peninsula as far as access from the rest of the area, as there is no direct access to the land across the estuaries.

We are showing photos of Bangkok, Thailand on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.  We loved it, and we hope you will enjoy our photos.

Tamarindo estuary

Here is a photo of the Tamarindo estuary. Tamarindo, including Playa Langosta, stretches along the beach between two estuaries: the Tamarindo estuary on the north and the Langosta estuary on the south.

There is a street that runs along the each in Tamarindo and Langosta, but the estuaries are the reasons that there is not a road that leads right along the coast in each direction from Tamarindo.

I mentioned several days ago in my series about Playa Flamingo that there was a proposal to build a road along the ocean, but that it was not likely to happen due to environmental and budgetary reasons. It would be harmful to the estuaries to build a road across these wetlands. The Tamarindo estuary is part of the Las Baulas de Guanacaste National Marine Park, which also extends out into the ocean in Tamarindo Bay.

This week we are showing photos of the architecture of Spain on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Mangrove roots

Here is a closer view of a tangled thicket of mangrove roots. Monkeys can traverse them, crabs walk up them, but humans would find them impassable. Gliding past them on a boat or paddling by in a kayak is the only way to see them.

Several people left comments during the last few days that these views of the estuary from a boat reminded them of the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland or Disneyworld. That is similar to the experience of cruising through the Tamarindo Estuary or, particularly, the wildlife trips in Palo Verde National Park, except the animals are real, and the guide does not maintain a banter of corny jokes and puns.

This week we are showing photos of Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Deeper into the estuary

I took this photo even farther into the reaches of the Tamarindo Estuary than the photo I posted yesterday. This part of the thick mangrove forest would be impassible on foot, as you would have to climb through the roots that extended in all directions from the trees to the swampy, muddy ground.

We glided through the forest by boat until the fingers of the estuary became too shallow, narrow, or were blocked by a fallen tree to prevent exploration deeper into the estuary.

Several people left comments yesterday wondering what wildlife we saw on this trip. We did get out of the boat at one point and the guide took us on a hike along a trail. We saw a howler monkey, iguanas, bats, lots of birds, but no crocodiles. The guide kept looking for crocodiles and I think they see them at other times, but not on our particular tour.

On our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week, we have posted photos from Dubrovnik, a charming town on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia.

Mangrove roots at low tide

Here is a section of a thicket of mangrove roots in the upper reaches of Tamarindo Estuary. You can see why mangrove forests are good for the environment, as they provide habitat for land and water critters and hold back the soil to prevent erosion.

Some fish like to hang out in the midst of the roots to be protected from larger fish, similar to the way some fish like to hide in coral reefs for protection from predators.

The tide looks like the water rises and falls about one meter, based on the height of these mangrove roots that are exposed at low tide.

This week we are showing photos of Dubrovnik on the coast of Croatia on Viva la Voyage, our travel photo site.

Las Baulas National Park

Here is the sign announcing some of the visitor activities in Las Baulas National Park, which is the northern boundary of Tamarindo.

I have shown photos in the past of the estuary tour. There are other tours, as shown on this sign. I have done sports fishing and snorkeling, but did so from Tamarindo bay rather than from the national park.

I have mentioned the tours to watch the endangered leatherback turtles lay their eggs on Playa Grande, just across the Tamarindo Estuary from Tamarindo Beach. My wife and her brother and his wife have taken one of those tours. They are in the evening in the winter months, and the park guide led them out at night to wait for the turtles, who decided not to come ashore that night. If it had been called a beach fire fly tour, it would have been a success.

The environmental authorities oppose the development of homes near the beach at Playa Grande so that there will not be lights near the beach, as the lights confuse the turtles and interfere with their egg laying. They swim to Tamarindo all the way from the Galapagos Islands to bury their eggs in the sand.

Today is Sunday, so that means we have new photos on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site. This week we are featuring Dubrovnik, a gem on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. Come take a look.

Sea turtle

After my story about a daring rescue of a baby whale off the coast, I am posting this photo of a sea turtle lounging in the ocean off shore from Tamarindo.

Sea turtles nest all along the beaches near Tamarindo. This appears to me to be an olive ridley sea turtle, which are common in our area. The are the smallest of the sea turtles, although they can weigh 200 lbs. (45 kg.) and can be 2.5 ft. (70 cm.) long. They average 50 years in the wild.

They do not get a much attention as the very endangered leatherback tortoises. The leatherbacks nest on Playa Grande, which is the northern half of Tamarindo Bay. We have a nice view of Playa Grande from our condo at the Tamarindo Diria Resort. The beach at Playa Grande and the waters off Tamarindo are protected as part of the the Las Baulas De Guanacaste National Marine Park.

A major point of controversy is the issue of preserving the beach for the leatherback turtle nesting site on Playa Grande, as lights from houses or guest houses in the area can confuse or bother the turtles. During the winter months National Park rangers lead small groups out onto the beach at night to quietly, and in the dark, wait to observe the turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs.

On our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week we are featuring photos of Uluru, which is also known as Ayers Rock, in the Australian Outback.

Leaving the Tamarindo Estuary

After we emerged from the narrow waterways of the mangrove forests in the Tamarindo estuary, our boat headed back towards the entrance to the estuary near the ocean. In this photo you can see the effects of the growth of Tamarindo. A few houses or other buildings have been perched atop the ridge line near the ocean, which I imagine affords a great view of the estuary mouth and Playa Grande.

I hope you have enjoyed my little photo tour of the Tamarindo Estuary. My sons and I enjoyed our boat tour. We did not see any crocodiles, although there are crocodiles in the reaches of the estuary. There is not as much wildlife as the similar boat tours in Palo Verde National Park, but the Tamarindo estuary tours cost less and are right next to Tamarindo, not one hour away.

Mangrove trees

After our short walk on our estuary tour, we got back in the boat and headed towards the ocean. The mangrove forests continued to impress. The maze of mangrove roots at water level are what you would expect of a mangrove ecosystem, but the tall trees with large trunks growing airborne supported by the tangle of roots is a tropical wonder of nature.

It is scenes like these in Costa Rica that let visitors know, to borrow an expression from the Wizard of Oz, you are not in Kansas any more

Howler monkey

This howler monkey remained perched on a branch just above us as our group of about 8 tourists walked through the forest in Las Baulas National Park on our Tamarindo estuary tour.

There is something very unusual about this howler monkey. No, it is not unusual to see howler monkeys in Costa Rica. And it is even more common to hear them. But this howler was perched above our trail all by himself. I have never before seen a solitary howler monkey, as they are almost always in packs of between 10 and 20 monkeys.

Our guide told us that there was a pack of howler monkeys living in the woods nearby, but we did not find them. We don't know how or why this howler was separated from the group.

The low roar of howler monkeys can be can be heard at a distance of 3 km (1.8 miles) in the forest or 5 km (3 miles) across the water. That is not a typo. It is amazing for such a huge sound to come from such a small animal. They are typically 55 cm (22 inches) long, and weigh between 4 - 7 kg (9 -16 lbs). That makes them the largest monkeys in the western hemisphere.

My wife, Julie of Scottsdale Daily Photo, is running an extraordinary series of photos of her trip to a slot canyon in northern Arizona. I highly recommend checking it out. This week we are showing photos of the polo scene in Buenos Aires on our Viva la Voyage travel website.

Guanacaste: Costa Rica's National Tree

The national tree of Costa Rica is the guanacaste tree, also called an ear tree because its seed pods are the shape of an ear. The northwest Pacific province of Costa Rica where Tamarindo is located is also named Guanacaste.

Guanacaste trees are tall, reaching heights of 35 - 50 meters (115 - 165 feet). In the coastal plains, they typically have an umbrella shape to their branches and leaves, but the tree that I have shown in the forest in Las Baulas National Park had to grow tall to find sunshine.

The bottom photo shows the shape of the leaves, as it is a small guanacaste tree that has grown from a seedling. There are the remnants of a couple of the ear shaped seed pods in the shadow on the ground. I apologize that they are not shown well in the photo, as I was focusing on the leaves, not the ground.

Guanacaste trees drop their leaves during the dry season from November though April in order to conserve their moisture. I too these photos at the end of May, after the tree had about a month to green up with the occasional rain during that season.

By coincidence, I am showing Costa Rica's national tree on Costa Rica's Independence Day, September 15, Costa Rica is, I believe, the only Latin American nation that did not have an independence movement.

When Guatemala declared independence in 1821, it included Nicaragua and Costa Rica as well. No one in Costa Rica knew they were independent until October 13, when a messenger arrived and surprised the people with the news that Costa Rica was its own country and they would have to govern themselves. Costa Rica had been largely ignored by the Spanish because there was no gold. (It was given the name Costa Rica, or "rich coast," by mistake, as the gold worn by the natives who greeted the early Spanish explorers came from somewhere else) Costa Rica had been described as the poorest colony in the entire Spanish empire.

A few years after independence, the Guanacaste region of northwest Costa Rica, had an election in which the people voted to join the new country of Costa Rica rather than Nicaragua.

For English speakers (like me), I should point out that the "e" at the end of Guanacaste is pronounced; it is not silent "e." The scientific name for the guanacaste tree is enterolobium cycloarpum.

Green iguana

No walk through the forest in Costa Rica would be complete without an iguana. You don't have to go far to see iguanas. In fact, you don't even have to go into the forest. They are in town, along the roads, and even along the beach. They are harmless and leave people alone. They spend most of their time in trees. Their diet consists most of leaves, which probably explains why they are motionless most of the time and slow moving the rest of the time. Leaves are not a good source of nutrition for an animal this large.

This green iguana, also called a common iguana, is a classic of his species. This one is green, but often green iguanas are brown. They typically have a very long tail, and this one's tail looks to be about three times the length of its body. They reach about 2 meters (6.5 feet) in length. The color bands on its tail and the crest on its back are also characteristic of green iguanas.

The local name for iguanas in Costa Rica is garrobo. The scientific name is the rather uncreative iguana iguana.

Colorful crabs

When we were floating the estuary we could see little crabs on mud banks and walking along tree roots and branches. Most of the crabs were dark in color and blended in with the color of the mud and branches.

When we got out of our estuary tour boat for a little walk through the forest in Las Baulas National Park, we encounters lots of these much more colorful crabs. They had little holes in the dirt for their burrows, and they would run for cover at the entrance to their holes when we got near. They would at times stay at the entrance to their holes, so the could see us and dash down their holes if we got too close. This colorful crab did not have anything to worry about me, as I had no desire to get real close to him.

The area had lots of crabs even though we were at least 1 1/2 kilometers (1 mile) inland up the estuary from the ocean.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish a happy birthday to my wife, Julie, of Scottsdale Daily Photo. She is running an extraordinary series of photos of her trip to a slot canyon in northern Arizona. I highly recommend checking it out if you are not a regular visitor to her site, as she has some amazing photos coming up in the next week. (I should also mention that it is strictly a coincidence that I have showed a photo of a crab on my wife's birthday.)

Today is Sunday, which means that my wife and I have posted some new photos on our Viva la Voyage travel website. Several people asked us to show more photos of Buenos Aries after our post last Sunday, and we have obliged. We are featuring some photos of what is without a doubt the most monumental cemetery in the world.

Close-up of huge mangrove tree

This is a closer view of the huge mangrove tree that I showed in yesterday's photo. The small mangrove roots tangled in the foreground are what I would typically expect of mangrove trees. The large mangrove tree slightly behind the mangrove thicket amazes me.

It seems to defy the laws of nature and the laws of physics for such a huge tree to be supported up in the air by the elevated roots. With a little imagination, this tree looks like an animal such as a dinosaur or alien space creature walking through the forest.

Our boat pulled over to the banks of the estuary not too long after this photo was taken, and we took a little walk through the forest. Tomorrow I will show you the the most common of the animals we encountered. I will have to warn you that not every animal we saw was cute, but do not worry. It was not an insect.

Huge mangrove trees

I think of mangroves as bushes growing in the swamp-like conditions of an estuary, but this photo shows that mangroves in Costa Rica can be large trees. In the center of this photo you can see the distinctive airborne root structure of a mangrove, but it is supporting a large trunk towering skyward like a regular tree.

The most common of the 6 types of mangroves in the Tamarindo estuary is the red mangrove, which is also the largest. It can reach 90 meters (98 yards, or 295 feet) high. Imagine, a mangrove as tall as a football field!

In a few days I will show you a photo of a tree that we saw on our hike in this visit to Las Baulas National Park that is even larger than the mangrove shown today. IN fact, it is the Costa Rican national tree.

Termite mound in the mangroves

What could live in the dense mangroves? I already showed you an attractive kingfisher. I apologize, but here is the unattractive dwelling of unattractive inhabitants -- a huge termite mound perched in the mangrove branches.

Mangrove forests must be a great place for termites, as there is lots of wood and lots of places to hide from predators.

With termite mounds like this, I am glad that both of our two condos in Tamarindo are built of concrete. The exterior and interior walls are reinforced concrete, so there is nothing structural that would appeal to termites, and nothing structural to burn, and the construction is strong for earthquake protection.

I promise that I will not show any more insects or insect dwellings during my photos of the estuary, but I will not promise that all of the animals I will show will be attractive.

Dense mangroves

I promised you some mangrove trees, and today I deliver. How would you like to try to walk your way through these mangrove wetlands?

These mangroves are short, but some are tall. I will show you those in some of my upcoming posts.

Most of Las Baulas National Park is the ocean area off shore. Most of the part of the park that is on land is impassible mangrove habitat for wildlife.

Mangroves are very beneficial for the environment, particularly for fish. Mangroves improve water quality by reducing sediment runoff, keeping the water clearer and cleaner. The tangle of mangrove roots also provide areas for fish hatchlings to live in relative protectin from predators.

Ringed kingfisher

I mentioned that the Tamarindo estuary was habitat for 57 species of birds. Here is the ringed kingfisher, which is the largest kingfisher in Costa Rica, reaching 41 cm (16 inches).

The ringed kingfisher is distinctive because of its long, sharp bill, its reddish belly, and green-blue wings, back, chest and head, and the white ring around its neck.

It hunts in both salt and fresh water, and estuaries are a perfect habitat for it. The ringed kingfisher tends to hang out on higher branches than smaller kingfishers and plunge into the water for prey. I imagine that the still waters of the estuary make it easier to spot its prey.

Mangroves in the estuary headwaters

We are now in the headwaters of the Tamarindo estuary. Unlike the wide expanse of water shown the last two days, we are now snaking through narrow waterways of still water lined with dense mangroves.

Most of this area is wonderful habitat for wildlife, but impassible for humans. The mangroves are so thick that it would be impossible to get out of the boat and try to walk through them.

I have read some articles about how mangroves are depleted in the southeastern USA because of the population growth of Florida and development of coastal areas. Costa Rica has set aside 25% of its land area as national parks and wildlife refuges, more than any other country.

Although Tamarindo has grown a lot in recent years, it is comforting to know that on the northern edge of town there is a large natural area such as what you see in this series of photos, set aside for wildlife, and on the southern edge of town is the Langosta estuary, whcih is not as large but is also a mangrove estuary.

If you missed yesterday's post, this is a little reminder that we did a new post on Sunday on our travel photo site, which is vivalavoyage.com and this week we are showing photos of Buenos Aires.