Turtle Travel

Tortuguero is located on the Northeastern coast of Costa Rica. The two-soccer-field-width village is bordered on both sides by water. The crashing Caribbean Sea to the east, and tranquil rivers to the west. The Caribbean influence was immediately evident throughout town. Every other Cabina was called "Miss this" or "Miss that," the locals were of African descent, their English had some twang and cadence of Jamaican English, and the laid back friendly atmosphere was contagious. The village had no cars, just black sand paths, or some raised cement catwalks (for heavy rains). Little children ran around barefoot chasing soccer balls, riding their father's-far-two-big-bike, or dipping their barbies in swampy puddles while playing imaginary games.



We were there at VERY low season, since turtles don't start laying their eggs on the shore until March. However, there was still plenty to see and (on account of unfortunate public transport timing) too little time to see it.

To 'maximize' our time we left San Jose on a 6am bus and arrived to Cariari at 8am. But, the bus from Cariari to La Pavona didn't leave until noon (though we had been informed, by the omnipresent, though not omnipotent, travel bible the Lonely Planet that buses left every hour...hm), and boats from La Pavona to Tortuguero (the only way to get to the village) only left after the bus arrived. So tired and hot, we killed 4 slow hours in Cariari. The town was not unpleasant, just... n'est pas amusant. We did however see a SLOTH in the park that climbed from a chain-link fence about a foot in front of us up into a tall tree. That was pretty neat.

The bus ride from there to La Pavona was quite beautiful, through a land of happy grazing cows, and banana plantations (I may have passed that Chiquita Banana you will eat next week!). Then it was an hour boat ride to Tortuguero. The boat ride was straight out of a BBC tropical jungle river documentary. I could almost hear the British narration as we rode along. The river is said to be home to many cocodrilos, and I held my breath at the sight of every floating log, thinking it was a snappy reptile.

By the time we arrived it was 2pm and we had been traveling for 8 hours and had less than 24hrs to discover the secrets of Tortuguero (we had to leave on an 11:30am boat the next day to make it to the bus to San Jose).

That afternoon we explored the town. We at lunch at Budda Cafe (delicious salad and a fresh blended melon drink). We watched monkeys climb/and eat up in the tops of trees. We spotted some Oropendula birds and nests. We looked at the black sand beach that was littered with fallen coconuts. (I wouldn't have been surprised if Jack Sparrow popped out riding two leatherback turtles, holding a bottle of rum). As the sun went down we sat and watched some children playing on the couch on the porch of our room. We hardly lasted until dark and basically 'napped' until I woke up a few hours later to put my pj's on and go to sleep.



We woke up at 5:30 too go on a 6am canoe tour. This was pretty neat, and our guide had a ridiculous knack to spot animals. He would literally pick out small completely camoflaged green lizards from 10 meters away. He could also identify birds/monkeys from their call. On the two and a half hour ride we saw: spider monkeys, howler monkeys, Basilisk lizard also known as the Jesus Christ lizard for its ability to walk on water (don't worry kids, I didn't look directly into his eye), many birds (blue egrets, white egrets, green herons, kingfishers, and a few others), a river otter, toucan, and a Caiman! The caiman was actually pretty cute and not as scary as I expected.



When we got back from out excursion it started to DOWNPOUR. The rain was so loud that under the zinc roof you couldn't hear to the person talking next to you. When it let up for a moment we rented some required rubber boots, entered the national park and waded/walked through the paths for an hour. It was actually quite splendidly fun to wear the rubber boots and just traipse through the ankle deep muddy puddles and stay perfectly dry.



We had to get back to catch the 11:30 bus and started the long route home. (Although, it was better timed in this direction and we got home at 5pm).