Cruise The World With Us 2026

Friday – January 23, 2026 – Puerto Limon

Today’s featured photo is of an iguana we saw relaxing (at least we think it was relaxing) on rocks near the pier to which MSC Magnifica was docked. You’ll see more photos of iguanas in today’s photos.

Today we were 3 of what must have been 3,000 who took a tour to Rio Moin (which is about 30 minutes West of Puerto Limon). Accompanying us today were 2 of our table mates – Hilda and Gerrit. The guide was Jimmy. We boarded our bus which was conveniently near the ship (as opposed to some that are parked quite a hike from the gangplank). On the way to the river Jimmy pointed out a small island off the coast of Puerto Limon where Christopher Columbus is said to have dropped anchor in 1502 – but he didn’t go ashore. I believe he was having repairs made to his ship.

On the way to our river cruise the driver found a sloth in a tree on the side of the road. Was hard to get a decent photo but there is one included of our first sloth sighting. When we reached the dock there was a covered area where we were given plantain chips and water to take with us on the boat. The boats were twin hull, open air with 2 seats on each side of a center aisle so we could all get good views.

First sighting was an iguana in a tree that hung over the river. This was a vegetarian iguana – you can tell by the skin coloring. The gray iguanas are carnivores. Shortly after viewing the vegetarian, we saw a gray iguana on the riverbank.

Next up was a nearly completely submerged caiman. We were hoping for a crocodile but didn’t see any on this river adventure. Did see many heron varieties. Jimmy probably called them out but I didn’t catch the types. You’ll find several photos of different varieties.

We encountered a family of howler monkeys that included a dad, mom and baby. More iguanas, more herons then we came across some Brazilian bats. The bats are very small and were clinging to the trunk of a tree above the river.

The “find” of the trip was a mother sloth and her baby hanging from a low tree branch near the riverbank. It was hard to get good photos due to the leaves of the tree branches, but you can see the mom’s face clearly. The sloth is the national animal of Costa Rica.

The last animal of the river trip was an anhinga. Jimmy said this bird is similar to a cormorant, but it uses its beak to spear fish rather than to grab them.

Upon our return to the dock, we found another iguana basking on the rocks. Was a fairly good sized one that would have made someone a nice lunch (iguanas are raised for food as they don’t destroy the grassland nor require cutting down trees for pasture).

This evening’s show was a reprise from Andy Bunger. This time he had a band made up of musicians from Magnifica’s staff. Andy played the vibraphone, guitar, drums and panpipes for this show. He certainly is a talented musician.

You can view today’s photos here.