The land of the crocodiles

In Costa Rica is a muddy river that empties out in the ocean, and on the long low bridge that crosses the river you can stand and look straight down at these prehistoric, scaled and spread-toed angle-hipped beasts.  They lay and lap up the sun, don't care about the muddy water, and seem to love their life.  At a distance they are fascinating, up close they are too close.

The River of the Crocodiles is called Tárcoles River and is on the Pacific side of Costa Rica, in the province of Puntarenas.  Quite a lot of tourists stop here, but the experience is pleasantly low-key.  No entrance tickets, just a regular road and some crocodiles.  The animals can probably be up to 5 m long I think, it is hard to judge from a distance. Big enough to hurt for sure.  Here are some photos from my trip to Costa Rica in March.







While we were looking at the crocodiles we suddenly saw two scarlet macaws flying over.  Here is the photo of them taking with a small simple point-and-shoot camera. These red parrots are gorgeous but make horrible noises.