Sierpe River Wildlife Tour
We recently met a couple at BINGO in Ojochal who recommended that we take the Kokopelli Sierpe River Wildlife Tour in Sierpe –in fact, they’ve gone on it at least four times and take all their visitors on the tour. That was impressive enough for me to book a tour with them.
Kokopelli Tours specialize in small groups (min. 2 people) for mangrove and wildlife tours on the Sierpe River. We contacted the tour company, via email, on Wednesday afternoon, and they responded within 30 minuntes. It was great to hear that they have tours every day of the week, so we could make the tour fit into our schedule. We set up our tour for Monday 8:30am.
Kokopelli Tours Tour Basics
My husband and I were the only two people on the tour; along with the guide/boat driver. Our tour guide was:
- English speaking
- Very knowledgable about the wildlife; and
- AMAZING at spotting the animals for us to see!!
The tour left a little earlier than 8:30, since we were the only guests and we were there and ready. The tour lasted 3 hours!!!! and we were provided 2 drinks each (either water or Tropical brand fruit juice).
The boat was a smaller size, which was nice; as we were able to go down some of the smaller river pathways that other boats couldn’t—however, the seats in the boat were on the sides and faced inwards, so it made it difficult to sit comfortably and see all the animals (as the boat is cruising down the river). Don’t get me wrong, we SAW all the animals, and the guide made sure to slow down/stop, back-up, and even turn around to ensure we got a good view–and as long of view as we wanted.
Sierpe River The Wildlife
Lizards
Right after pulling away from the dock behind the tour building, we stop next to the shore (by someone’s house!!) and we see at least 15-20 green iguanas. Big ones, fat ones, males, females, some sitting, some crawling, some in the trees….and some eating!!! I have never seen so many iguanas in one area out in nature! It was amazing–tour would have been worth that alone!
It seems that there may have been some food left for them, hence the number of them in one area.
Two iguanas photographed on the tour. We saw several other green iguanas sitting on tree trunks, along the river during our tour. But we were also able to see two different Jesus Crist lizards–one posing….and the other one was running on top of the water (hence their name). I wish we could have got a picture of it running on water, but hence that’s not how pictures work!
During the course of the tour, we saw many other green iguanas sitting on tree branches along the river; however, we were also able to see 2 Jesus Crist lizards!! One was posing, but the other one was running ON water (hence its name)! I wish we could have gotten a picture of that one–but movement doesn’t show well in pictures and not to mention it was FAST!
One of many iguanas we saw Birds
We saw lots of birds, but some specific, unique and rare ones we saw were:
- Green Kingfisher
- Green Heron
- American Pygmy Kingfisher
- Amazon King Fisher
- Wood Stork
- Yellow Crowned Night Heron
- Boat Billed Heron
- Barn Owl
- Scarlet Macaw
- Little Blue Heron
Yellow crowned night heron Do bats count as birds??? I know they’re mammals but heck, they fly, right? LOL maybe I should have used the title “flying things”.
Bats on a tree. Things in trees
Probably the best part of the tour (for me), was seeing the animals in trees… monkeys, sloths, and raccoons (okay I’m from the USA and I could see these nightly on my back deck, but the ones in Costa Rica are smaller and cuter!).
I love that I got to see these in real life versus at the sanctuaries here!
Monkeys
We were able to see 2 of the 3 monkey species found in Osa Peninsula; Squirrel Monkey and Howler Monkey.
Two howler monkeys 
Howler monkeys climbing on bamboo trees 
Squirrel monkeys in bamboo cluster. Two-toed Sloth
Two-toed sloth Things in and near the water
Okay these are the animals that give me the creepy crawlies….and sometimes nightmares—yes, the snakes–but guess the crocodiles are pretty cool–since I’ve never seen them in the wild!
We saw two different Tree Boas —or course sleeping!
Tree boa constrictor Yep we saw a crocodile–and they can get up to 18 ft long (average is 14 ft)–this one was a little smaller at only 9 feet!! YIKES!!
Crocodile in the Sierpe River Scenery
While the animals were amazing, we don’t want to forget about the scenery!
Siere River 
Bananas We LOVED this Sierpe River Wildlife Tour and give it a 4.8 out of 5–and we’ll definitely bring our guests to enjoy this amazing hidden gem in Osa Peninsula.
Amy & Jason