Sunday, Oct 17, we headed to Monkey River w/ Sharon and Randy Sr., and Jenny and Brent (Randy's siblings). Monkey River is not a "scenic" river, but it does support abundant numbers of wading birds, iguanas and Morelet's crocodiles. 
Additionally, it rpovided the only opportunity for the Cartwrights to see howler monkeys, which none of them had seen before.
It took a surprisingly long time to arrive to this point. After an hour long drive south to Independence, we boarded a boat and traveled through the lagoon for ~45 mins before arriving at the entrance to Monkey River. En route we encountered dolphins, 
and brown pelicans,
We had yellow-crowned night herons, little blue herons, but the hihglights were bare throated tiger heron (below) and boat-billed heron.
We also had lots of kingfisher sightings, including the green kingfisher (below):
The guide, Ralph, also took us on a tour inside the jungle. I am not sure if I have ever encountered more mosquitos! They were swarming each of us by the hundreds. Luckily we managed to escape the jungle with nary a bite, thanks to lots of icky deet spray that we applied when we got off the boat. We also saw these really neat little bats hanging out on the underside of a tree right along the water's edge. They blended in so well that my little point-and-shoot did not take very good photos.
Along this walk was the only place we saw native bamboo. 
And for the grand finale, we went on the hunt for manatees! randy and I had actaully seen one in the ocean our first day at Hamanasi, but it was just a quick glimpse. We were able to see the manatee and her calf come up numerous times, but due to the brackish water, we only glimpsed them for a few seconds at a time and it made for difficult photography and videography.
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