Tortuguero National Park (Where the turtles live)

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February 17th 2012

Published: February 17th 2012

Tuesday 31st Jan - Turrialba to Tortuguero (try repeating that after a couple of drinks!)

It didn't look that far on a map but it turns out the trip required 4 buses and a boat and after you set out without writing down the intermediate changes, where you don't have central bus stations or passers by that speak any english, it's not hard to get a little hot under the collar. Our 1st change turned out to be the hardest in Siquerries as I spent nearly an hour walking around town asking for help, getting sent in the wrong direction, before I stumbled across a stationary shop which happened to have a 1 page map of Costa Rica and the illusive town name of our next stop, Guapiles. The rest pf the journey was pretty much going through the motions as it turned out, the last leg of which was an hour long boat trip down the river and through the jungle until we finally arrived in Tortuguero, the land where Green Turtles come to lay their eggs on the beach - just not while we were there!

Wednesday 1st Feb - Tortuguero

Minus the green turtles it was still certainly an amazing place and a must visit if you go to Costa Rica. We'd checked in to Hotel Junie in the dark the previous night and after feeling like we were getting fleeced at 50 bucks we decided to move on to Hotel Icaco which offered just as good a room at half the price. We had a wander round town which takes about 5 minutes and decided to plumb for a canopy tour which is essentially zip lining through the jungle. Off we went on another boat ride across the river and not long after landing we were swinging through the trees like tarzan and going down zip lines like in the Krypton Factor. Unfortunately though we didn't get to wear out tarzan and jane outfits or brightly coloured boiler suits. Great fun and probably slightly more picturesque than Go Ape in Bracknell! For the 2nd evening in a row we lashed outon a 25 buck meal at the ever so romantic Budda Cafe on the river.

Thursday 2nd Feb - Tortuguero

Back to our early starts for a 5.30am alarm call for our canoe trip into the national park in search of crocodiles, monkeys and anything else that moves. The tour started off slowly with the occassional sighting of an Iguana or Jesus Lizard. Then we stumbled on the good stuff, a Caiman, younger cousin of the Croc, followed by rare birds, dart frogs, bright blue butterflies and finally both howler monkeys and white faced capucho monkeys before heading back to port under a sheet trying to keep dry from the passing shower. Our little canoe definitely gave us the feeling we'd opted for the economy tour as we were surrounded in the park by motorised boats but our intrepid guide swore blind that we were getting closer to the action in our stealth machine compared to our sultanad (not sure on the spelling but I'm sure you get the picture) yankee doodle friends from across the pond in their noisy juggernaut sized ships!

Friday 3rd Feb - Tortuguero to Cahuita

A welcome change for a travel day with our boat leaving at the sensible hour of 10am. Halfway along our 4 hour journey to Moin, next to Puerto Limon, and we came across the jewel of predators, a 7 foot crocodile. Rested up on the side of the river on mud pack, he was hard to see at first as are seemingly all the well evolved reptiles in the wild. We tried to get a closer look but he slipped off into the river as we approached, never to be seen again by us, apparently cautious at any passing boat as locals will often try to kill them for their skin. On arriving in Moin, we (more I) took pleasure in waving off the taxi drivers that charge 10 bucks for the 1 hour drive to Cahuita which 80% of gringos jump straight into. Instead we made the whopping saving of $7.50 along with a weirdo german couple who'd clearly never been on a bus outside of the veermark before (again not sure on the spelling but this PC is too slow to be checking and I'm sure you get the picture) as they clinged to their luggage the whole way and a pair of older ladies, 1 from Germany and 1 from Canada who enjoyed chewing our ear off about all the great trips she'd been on. Ironically the group of 6 of us were the exact same group who had toured the park together the previous day on the economy canoe tour as opposed to the motorised launches more commonly frequented by flashy big time charlies like Mark Simpson!😊 2 very sweaty hours later and we were in Cahuita. Top of our hostel list was the exotically named Shangri-la and conveniently or worringly the Italian/Eastern European sounding owner was waiting at the bus stop ready to drag unsuspecting backpackers to his lair. We went along to view his mosquito and ants nest infested room & bathroom and made the great decision to give it a miss. Having told him the bad news and dodged his rotweiler looking dogs on the way out, we were even more pleased a few days later upon reading trip advisor reviews about the place which sounded much like a 'psycho' bates like hotel. We ended up staying in a 6 foot 5 inch dark skinned gulf war veteran chaps hotel for the miserly price of 20 bucks per night which I squeezed him down to 18 a night when we found out it had no hot water as had been promised.

Tortuguero National Park (Where the turtles live)

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