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Published: January 13th 2012
Rivers
The river on the left comes from a volcano and the one on the right traveled through the jungleWhile I prepared a very detailed itinerary for our vacation I decided that it may be better not to book all the accommodations in advance. This allowed me to alter the itinerary and if I were to dislike the accommodations I planned to use I could just move to the next hotel...no money lost...no issues.
Other then the airfare and the first night of accommodation which where purchased in advance I also contacted a guide from Tortuguero to assist me with a transfer to the village and guidance to find accommodations there.
Rafael, our Tortuguero guide, arranged our transfer from San Jose to Tortuguero with Jungle Tom Safari, a family owned tour company which offers day trips and transfers to various places. Tom met us in the hotel lobby and after he asked us if we speak Spanish (which we honestly answered...a bit) he asked us to wait for him in front of the hotel for 2 minutes so he can run across to pick more passengers up. While waiting for him to return I started wondering how this transfer, which was part of a tour, would play out since Tom only spoke to us in Spanish.... The pleasant
surprise came when we were all on the minibus and Tom announced us that since most passengers were English speakers the tour will be in English...and his English was perfect, no accent at all.
We were up for a long transfer first by minibus then by boat, but with Tom as our guide it turned to be the most wonderful tour we had so far, we learned so much from him about the history, geography, fauna, and flora of Costa Rica and the conversations did not stop there...from jokes to geology and philosophy I believe we touched all the subjects and Tom never ran out of a subject to talk about. The years of experience and love for his country and his job were really obvious...I would confidently recommend him to any friend or client.
The first wonderful stop was to view a point were two rivers join, one was coming from a volcanic mountain and was very rich in sulfur, from the top of the bridge it looked muddy and yellow, the other was coming from the jungle and had a wonderful blue/green colour.
Some time later we stopped at Rancho Robertos, a ranch style restaurant
Rancho Robertos
The famous restaurant known for the traditional dishes. Located on the Atlantic road at a cross to Sarapiqui and Limon it is a must try for anyone driving by. Our breakfast included fresh fruit, eggs, the traditional Gallo Pinto (rice and beans), and a coffee to die for.
After breakfast we visited a banana plantation where we learned a few interesting facts like the use of blue bags covering the bananas to ensure all the bananas riped at the same time avoiding a waist of crop, also that green bananas are toxic and can not be consumed off the tree....so if you ever wonder why you got tummy aches after eating an unripe banana, now you know... but what impressed me the most is that nothing was going to waste. The banana shoots where being sent to be transformed into paper, toilet paper and other things.
Going Green was a theme we encountered very often almost everywhere we turned in Costa Rica.
Leaving the plantation the minibus slammed the breaks and before anyone can start asking why we stopped so abruptly in the middle of an empty road, we were invited out to view a young Three Claw Sloth. We
Cross Roads
Across from Rancho Robertos learned that this extremely slow animal has virtually no natural predators and that was attributed to the toxic algae growing on its fur, and if need be this animal would make good use of it's long strong claws normally used for climbing and hanging on trees.
A very short distance away from the sloth we also had a chance to view howling monkeys playing in the trees at the edge of the road.
Our last part or the transfer/tour was by boat...probably the uncomfortable part for my husband who does not swim and is uncomfortable when not on solid ground, but faced with a choice between a boat or a small airplane the boat won.
Once everyone was aboard the brim of the boat was very close to the water which did not help in adding any confidence, however once we got going and after a few relatively fast turns and no water entering the boat we relaxed a bit...at least I did.
The view of the jungle overgrowing on the sides of the canal was breathtaking. Tropical flowers, birds and animals welcomed us at every turn of the canal. We could not wait to arrive
in Tortuguero and explore more of this wonderful place.
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