All the staff wear t-shirts with Jose’s Crocodile River Tour written on them. We asked one of them if he was Jose - he said yes, he was Jos A. Another person said he was Jos B. Get it? All the staff were really nice.
It was a short walk down to the little pier where the boat was tied up. The boats are special river boats with lots of seats and a cover to protect from the sun. It was nice to get out on the water and into a cooling breeze. Our guide was so funny - so many jokes - he knew where we all were from and that we lived in Grecia and were Canadians. Icy cold bottled water was handed out about halfway through the trip, which is 1.5 hours long.
Both our guide and the boat pilot had eagle eyes and could spot the smallest lizard and the most elusive camouflaged bird. I saw bird species I have never seen before ... great egret, little blue heron, tricolored heron, snowy egret, white ibis, roseate spoonbill and boat-billed heron. Have you ever heard of the basilisk lizard? It’s also called the Jesus Christ lizard. Why? Because when it is scared, it runs across the water on its hind legs to safety and everyone says “Jesus Christ, did you see that?” That’s what our guide told us, several times. Or more likely, it refers to Jesus being able to walk on water. I’m not being sacreligous here - this is what the lizard is called. Anyway, we saw a few of them and they ran on water.
Some bird photos.
Now to the crocodiles. Our guides knew where the crocs hang out, and they knew the individual crocs, how old they were, how much they weighed approximately and whether they were male or female. They knew the territory the males patrolled and they had given them names based on their individual appearances. Same with the females. The crocs responded to whistles and would slowly glide up towards our boat.
Giving a croc a piece of chicken:
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