Advertisement
Published: February 23rd 2010
Edit Blog Post
After a very hot and humid night, we got up at 06h45 and left our bags outside to be loaded onto the bus. Breakfast consisted mainly of fruit (watermelon) and hot coffee and, immediately afterwards, our guide showed us a green poison dart frog that he'd found that morning. These creatures are very small and rather cute - though can be deadly. However, the green chap was not poisonous -
red and yellow can kill a fellow.
Boarding the bus, we headed past the white surf breaking onto Playa Negro and headed back north, away from the nearby Panamanian border. The road was very rough and we had to keep slowing down to avoid the worst of the potholes.
Bypassing Limon, we continued north, passing banana and coconut palms, through Venice, Liverpool, Bristol and Stratford, to Siquirres and on until we came to Parismina at which point we turned right, down another dirt track which would lead ultimately, some 40km farther on, to the start of the Tortuguero Canal.
He say “Yes”
Mile after mile in the air conditioned comfort of the bus, we slowly jolted our way down the dirt track, through acres and acres of
banana plantations until we arrived at a packing factory.
Bananas are a year round herb with three generations being grown simultaneously from the same tree. Only one harvest is produced per tree, hence, once the bananas have been picked, the tree is felled, to be replaced by the two offspring. In this way, bananas can be harvested continuously with three generations per tree..
In the plantation, bunches of banana shrouded within blue bags, used to keep the skins clean and insect free, hung like bags of shopping. Coloured bands not only secured the bags but also indicated which bananas to harvest and when.
A rumble indicated the next arrival of bananas from the plantation. A worker pulled a
train of 12
carriages, each of which was a bunch of bananas. These were separated and floated in water allowing any insects, etc., to escape whilst other workers sorted them into those for the local market (lower quality) and those for export; the latter being boxed and loaded into trucks and taken to Moin for export that same day. The whole operation from the moment the banana arrived in the factory to them being put in boxes was no
more than 5 minutes!
We say “No”
Leaving the factory, we continued on our way, arriving at the Tortuguero Canal some 45 minutes late. Boarding our boat, we headed roughly 30km north through the canal built in the 1960s to allow the lumber boats to avoid the Caribbean Sea a mile or so away. We saw very little from the boat due to the somewhat excessive speed, arriving at our lodge, with hoards of other American tourists in time for lunch.
Leaving our bags in our rooms, we headed back for lunch which turned out to be surprisingly good, not only in quality but also because we were away from our cousins, in a separate area (with the Canadian party!) After lunch, we boarded the boat again (with the other hoards) and headed towards Tortuguero. This little village is completely inaccessible by car/bus and sits between the sea and the canal, on a spit of land. Its main claim to fame comes from the turtles, which come to lay their eggs on the beach. Historically, these reptiles were slaughtered for their meat, live turtles being shipped to the tables of Europeans to be served as Turtle Soup.
Nowadays, the slaughter has been stopped and the area is a major conservation reserve although, at the time of writing, the turtles are still offshore.
We then walked down the flotsam strewn black sands towards the village, whose main income now derives from the turtle conservation program. There's little to see in the village, mainly little gift shops and 30 minutes in the hot sun is all that's required.
This evening, it's bed early as tomorrow, we're up early and spending a day away from the hoards.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0317s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb