Tortuguero

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After coming back to San Jose on Tuesday night we set off on Wednesday morning to the pacific coast to the Tortuguero National Park. We had opted for a 2 nights/3days tour and ended up on a tour with 20 Spanish! Good for me as I got to practise some of spanish but still hard work. We got there in the afternoon and set off to see the village of Tortuguero. We could only reach our hotel by boat so everywhere we went had to be in this mode of transport. Tortuguero has a different vibe to the Pacific coast because it is on the caribbean side, it is very laid back and relaxed.
The next day we set off in the morning and went down rivers to look for wildlife. We saw lots of birds including herons, toucans and kingfishers, howler and spider monkeys, cayman alligator, small turtles, snakes, iguanas and little lizards. The weather was beautiful and the water looked stunning.
In the afternoon we walked through the rainforest in the National Park and saw more monkeys (up close in the trees above us), frogs, lots of spiders and lots more birds.
But the best part of Tortuguero and the main reason you go there is to see the Green Turtles on the beach at night. The female Green Turtles go to the beaches in Tortuguero only in June/July and August to lay their eggs and it is only really done between the hours of 6pm-12am. While we
were on the beach we saw a female lay some eggs, the guide told us that she had already laid about 100 eggs and would probably end up laying about 150 in the end, we later saw the same turtle covering up the eggs so that they can incubate probably. After this the turtle makes a hole with her tail so that when the eggs hatch the babies have a way out. Whilst the female is laying her eggs she is in a trance and is unaware of anything going on around her. You are not allowed to use torches when you are on the beach and the guides use infa red torches when they are on the beach near the turtles. The second turtle we saw was walking back to the sea from the nest where she had laid her eggs, although they look clumsy and slow they do actually move at quite a rate when going back into the sea.
There were a lot of people on the beach (about 40) and although obviously no-one is allowed to touch the turtles, the turtles are surely aware of our presence when it is walking back to the sea even if not when laying the eggs.....
It was very special being able to witness these amazing creatures especially as what happens does so for only 3 months a year but does also raise the question "Are we intruding too much and/or should we just let it/them be?"

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