A Boat Safari in Tortuguero National Park

The jungles of Central and South America offer wonderful biodiversity. For example, I’ve been told that the total mass of ants in the jungle exceeds that of all other animal life combined. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it’s interesting to consider.

When we stayed at Turtle Bay Lodge near Tortuguero National Park, accessible only by boat, we spent time exploring the jungle on foot as well as by boat. That latter are boat safaris,whose goal is to show you some of the diverse animal life of the region.

Our safari left early — at the crack of dawn — a time when all was calm. We spent a few hours exploring the rivers and canals of the area and enjoyed the cool morning air. Besides our boat captain (who was an experienced naturalist), we were accompanied by a guide who helped us understand what we were seeing.

Below is some of what we spotted on our morning cruise:

The beautiful blooms on this tree, Pachira Aquatica. It’s one of the largest tree flowers in the world. The tree grows up to 60 feet in nature but has been commercially adapted as a house plant in the western world.

(The blossoms of Pachira Aquatica)

I’m not sure if this large nest belongs to termites, bees/wasps, or birds. But it is an impressive construction.

The photo below shows several bumps below a tree limb, which are long-nosed bats roosting for the day. We got quite close to them before they finally took flight.

(Long-nosed bats)

We didn’t see many large animals, but there was a nice assortment of reptiles including a number of iguanas…..

Emerald basilisk lizards are quite common in the area, the photo below being a female and the next photo of male (with his more prominent head and back crests)