Costa Rica - Part 2

Continuing with our Costa Rican adventure: 

After leaving the sleepy crocadiles, we drove nearer the coast.  Carrie knew of a macaw hang-out.  While everyone else stood staring into the trees, Tom and I meandered over to the other side of the street into a fishing village 

The men there were actually building fiberglass fishing boats:

One of the women was  untangling the hooks attached to a long line. She was aligning each hook on a barrel--getting the net ready ready for next fishing trip. Zoom in to see the care she was putting into her job. 

Youngsters, supervised by Mom, were  jumping rope, giggling, and having a grand time. 

Couldn't resist taking this typical fishing village photo:

But here is a not-so-typical photo. Can you guess what they are? And why they're here?  

Here's another photo clue:

It's a really cool idea! Using old refrigerators and freezers to store tools and "stuff."

Next on the agenda:  a boat ride on the Tercoles river with the Crocodile Man. 

The captain was on a first-name basis with the long-term resident crocs. He first introduced us to Lady Gaga. She was quite friendly and came when he called!

The absolute king of the river was Tornado. Fifty years old and 17 feet long. And as unresponsive as a log:

We saw many other critters and birds. There was one I wanted to see, but didn't, shown on our reference sheet as the Jesus Christ lizard, so-called because he walks, and even runs, on water. 

We didn't expect to see these cattle along the river, but the clouds are common to Costa Rica.

This is the Tree of Life in the Mayan culture, and also featured in the movie Avatar:

Speaking of trees and movies, this is the breadfruit tree, a tree that was important in Mutiny on the Bounty:

Our last stop on the tour: the extensive and lush grounds of an "eco hotel." Lots of trees like the breadfruit. Lots of flowers.

And -- best of all-- lots of ants!

This is where we saw an army of  leaf-cutter ants. A still photo of the leaf-cutters is useless. A video is more fun. This video shows just a small section of the long, unbroken, busy, busy parade:

That's all for Costa Rica. It was a "thumbs up" day!