The morning of day 6, after 5 days at sea, we docked at Puntarenas, Costa Rica for a 12 hour stay.  We had booked one excursion, a Scenic Train Ride and River Cruise.  As the excursion left at 7:30 AM, we had to get up early to get our breakfast and be ready to go.  We saw more wildlife on this excursion than on any of the later ones.

We were taken by bus from the ship to the location of the train.  The bus driver carefully positioned the bus so we could step directly from the bus onto the train car.  This avoided us having to walk in the mud that the frequent rains caused.

There was a Red Cross ship docked directly across from us at Puntarenas.  I heard one of the guides say that it was here to provide low cost or free medical help for the locals.

On our bus ride to the train, we crossed a bridge over one of the local beaches.

This is Juan, although he introduced himself as John.  He accompanied us and gave us a running description during the train ride, the boat ride, and all the bus rides.

The train cars were vintage.  There was not too much luxury here.

We passed a number of small houses along the tracks.  These tended to belong to lower middle class residents. Juan described the 5 classes of Costa Ricans:  Lower, Lower middle, Middle, Upper middle, and Upper.

This young girl kept pace with our train for quite a distance!

There were a lot of houses right along the track.  Whenever there were people, both adults and children, they would stop what they were doing and wave as the train went by.

The train stopped so we could all see a pair of Howler monkies in a distant tree.  Using my maximum zoom of 16x and cropping the picture, I got quite a close up of them. They get their name honestly!  Their cry sounds more like a number of big cats howling than sounds a monkey would make.

Again the train stopped for viewing of these Macaws.  They were really hard to initially spot, but once found, they were beautiful.

This was the train we just left.

As we got on the bus after the train ride, this boy was watching all the activities with his dog and pet parakeet.

After the train ride, we again boarded the bus which took us to a beautiful park like setting along the edge of the river.  There were several vendors selling native goods and a building with a kitchen and restrooms.  On a patio out front they were serving a wide variety of fruit.  A pair of marimba players provided constant entertainment.

After about a half hour to eat and browse the goods for sale, we boarded our boats for the river cruise.

One of the first things we saw as we approached the river boat location was this colorful display of Costa Rican towels and scarves.

A pair of marimba players kept us entertained the whole time we were there.

We have now boarded our boat and are awaiting our adventures.

The first crocodile we saw was a juvenile and was only about a foot long.

This one is certainly not a youngster!  He is about 8 to 10 feet long.  Most of the crocodiles are spotted about 10 to 20 feet from the shore, often behind dense growth.  This one was spotted through an opening in the growth.

One of the other tour groups is on a boat just like ours.

These 5 tree bats were pointed out by Juan.  I don't know how he can find things like this.  We had to hunt for a long time before we could spot them, even though he showed us exactly where they were.

Two more Macaws in a nearby tree are just as beautiful as the first ones we saw from the train.

On the bus ride back to the ship, we drove through some city areas.