Las Mirismas Lake

Another early morning found us back in the boats, preparing to travel the Upper Rio San Cristobal.  Our journey would take us to Las Mirismas, a huge, shallow lake favored by both black-belled and fulvous whistling-ducks.  As we started out from the dock in town, mist rose off the water and we pulled on extra sweaters.   Local men stood around, quietly eating breakfasts purchased from the food cart that appeared at the dock every very early morning.  Delicious smells of fresh tortillas and unknown spices wafted over to us.   The sky was a pure, clear pink with the promise of another hot day, but just then it was downright chilly. 

We drifted  quietly along the mangroves that form dense walls on each side of the river.  Tiny, brilliant mangrove warblers (a subspecies of yellow warbler, also seen) responded to a whistled owl call courtesy of our guide.  They  hopped animatedly in circles, bright rust heads and yellow breasts flashing in the early sun.  A mangrove cuckoo prowled and hopped up the branches; crane hawks and Harris’s hawks perched in high snags, watching for breakfast in the still water below. 

At Las Mirismas, purple gallinules stepped daintily in the muck caused by cattle grazing down the shoreline.  Rafts of both black-bellied and fulvous whistling-ducks darkened the lake’s horizon.  The black-bellied variety have charming hot pink legs and feet.  Barn swallows hunted around us, sometimes coming within inches of us in order to snag a particularly succulent bug.

By the time we left the lake it was hot, still and buggy.  Heat brings out the crocodiles and we were on the watch.  On the run back downriver, we spotted a sunning croc that was at least 12 feet long.  It showed us a very impressive row of uneven, pointed teeth as we sped by.

Again, back to shade, a shower and a cold beer on the patio to recount our morning’s adventures.