First off; Happy Birthday to my Dad, who is 81 today (Feb 6)!

OK, today Ann and I went on a jungle tour. Our friends John and Tiffany from the sailboat Michaela, who are anchored next to us in Bahia Matanchen came as well. (Pictures tomorrow when we’re in town with the wi-fi)

We rendezvoused at Charisma and in our two dinghies headed into the beach at Playa Elita where we landed through the surf and pulled the boats high up on the sand. After asking the folks at the beach restaurant (a thatched hut with chairs and tables in the sand) if they would watch our boats and promised in exchanged to have dinner there when we got back, we struck out on foot down the dirt road to the main (two lane) road into town.

At the crossroad are some vendors who sell delicious treats like home-made banana bread and the most amazing macaroons. We bought a few treats and headed a hundred meters or so to the entrance to the jungle tour. It’s Mexican style. Basically, you have pangas with bench seats that will hold about 15 people that take you up into the mangroves and jungle. It’s real, not Disney. The pangadero doesn’t speak English, but we have enough Spanish so we get by.

Our jungle tour driver

Sometimes you’re making breathtaking speed around blind corners in a swamp that is barely wide enough for two boats to pass and guess what? At the epicenter of the corner you meet another speeding panga and miss him by about a foot at a passing speed of about 30 miles/hour. But, they know what they are doing. Good boatmen these and when they are not doing tours they are fishing on the ocean.

So, we were about 5 minutes into the tour and the guide slows down. We look to the side and there, not 20 feet away laying on a tree root a little above the water is a crocodile with his mouth wide open. Was he just waiting for one of us to jump in?

Just sitting there catching flies

Another Croc just a bit upriver

Turtle. The crocs will eat them if they can.

Turns out, the open mouth is how they cool themselves. Fast forward an hour of swamp journey and a half dozen more crocs of different sizes from 4 feet to about 14 feet, we arrived at the croc zoo. I think it’s there so if you don’t see any crocs along the way you won’t feel slighted because you can get right up to a croc in this place. You are only separated from them by a cyclone fence. In fact, I was able to touch one croc’s leg who was lying right up against the fence. It was not what I expected from these touch, prehistoric characters. It felt like, ah, well…a purse. Yup, kind of soft and supple under the tough leathery surface. Then he twitched and turned his three inch long teeth toward me and I yelped, jumped about three feet and decided I’d had enough crocodile touching for the day.

Too close for comfort

In the zoo area, we also saw a jaguar. One of the most beautiful animals I have ever seen. Just stunning colors and pattern.

All in all, a very successful tour followed by taking the bus into San Blas to walk around a bit including down to the marina where we ran into some friends who were staying there but coming out to anchor in the bay with us manana.

The end of the day included sunshowers on the foredeck with the almost full moon rising behind us and a fantastic, flame-red sunset in from of us.

The sunset shower.

We like this area and are going to stay another two days before moving on.