Costa Rica: Tortuguero

[posted by Kizzy]

We had three beautiful days in Tortuguero. It's a small place, not much happening. The most action you get around the little port where everyday tourists arrive and go! It must be funny for the 'Tico's to watch us as we arrive with our funny clothes, big bags and our wary looks. We must make for funny animals.

The village port

We made the jeep-boat arrangement with our hotel in Monte Verde. It was straight forward. We had our transfer to the port of La Pavona (north of Cariari), and there we waited for the boat transfer to Tortuguero.  As luck would have it, the tide was low and our original transfer had problems, so we had to wait an additional hour before it arrived. When it finally did, there were circa 60 people waiting, the average per boat is 30 people. So we had to hustle. You should have seen us with the rest of the people, charging to the water before the boat docked and pushing our bodies onto the boat to secure our seats. Most of us were soaking wet from waist down. Well, another boat arrived and all 60 were able to board that day. So it's a bit of a hit and miss if you do make it to Tortuguero on the day that you want. 

The main dock in La Pavona

The journey was blissful and trouble free, as we traveled some of the guides accompanying other travelers on the boat would point out to wildlife beautifully camouflaged in the green of the forest.

Capturing the wildlife

Female Jesus Christ Lizard

Life in Tortuguero is simple and revolves mainly around tourism and a bit of fishing! Tortuguero is one of the most remote places in Costa Rica and is only accessible by boat or plane. There are no cars here, none and no cashpoints. You have one main street from which all business happens, and on one side you have the river and the other you have the sea.

Local fishermen

If you walk along the beach you realise that Tortuguero is bigger than it seems.

We stayed in Casa Marbella and it was really nice but a bit pricey I'm sure. Their accommodation was better than the standard we have experienced in Costa Rica and generally they were really helpful in getting us to Tortuguero. But it's a small island and there isn't much in terms of competition so everyone kinda offers a unique service.

One of the things, that struck as a standard amongst all the lodges is the beautiful bed arrangements they do with the towels.

An elephant?

Two swans?

People generally come here to see the turtles and experience the Amazon forest through the canals! During our stay we did a night tour to see the turtles laying their eggsvisited the Tortuguero National Park.

Our favourite was the canoeing experience. Casa Marbella had a canoe available for those who wished to venture into the National Park on their own. It took us a while to get our rhythm right and once we  did it was great!

Our view

Our route

And we ventured carefully, following the river to spot wildlife. Our vocabulary here is limited and we struggle to name the many species we saw but we know this much, they're amazing.

A cayman

We paddled for about four hours and having been first timers we missed some essential rules. We paddled from 1130-1400 when the sun is at his strongest and we were wearing shorts.

From this you can deduct that we got badly burnt, well Col mostly. He kept applying sun lotion to his body but the damage was unavoidable. The sun was out and it was going to get us. We returned to the lodge, thirsty, very tired and very sore!

Ouch!

Sun burnt knees

Watching the turtles at night was an interesting experience - a waiting game! All it's done not to disturb them, and so as we come uninvited into their territory, many steps are taken to ensure that we are as invisible as possible - so no cameras, flash or lights. We were literally invisible, even to ourselves. There was one other clear advantage, we could see the Milky Way so clearly, it was surreal!

On this trek we were accompanied by a Dutch family of 5. Tamas, the father is originally from Hungary and also lived for a time in Stockholm. He has 3 great kids, 2 boys and a girl. The girl, Nina, is passionate about animals and wants to be a veterinary. They were an amazing family and had so much to share with us. Even the younger one, Luca, who did not speak English, kept passing on messages in Dutch for his family to translate in English for us!

So there we are, on the beach and it's really really dark. We're waiting for the guide to tell us when to move.  It was Nina, Tama's daughter, who first spotted a turtle making her way inland from the sea. We were really excited and all trying very hard to see - a blury shadow moving slowly across the sand. The moment finally came when the guide called us, and it did not last very long and it was uneventful, but we saw this massive turtle covering her eggs. And we watched for a few minutes. And then we all followed her as she made her return to the sea. It is beautiful, to see nature working as it should, even if you only get a small glimpse of it. We felt fortunate to be there.

Roberto, our guide, said it was not a good season. He was hopeful we'd see more - at the very least the turtle laying the eggs - and at the end of the tour he looked terribly disappointed with the whole event. Together with Tama's family we spent a bit of time cheering him up and making him feel better. It was endearing to see how much he cared. We have no pictures to show you of the turtles - we had to be invisible.  

Not sure about the order of things but at some point we visited the National Park with a guide. It worked well because that day it happened to be the National Park Day across the whole of Costa Rica and entry to the parks was free - a saving of $10. In the morning we traveled the park through the canals with a group and tour guide and in the afternoon we went by foot on our own.

A lizzie, one of many we saw

Us with the group in the canoe

Our route

The general advice to visiting the National Park on foot is that you have to wear rubber boots to enter the park - of course we didn't think much of it - but it was really hot that day. We borrowed a pair each from Casa Marbella and off we went. We saw people in the park on their flip-flops and the only other pair of people also wearing boots was another Brit couple.

The walk was entertaining, mainly for the monkeys we saw. So many that for a minute we believed they were following us.

The Tortuguero National Park was the most rewarding park up until now in terms of wildlife spotting. As we walked along the trail (sendero in Spanish), we saw these exit points towards the beach indicating where the turtles laid their eggs.

One of the exit points

Turtle nests

There were lots of lizards, amazing flora and a couple of birds. The surprise that we were not expecting were the sounds of the forest. It is actually very loud as the animals and many insects go about their business.

Col and I had many walks along the beautiful beach side, which apparently is not recommended that you swim on. You would not see locals swimming, but you would definitely see tourists. The water is so warm and inviting, it's easy to see why tourists would just ignore the advice.

We enjoyed our time in Tortuguero, if anything it was the first place where we saw 'real' wildlife. One of the mornings I watched two men returning from the sea with their day's dinner: two massive fishes. The kids in town just run around bare feet. We saw lots of stray dogs, but they're looked after by the islanders. Gina who was manning the reception in Casa Marbella, would bring her children to spend the day whilst she was working. You'd see them around most times under the watchful eye of their mum. Life seemed simple enough. There was a Caribbean feel in the island, every now and then you could smell a spliff.

Local graffiti

A local restaurant

Local Church

We had many good dinners at the Miss Miriam's restaurant, consistently good in comparison to other places here. Not to be mean but just have a look...

The menu

A local delicacy, plantain or in Spanish 'platano'

Arroz y Frijoles (Rice and beans)

Digging in!

After three days we said our goodbyes and took the boat to the port of Moin, just outside of Limon, where we took a transfer to Cahuita - a two hour journey by boat with a stop in between.

En route to Cahuita

The canal

Flamingos

For Picasa photos please click here

A few thoughts..
During our stay in Tortuguero we had the pleasure to skype with Matt and Ceri and finally meet Alice. She was very cheery throughout the conversation and totally stole the show. We had some technical problems and the sound was not working, so we used the Skype messenger and exchanged smiles over the video. It was great to see you guys, thank you very much.