Caiman Hunting
I was awoken from my beauty sleep early….very early that morning. Breakfast was amazing. It was a full-blown buffet with all the fixings for a balanced breakfast. And by balanced, I mean weight-wise. I had enough food for an entire week in one meal!
We went to go get on the wildlife tour. Unfortunately, it was raining so hard, the boat ride had to be postponed two hours. Even so, it was so worth it! This ride was the highlight of the trip for me.
As we started the tour, it was still raining, but not as bad. About a mile or so down the river, we saw our first sight of wildlife, an otter. Another half a mile of so, we saw some howler monkeys. Two more miles down, we saw a couple of sloths and a caiman…oh no. My astonishingly lovely mother decides to reach out of the boat and touch the WILD caiman (a tiny alligator.) Mom, I love you to pieces, but really?? Well, anyway, she caused this thing to jump and it was only a few inches from entering the boat. *Picture, picture, picture, oooooohhhhh, aaaaaahhhhh, selfie* Seriously people? You almost just got eaten by a miniature alligator and I am hearing someone scream “Selfie!” Really, just really. Throughout the tour, my mom had started making a habit of spotting these animals. This river is in dense forest, so the animals are pretty hard to see. Well, my mother and her observant little self was spotting every single animal. It eventually got so bad that the tour guide gave up and allowed my mother to take over. To finish off this awesome adventure, we passed under hundreds of monkeys hanging just above our heads.
We got back to the pier and walked to the hotel. Dinner was in a few minutes. I was so hungry, I honestly didn’t care what they were serving for dinner, I just wanted edible food at that point.
When we sat at the table, we were joined by our friends from the tour group. It had become obvious that one of them had had a little too much to drink. There was a poor dog wandering around the dining area waiting for food. We fed it a few bites and a worker got onto us. Our friend decided that they didn’t care what the worker said, so they continued feeding the dog right in front of the worker. The worker politely asks them to quit feeding the animal, so our friend decides to keep on feeding the dog right in front of the worker. He eventually gives up and decides to just let our friend continue to feed the dog.
It was now time to go see the sea turtle lay eggs. It was pitch black outside, so we all brought flashlights. The walk back to the beach took about thirty minutes. When we got there, the tour guide used a low-lit, red flashlight as to not disturb the turtle. The process took about an hour and a half. Sea turtles must love taking their time. The turtle laid eggs, covered them, and washed herself out to sea. It was an amazing experience.
Afterwards, it was really late, so we checked into the hotel for the night. Tortuguero was looking awesomer by the minute. I know, my grammar is on fleek today.