Turtle Islands, Costa Rica

In the morning we had booked a trip to the Curu Reserve, where we were taken directly from the ship in a tender and rubber boat.

The landing was wet, meaning we had to walk the last bit through the sea to land. If it's just going to the beach that's not a problem, but here we had to dry our feet again so we could put on our hiking boots.

We walked through the reserve with a guide.

Right at the beginning we were greeted by some active capuchin monkeys at the parking lot, frolicking over the houses and trees.

A pair of iguanas also monitored the parking situation from a small overhang.

On our walk we encountered white-tailed deer, native to Costa Rica, who were looking for food in the undergrowth not that far from the road.

A coati also crossed our path.

Our guide spotted a cute squirrel in a tree, climbing over the branches with its bushy tail.

On the bank and on a tree we saw a basilisk, also called the “Jesus Christ lizard”. He can run so fast that he can run across the surface of the water - just as Jesus Christ did, according to biblical tradition.

Several colorfully feathered birds also fluttered past us - but we couldn't remember all of the names...

Back on the beach we saw a whole group of capuchin monkeys that had caught pieces of watermelon and were eating them in the tree.

After a lunch break on the ship, we took the tender and dinghy again to the beach on an island that is part of the Islas Tortugas.

We arrived around 2:30 p.m. and - just as our cruise director had predicted - we met a lot of people there, who were now slowly leaving again.

Many excursion boats go to the beach and drop off day tourists. However, around 3 p.m. most of these boats set off again and the beach quickly emptied.

But new visitors arrived: peccaries looked for what the visitors had dropped.

The cruise director said that they particularly enjoyed snacking on the coconuts that were filled with rum called “Coco Loco”…

During our walk on the beach we also ran into a peacock.

Back on the ship we enjoyed the sunset and ended our last evening on the Star Clipper relaxing.