UWC Day 056 – Puntarenas, Costa Rica – Cruising with Tick Tock

Tick-tock the crocodile, not the app. Lots of crocodiles and amazing wildlife all through the Tárcoles River (wiki). Awesome and terrifying, respecting the wildlife as we visit their home and try to leave as little trace as possible.

Morning Start

Little bit of a later start as we had an extra hour with a timezone change and the tour wasn’t till 10:30am. Got to the theater to find that the groups had already left, so wandered out with the herd of people, and eventually found my tour bus, and still waited a bit to get going (so not sure what the rush was). Traveled out to Tárcoles River for about an hour(ish), during which I used my superpower of being able to sleep pretty much anywhere, anytime, and took a nap.

Tárcoles River

We got to the river, and people went to bathroom and shops and stuff, but I went wandering around to see what was out there. Saw an iguana and some birds and flowers as we waited to board our river boat. Nice small boat, with plenty of space on both sides to be able to see all the wildlife.

Crocodiles. Lots of crocodiles.

Not gonna lie. Crocodiles are terrifying. They also look like they’re just watching to see how idiotic you want to be and how tasty you would be. Looking into their eyes and then watching them get up and start walking almost made me gasp a couple times. They do look like they’re almost smiling at you as they plot your demise. Reminds me of both Jurassic Park, and also Tick Tock from Peter Pan.

Definitely not as “friendly” as Tick Tock though.

Definitely had a moment of “look at all those teeth”, especially close up.

Look at that eye…very t-rex like….

Idiots

That last BIG crocodile, we got pretty close to. The boat kept going closer and closer to the croc, and I felt more and more uncomfortable…not for my own safety, as I moved to the other side of the boat anyway to help counter balance the boat and I have a long lens, but because it’s wildlife, and we really shouldn’t be THAT close to ANY wildlife — how would you like it if people were constantly coming 2 feet from your face.

Also on the other boat, I saw the same people that were feeding the penguins try to feed the crocodiles to get better pictures…cause 2 feet isn’t close enough I guess. Again…idiots, and humans are the worst.

Macaws

Saw a lovely pair of macaws in the trees and then a couple other pairs flying off in the distance. They’re so pretty and love that I could find some in the wild (and not just at Disney’s Animal Kingdom).

Black Hawks

Saw a bunch of black hawks, and they’re so menacing and beautiful.

Ospreys and Kingfishers

Pink Birds

Great Egrets

Fishing

Herons

Other Birds

Other Wildlife

Saw some turtles and a basilisk lizard (wiki), known as the jesus christ lizard for running on water.

River Cruise Views

Also some lovely views, even with the river water.

Ending River Cruise

After returning to the dock, most people went back quickly to the pavilion, but I stayed behind to enjoy a little bit of quiet, and just watching the views and wildlife, and a couple birds came to say hi, since there was less noise and commotion. Love just sitting and watching, and being still. Beautiful yellow and blue birds came out.

Refreshments

Wandered back after a bit to make sure I didn’t get left behind, but there were refreshments for us as well. Nice to have some watermelon, but no pineapple that the guide had raved about (because they brought the tray out later, and when they did, people took like 4 or 5 slices and were hoarding and a bunch of us didn’t get any….sigh….people. are. the. worst.)

The mango juice was delicious as well.

Back to Port

Got back to port around 3:30pm and briefly considered going back out into town, since we had until 8pm in port, but it was SO hot. Decided instead to go back to ship and cool down a bit first then make a call. Cute little trolley that took people back and forth down the pier if you didn’t want to walk.

The views were also quite stunning, with the layered mountains as a backdrop. Really wouldn’t have surprised me to see a T-Rex run out of the trees, or a Pterodactyl come out of the clouds, but I would’ve peed myself…

Went back out around 7pm to see if the sunset was coming, but with the timezone change, sunset times have all sort of reset, and it was completely dark when I went out (but also, very nice and cool, so I stood there with some folks chatting and just enjoying the breeze).

I was wandering around the ship after cooling down though, and noticed up on deck 12, that there’s a wall of commemorative plaques that were gifted to the ship at ports where the Serenade is making it’s first visit, and these are the ones specifically the first visits on the Ultimate World Cruise. Pretty cool, and also shows just how special this cruise is, and how they tried to go places that weren’t just rehashes of other trips! Also cool that there’s SO MANY already just from this first segment.

Food

Got some great food at dinner. Some soup, pork chop and a very delicious soufflé (always delish)

Vibe Check

4 parts joy

1 part anger – humans. are. the. worst.

Feedback

Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!