Stay on the road my son!

Ringed Kingfisher at Lake Arenal

  And you will be rewarded! This I was and not once did I venture too far from the car. After a two night stay in La Fortuna, at very good digs, Chill Out Backpackers Hostel, I thought that I would go and try some of that cloths-lining thing that those yanks went on about yesterday. I dona know how it works, but I think you wrap your grannies undies over the line that goes through the canopy of the forest, and then hold on tight to the two leg holes of the undies and kiss your ass goodbye! To get moving someone has the joy of pushing you in your back with their hands as hard as they can. Can't wait! But it didn't go to plan. So instead, kayaking in Lake Arenal for over an hour. A bit of a let down, kayaking that is, from holding and feeling your grannies undies as you go zipping through the tree tops. Never mind, somethin to dream about tonight.
  Before all of this, I stopped in a hotel car park and while I was busy taking pics of a Lesser Scaup, there was a  large green lizard, a Green Basilisk Lizard, basking in the sun next to the car.

Green Basilisk Lizard in the hotel car park.

On the small hotel pool were singles of Great-blue Heron, Least Grebe, female Lesser Scaup and this Spotted Sandpiper

Just across the road from the hotel garden there were a male  Viocoloured Trogan, 2 and this Thick-billed Seed-finch

Lake Arenel with the island 20 mile away that I kayaked to

Little Blue Heron

Amazon Kingfisher

The monster Ringed Kingfisher pushing off the Amazon Kingfisher

When we finally made it to the island, as expected there were lots of herons including Little Blue, Green-backed Heron, Snowy and Great Egret . Also in good numbers were Anhinga, Osprey and kingfishers

Banded Peacock Butterfly

   I had only just left Lake Arenal when I came to holt. In the middle of the road there was this 4x4 wagon and begging for food, over 10 Coati of all ages. The 4x4 was attracting them by dripping their fizzy pop onto the tarmac! More cars stopped when they saw what was going on and I thought it would be a good idea to move on before there is a pile up! Another half an hour I stopped again. This time Howler Monkeys were swinging from the telephone wires just above the road! Out of the car and I discovered there were a family of at least 15 in the trees nearby. Within a few minutes, there were cars starting to form a line at the side of the verge when they could see what all the fuss was about.

The males were always busy singing. This one was trying 'Hey Hey were the Monkeys'

This one was getting stuck into Aerosmith's 'Monkey on my Back' 

While this male thought he would be different and was singing The Goodies song 'Funky Gibbon'  He came across as a Bill Oddie look-like!

'Don't listen to that racket son that's going on down below. Uncle Dick never knows when to stop singing The Goodies songs and it would help if he knew the bloody words!'

'At least that's one down that I don't have to listen to singing any of those Goodies songs anymore. He didn't know the words anyway!'

  Another half an hour on the road after seeing the monkeys and some 30 Black Vultures stopped me from continuing onwards to the next destination. They were feeding on a recent road kill and guess what it was? A Howler Monkey! 

This Chestnut-sided Warbler was also next to the road

As the theme was about roads, I was going to play Willie Nelsons 'On the Road Again' But it's also about monkeys and Aerosmith's 'Monkey on My Back' was a winner. Steven Tyler did get that monkey off his back and then he went and recorded a song with Willie Nelson that Tyler wrote 'Once was Enough' He was more than likely offered a joint by the stoned Nelson.  Warning, there is bad language in this clip.