Monkeys And Crocs And Sloths! Oh My!

 Let me continue with our excursion at the Panama Canal on Wednesday. After we visited the Agua Clara Locks Visitor Center, we boarded our bus again and continued on to the second part of our excursion, the canal nature cruise. 

Once we reached the area that had the boats to take us out into the canal and the surrounding rainforest, we were divided into two groups of eighteen and asked to don life jackets. We did pass a couple of large ships as they transited the canal way but mostly we kept to the shoreline and little inlets to look for monkeys, crocodiles, sloths, and the eagles which we were told we would only see in the morning. We were shown pictures of the different kinds of animals and Bob, skeptic that he is, said that was probably all we would see. We've been on too many nature excursions where the animals weren't given the itinerary.

We did see a crocodile and a monkey or two high in the trees but eventually our guide found a capuchin monkey who knew if he came down to the overhanging branches near the boats, he would get some treats. He entertained us long enough to get some good pictures and make the nature part of our trip successful. We did enjoy the boat ride in the fresh air after all that time on the bus.

I'm going to post a picture of what I am sure are hanging bird nests but I didn't catch what type of bird builds such a nest. I'll continue to research and will update the post if I find the answer. I thought he said "kite" but I couldn't find a nest that kites build that resembled these.

Our guide on the bus assured us that our return trip would not be as long as we would be on a highway. Before we got to the highway however he stopped the bus and showed us a mother sloth and her baby. They have been up in the tree for a long time and apparently this is not the first baby she's had in this tree. Now this was truly worth the nature trip. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the baby's face.

Back on the ship we grabbed some shrimp tempura and fried rice in the Lido Buffet for dinner and my favorite dessert, churros. In our room we found a notice that clocks will be turned back an hour to adjust to the Puerto Limon, Costa Rica time. Great news as our excursion will begin earlier in the morning. 

An extra hour of sleep or not, we were too tired to do much after dinner. It was an early night for us.