Nov 2- HOLY HOWLERS BATMAN

4:45AM- Sounds like a god damn gorilla orgy out here. If you were to hear these in the trees by your house, you would be terrified. Here is what I imagine they look like judging by the sound:

Here is what they really look like:

Riiiiiiiiiight. I have a video but our wifi can’t handle the upload. Will add it later.

The monkeys only really sound off right at the crack of dawn, we only heard them for about 15 minutes or so….then the roosters and the birds started. Time to make coffee! I don’t think I have ever gotten up so early, but I was interested if we would see anything;  we didn’t.  We decided to observe the jungle for a bit, then sit in the “office” and continue working. I can get used to this.  At least we can get any work out of the way by 8am and then go about our day.

We have until Tuesday morning when we have to leave early and head up to La Fortuna; we wanted to maybe visit the Jaguar Rescue Centre and Cahuita National Park while we are here. We decided since we were up so early, we should try to go to the 9:30am tour at the rescue centre before it gets too hot. They run small 1.5hr tours most mornings, one at 9:30am and one at 11:30am.

The skies are overcast this morning, maybe we will see some rain for the first time later since we arrived here. I’m ok with that!

We grabbed a “cab” to get downtown, and because I wasn’t sure where to rent bicycles or how far it was, we just got in a tuk-tuk! Another $5 to get to the centre

We arrived at 8:40am, almost an hour before the first tour. There were a few people there at that time other than us. We met a lady travelling on her own from Baltimore, her plan was to head to Bocas del Toro in a few days after PV.  Panama is just a few hours from here, they even operate 1-2 day tours from this point in Costa Rica because of how close it is.

We chatted for a bit and more people started to arrive…..a lot more. The office opened at 9am, so we were the first ones to purchase our tickets.  It is $20/pp to visit the sanctuary, with all proceeds going directly to helping the injured/abandoned animals. They don’t recieve any funding from the government, so they rely on tourists to help them out:)

The sanctuary was started by a lady named Encar who is a primatologist, and her husband Sandro who is a herpetologist.  People started bringing them wounded/sick/orphaned animals to treat, and so they ended up building this sanctuary as they got busier.

They have a nice outdoor cafe where you can buy a drink/snack while waiting for the tour to start.

They split the crowd into groups of 10 ppl according to language spoken, a volunteer gives you a guided tour and explains the reason why certain animals are there. It is not a zoo, and they limit the handling of the animals to the volunteers. The goal is to release the majority of them back into the jungle, so they can’t get too used to humans.

They also had an alligator, a cayman, an ocelot cat, and a margay cat. The cats were sleeping and hard to get photos of, they basically look the same but differ in size.

Just as the tour was ending, around 11am, it started to rain. We needed to catch a cab or something back into town but weren’t sure where to grab it. We started walking back to main road where there was a pizzeria next to a hotel, but it wasn’t open yet. The rain started to come down heavier, the lady opened the gate and told us to go by the hotel pool and there is a restaurant on the other side. So we scooted over there and the skies opened up. At least the bar was open, we have been up for awhile so it was 11:30 and beer’o’clock!

We weren’t sure how long this rain would last, we didn’t have any other plans for the rest of the day. We decided to have a few beers, then ended up staying for lunch. I had a char grilled burger that had a fried egg on it and side of grilled pineapple, and Jay tried a seafood coconut soup/rice. They were a little more expensive as we were at a hotel, but it was very good food.

We got the front desk to call us a cab back to our place, we got home around 3 and it was still raining but a lot lighter. We decided to relax for the rest of the day, maybe do a bit of work, and just hit up the soda at the end of the street later for more shrimp/rice dinner. I actually busted out my gameboy to play some Mrs.Pacman while I rocked in the hammock, listening to the rain.

PURA VIDA!