Tortuguero

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So I woke up bright and early, after a long and much needed sleep to catch my shuttle to Tortuguero. Tortuguero is a national park on the northeast coast of Costa Rica where giant sea turtles lay their eggs. As I learned on my journey there, these turtles are special because none of them are recorded ever laying their eggs anywhere else. These turtles always return to the beach they were born at to lay their eggs.

As it turned out, I was on the tour with two other couples. This is fine, and unsurprising, as I opted for the slightly more expensive tour. It seemed worth it because it included meals and onward trasnport to La Fortuna. If I had to buy these in addition to the cheaper tours it would be about the same cost. They were all super nice as was our guide, a young woman Costa Rican woman who just came back from living in New Jersey with her two kids. Being both Costa Rican and from New Jersey, she was very difficult to understand and the two couples, both from Europe had a difficult time understanding her. I had to do a bit of repeating to make sure things were clear.

So our first drive was to the tour companies base. Here we had breakfast and met our guide. We then began our long drive to the port to catch a boat to the port. It was a long drive. We stopped twice, once to see a banana factor and plant, a second time to see these giant bugs. Luckily, before I left Puerto Viejo I bought a new camera. It is a terrible little camera but I was able to take some pictures. I will upload these soon (unless I sent them home with my family christmas presents???). Then we drove along the roughest road through banana plantations. Though all of us had paid a fair bit for the tour we were in a terrible minivan type vehicle and for the first time in years I started to feel carsick. I was able to lie down on the backseat though and this made me feel a bit better.

When we got to the port we took a boat up river. To get to the park you boat through a series of canals and get to see a fair bit of the park. It was very nice and we got to see many birds. When we arrived at the hotel we checked in and had lunch. It was pretty good. Then we went on a boat tour through other smaller canals. On this journey we saw small turtles, more birds, amazing trees, monkeys and those lizards who run on top of the water on their hind legs. It was very fun.

After this we were dropped off on the part of Tortuguero where the beach is. Our guide tooks us to the turtle centre and explained to us about turtles. Then we went walking along the beach to see if we could catch some turtles hatching. As we were walking along we saw a few boys with a dog. The dog was digging in the sand and our guide knew instantly what they were up to. To the little boys sending their dog hunting for hatching turtles is a game. The dogs sniff out the turtles and dig them up. This is terrible for the turtles as the dog will eat the babies and when he is finished leave them uncovered and open to danger. Turtle eggs are a delicacy in Costa Rica and many Central American coutries and it is in fact illegal to dig up their eggs. There are patrols on the beach but they mostly come out at night to make sure people do not disturb the mother turtles. Our guide shooed the boys away and we went to take a look at the turtles. They had all hatched and were starting to make their way out of the hole. Though, as our guide told us, she was not allowed to interfere with the turtles, if we had left them it is likey they would have died. She carefully took some turtles out of the hole. Some were not ready and would not move. However, others were very excited and we watched them scurry away into the ocean. In the meantime the boys uncovered another turtle nest. We tried to save these turtles as well but they were not ready or strong enough to come out. In the end we lightly reburied the turtles in hopes they would make it out, but it was uncertain. Sadly, we saw a dog eating one of the straggler turtles. It was both and interesting and saddening experience.

Afte this we went back to the hotel for dinner, which was pasta, no big surprise, and it was pretty tasty. Our plan for the evening was to go and see the turtles laying eggs. The price as advertised in the brochure was lower than the actual price we had to pay. This ticked us off a bit, as did the fact that we did not have hot water but were paying for a nice hotel, but there is little you can do about some of these things. We agreed to the price and went off to change into dark clothes.

Back in the national park, we met our guide and he took us along a road behind the beach. We had to wait in our group to be called along to see the turtles. In order to preserve the turtles and make sure the mothers lay their eggs safely people with the turtle conservation association police the beach for turtles and call into the main area to let groups know when a turtle is coming ashore and where they should go to see the turtle. We waited patiently and asked the guide some questions. He was pretty friendly and as it turned out had been a turtle guide for close to twenty years. The turtle situation has changed greatly, he told us, before people were quite insensitive to the turtles to the point where the guides would let tourists grab on to the turtle´s shells and be dragged along behind them. So he said.

Luckily we did not have to wait long to go and see the turtles. We walked further down the beach and waited silently in the dark. There was a turtle laying eggs. Our guide went to check it out. She was feeling out the area but did not stay to lay eggs. At this point we were allowed to go on the beach and watch her walk and swim away. At the same time we were able to observe a group further down the beach checking out an egg laying mother. We went back to the shade of a tree and soon our guide had another call on his walkie talkie. There was a mother down the beach laying eggs. He left us to check it out and told us we could come and see.

To see a mother turtle laying eggs the guide waits until she has chosen her spot, dug her hole and begun the egg laying process. Mother turtles lay over a hundred eggs at one time and if you get there in the middle of the process they will not be scared off. While the whole thing was very intresting I felt very bad for this mother turtle and for our voyeurism as human tourists. As she was laying eggs the guide help back her flipper so we could get a better look at the process. He was actually touching this mother as she laid eggs! I knew this is what I had paid to come and see but I could not help but feel we were being incredibly invasive. After getting the gist of the situation I stepped back and let the others watch. When she was done laying her tiny moonlike eggs, the mother covered her eggs and we watched her leave the beach.

The main even over we headed back to the main town. Our guide was good but we were not expecting to tip him. Especially when we had to pay more than we expected. You are also not required to tip at all tourist events in Costa Rica, but our guide was a bit ticked I think. When you are in a group though this is easier.

That night it poured rain. We had expected to go to the beach to look for more baby turles and to watch the sunrise, but at 5 a.m. it was impossible. Not unhappily, I slept in.

Upon getting up I went to have breakfast and then the four of us heading on to La Fortuna left with our guide. The drive back to the tour company office was a bit better as we were in a jeep. There we got lunch and were put on a large shuttle to La Fortuna. This drive was also a bit crazy as we had to take many winding roads on which were also many large trucks. Several times we had to stop at a bend in teh road, in line with a dozen other cars as we waited for the trailer truck ahead of us, or coming in the other direction, to make an effective turn. It was a long ride.

We made it to La Fortuna though and I was dropped off at Bueno Bonito Barrato, where I began my last entry. I was a bit dismayed by the dorm as there was no real lock on the door or security box so I splurged a bit and got my own room.

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