Not So Many Turtles in Tortuguero

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We woke up early to catch our bus, praying that there would be no more delays and we might actually be able to get out of Puerto Viejo. It was raining hard but we managed to get to the bus station just in time to jump on a shuttle bus to the port where we would get on our boat to Tortuguero. With the usual Costa Rican laid back attitude, we didn't end up leaving until about half an hour later and were starting to think we might miss our boat and be stuck there another night. However, luckily - even though the bus driver even stopped half way just so he could throw himself fully into the conversation he was having with the locals in the front seat - we still made it in time.

Still raining, we watched in horror to see people being loaded on to a boat full of water and with barely any cover. But we were in luck, another guide that was organising our tour found us and took us over to another boat which had much better cover and we relaxed into the 3 hour boat trip to Tortuguero. We stopped for petrol 5 minutes into the journey, leaving both of us scratching our heads wonering why they couldn't have done this before while they were waiting around at the port. This was to be the first of many times boats, buses and taxis would stop mid journey to fill up petrol. On the way the rain eased and we were able to enjoy the natural beauty of the region, seeing monkeys, tropical birds and even a sloth! It really was like a mini Amazon.

When we finally arrived in Tortuguero, a tiny town very much geared towards tourism and nothing else, we found our hostel. It was very sweet and right on the water front, which was lovely to look out onto. We arranged to go on the Turtle tour that night and the canal tour in the morning. After wondering around the town for a little while and having dinner we rushed back to the hostel to pick up a torch, borrowed some wellies/gum boots and head off into the darkness with our guide in hope of seeing some Leatherback or Green turtles coming out onto the beach and laying their eggs.

After a brief 30 minute walk we were surprised to arrive at a landing strip where we found 3 or 4 other groups of tourists lying around. We started to wonder if we had come on the wrong tour, but soon realised that we were all just there to wait until one of the Marshalls on the beach found a turtle we could come and see. This was not what we had been expecting at all. We lay there for nearly two hours - both catching up on some sleep - waiting for some turtles to appear. Luckily, twenty minutes before the tour was meant to end, a Green Turtle finally appeared on the beach and we all hurried back along the trail and onto the beach to catch a glimpse of her. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, she had already decided that she wouldn't be laying her eggs there, and we only had a few minutes to watch her drag herself back to the sea. It was interesting to get so close to her, and she was pretty huge - about 1 and a half metres long - but we still found ourselves a little disappointed.

The next morning we had another very early start. At 6am, the two of us climbed into a small canoe and set out into the canals with a guide who spoke very little English - in fact he barely spoke at all! We set out on a two hour tour of the canals, and rainforest, which was beautiful. We saw lots of monkeys and birds. We even saw a few baby Caymans, which was really cute. Unfortunately we didn't see any Tucans, but we had been lucky to see some in Colombia and hope to see more later in the trip.

We were glad we went to Tortuguero, but were also glad to be moving on later that morning. We jumped in a water bus and headed to the mainland to get a bus to San Jose. We thought we had been lucky to get back in time to catch the early water bus but clearly our luck was out. Half way there the boat broke down and we found ourselves sitting on it in the middle of the rainforest wondering if we would ever make it out of there. When we finally did get the boat running again and made it to the mainland, we had already missed the connecting bus and ended up having to sit around for 2 hours waiting for the next one. We were not impressed.

More cursing of Costa Rica ensued, and to make matters worse when the Chicken Bus finally did arrive to take us to the main terminal, which was over an hour away, the bus was completely crammed full of people and was suffocatingly hot. We had never been so relieved to get off a bus in our lives when we finally arrived in a small town to catch the bus - which thankfully was a lot cooler - on to San Jose. We were lucky we didn't miss that one, as we arrived with just minutes to spare to stock up on water and some food.

3 hours later we finally arrived in San Jose, exhausted and not entirely happy about having to stay the night in this dirty and not so welcoming city. We found a nice enough taxi driver to take us to a hostel near the bus terminal we planned to leave from at 5am the next morning and, after finding somewhere cheap and very nearby to eat, we crashed.

Costa Rica was still proving to be our LEAST favourite country.

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