Day 8- Brady Barr and crocs

After the debacle with the outrigger last night, we had a large reflection session with Kelly and Marilyn about the trip so far. Once it was over, of course I wanted to socialize a bit with the others, so I convinced Kathryn (from OK) to come for a drink. Everyone else seemed to be recovering from the shipwrecking disaster and motion sickness from all the driving. Kathryn and I convinced Edwin, Didier,(our driver), and Kelly to have a drink with us. This bar was definitely different than Selva Verde...I bought the first round and tried to be an imperial and a red wine. The guy gave me a Bavaria and a white wine (it's actually funny because I asked him 3 times for red, "rojo" and I still got the wrong drink!! I miss the nice bartenders from Selva Verde! They knew us and knew our drinks! I had a good time with them until the bar closed and we had to clear out!

We all wanted Sunday to be a nice easy day after the craziness, but we didn't know how the day would go. We were going to meet Brady Barr, from National Geographic, and see some crocodiles! It was a drive from our hotel to get to the croc station on the river.

Brady Barr gave a good speech about crocs which was very informative and not too long. He joked about biodiversity, which we have heard lectures about the whole time we've been here, but then he proceeded to tell stories about crocs and the misconceptions a lot of humans have!! Afterwards, his partner spoke, Juan Bellanos, about the crocs in Costa Rica, and then we for to hear from two teachers that are part of a headstart program for crocs. They have their students raise hatchlings and then release then into the wild after about a year! You can do this with any species! I really wish I was teaching bio this year because I would make my students do something like that. We even got to meet some of the students! It as great and Brady told us that their funding and the grant that they had was gone, so they were working for free!

Once that was over, they brought in some baby crocs and caimans. We even got to hold them!! I chatted with the teachers from the program and the last thing I held was a baby croc! It started squirming, then peed all over me!! Gross!

Then came the highlight: Brady and Juan were going to catch one of the full sized crocs they have in captivity to show us how they do it! We were in the pen where there were 5 large crocs, all serving life in prison because they were a danger to humans and crocs alike!! They got one, restrained its jaw, then Kathryn and Jake were sitting on it to restrain it!!! It was crazy. Then they asked if we wanted to sex it, figure out the gender! Almost everyone went and pushed their finger in this hole and if you could feel the penis, it was a male! Kinda exciting!!

I have a ton of little videos from the croc catching! Once it was done, we ate lunch, and then headed out. We were going on a croc sightseeing tour on the Rio Tarcoles! It was going to be a nice covered boat where we wouldn't have to do any sort of paddling or kayaking.

The croc boat was fun, but you need a lot of patience. We didn't just look for crocs, but for birds as well. According to our birding experts, ("Birding is not a hobby; it's an art form!") we saw almost 40 species of birds on the river! Saw only a couple of crocs, but one was right next to my seat on the boat and it got a little close for comfort!! We went through a mangrove forest as well. I was astounded at the parts of the river where there was so much trash on the banks or floating. It disturbed me that people know how important this place is and they don't keep it cleaner! I talked to Edwin about it, and he said they don't have good enough sanitation laws. So sad because I'm sure the sewage is killing a lot of things in that river!

But I digress! The birds were amazing to see, but my head was starting to ache from straining to see any sort of lifeform in a sea of green trees!!

Edwin had a surprise for us layer that night: we were going to dinner at a restaurant by the ocean! We got all cleaned up (I had to wash croc pee off of me) and then went! You could hear the ocean, but not see it because it was so dark! Our dinner was all seafood!! I thought of Kerry. I'm not crazy about seafood, but I tried it. Had some squid, fried fish, lobster...I think it's the texture I don't care for!

After dinner we had our last reflection session about the entire program! Marilyn from NSTA has convinced me to become a member of the International committee. I, of course, agreed. We discussed our goals (I had none) and how the tour went! It was a good chat.

It was our last night at villa llapas and we wanted to celebrate, but the bar was closed! Can you believe it? So we drank our own liquor in the reception area! Had a long night I chatting and Jake, Edwin, and I closed down the place after 1:30am!!