Blogs from Tortuguero, Limón, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 2

Saturday Took an early morning walk on the beach, looking for birds and sand dollars. We heard and saw a couple of green macaws, but we probably won't be able to get a photo. Saw a group watching some baby turtles buried in a hole. Some babies are hatching now. On the way back stopped at the bakery and fruit market for breakfast items. We have a nice patio in front of our room, very peaceful. Breakfast pineapple was delicious. The hotel is very colorful, with a strip of jungle plants down the middle of two sets of units. There is a small restaurant area near the front where you can order breakfast if you wish. Seven hammocks are strung from a center post under a pagoda, with a great ocean view We can hear the ... read more

11 juillet : arrivée au Costa Rica ! Température : 28°-30° Humidité : maximale et beaucoup de pluie ! Monnaie : le colόn (500 colones valent un dollar américain) Nous partons de Miami très tôt le matin. Pour éviter tout stress, nous prenons une bonne marge de temps et arrivons à l’aéroport bien en avance. Et nous avons bien fait ! En effet, nous restons bloqués longtemps devant le comptoir d’enregistrement car nous n’avons aucun document justifiant que nous allons quitter le territoire costa ricain et l’hôtesse refuse donc de nous enregistrer ! Le billet tour du monde ne suffit pas et comme nous avons prévu de passer la frontière Costa Rica -Panama en bus, nous n’avons pas de billets d’avion de retour… On essaie donc, depuis l’aéroport, de prendre en ligne un billet de bus ... read more

We left Cahuita early to catch the bus to Limon (1 hour), then took a short taxi to the port of Moin to take our 4 hour boat to Tortuguero. The boat ride was wonderful, more like an excursion than just transport as the waterways through the jungle were really pretty and we saw lots of wildlife along the way. Tortuguero is even hotter than Cahuita with the same level of humidity, I'm not sure I could ever acclimatize to this. The village itself is within the national park of the same name and is completely cut off from the rest of Costa Rica by the many waterways through the jungle, so no cars here which is wonderful and the only way to get in and out is by small boat. The village (population 1200) is ... read more

Costa Rica Day 2:Alajuela to Tortuguero: After a decent cup of coffee at the hostel, we headed to the bus stop to start our trip to Tortuguero. Rather than bore you with the details of our extremely long trip to Tortuguero, I'll just to a brief synopsis. At right around 7am, we boarded a "Station Wagon" bus to San Jose. The trip took about 20 minutes and cost about 600 Colones each. From the Estacion Atlantico we grabbed a taxi to the Estacion Caribeno, paying 1,500 for the trip. We bought two tickets on the next bus to Cariari at 9am, at 1,600 Colones each, with almost an hour to wait. After a much longer, but more interesting, we pulled into the new Cariari bus station around 10:45 and boarded our final bus soon after 11am. ... read more

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 ... read more