Living with the turtles!

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Well, I'm staying in Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast for the weekend...well, this is my last night here...I'm staying at place called Turtle Beach Lodge, which is absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend it. Tortuguero is a tiny tiny town that can only be reached by boat or light plane, as it is surrounded by water: the caribbean sea on one side and lagoons and rivers on the other side. Turtle Beach Lodge is also only accessible by water. On one side of the property is the sea, and on the other side the lagoons. There's jungle tours here, kayaking, boat tours, garden tours, hiking tours on Tortuguero Mountain and night watch tours for turtles. That's the reason I really wanted to come here: the turtles. Tortuguero is the nesting grounds for over 3,000 green turtles, along with leather backs and hawksbills. I'll go into more detail about the turtles, but I'll start at the beginning.
So on Friday night I went to stay in San Jose because the tour only picks you up from hotels in that area. It was a pretty stressful ride since I really didn't know where I was supposed to get off, and the bus driver had no idea what I was talking about. Luckily I recognized the KFC across the street from the hostel and the bus driver very kindly made an extra stop. However, it had been pouring rain (so I was soaking wet, and so were all my things) and as I stepped off the bus, I slipped and fell about 2 feet onto the ground....a nice smooth exit. Classic Kristi. So my leg is all black and blue and my ankle was swollen. A few other things didn't exactly go well for me that night, but I won't go into it. The one thing that topped it all of was in the morning when I thought my alarm didn't go off...the tour was supposed to pick me up at 6:10am, and when I looked at the glowing hands on my clock, I thought it said 6:00. So in a panic I jumped out of bed, slid across the floor and landed on the same damaged leg... Luckily, I had the room to myself so I didn't wake anyone up. The killer: it was only 5:00. I've done this so many times during this trip, it's sickening.
Anyway, the trip to Tortuguero was beautiful. We traveled across the central mountain range, which was absolutely breathtaking. We drove through cloud forests, rainforests, and at the bases of mountains with waterfalls cascading down the sides. We had to travel down a lot of dirt roads and thru some banana plantations, and I finally got to see a group of howler monkeys. They're a lot smaller than I thought they were, which makes the sounds they make that much more impressive. We stopped at an open-air restaurant along the way and had a typical Tico breakfast. We then eventually came to a little harbour where we all got into our boat taxis. It took about an hour by boat to reach the town of Tortuguero, with wildlife sightings along the way. We stopped in at Tortuguero to look around for a while before going to the lodge. The town is soooo small, but really cute. You can walk from one end to the other in like 2 minutes...it's basically just one road. The coast is gorgeous, but has a lot of sharks and riptides.
We then headed to the lodge further down the river. A tour of the National Park was supposed to be included, however every time we go to the reserve, nobody's there. It sounded like they took the weekend off and will be back on Tuesday (when we're all gone). Things aren't always very well organized here...So we had the afternoon to do what we like. I went for a long walk along the beach. It's so secluded here. They have hammocks hung up along the coast, so I've been relaxing there a lot: reading, writing, etc. Then at night we went on a turtle watch (the whole reason I came).
We left on our walk at about 9:30 and walked for an hour without seeing anything. Then we stopped and sat on the beach for an hour in silence, letting it get darker and giving the turtles time to come to shore. We had to wear all dark clothing, couldn't wear bugspray, couldn't talk, no cameras, and could only use a couple of red flashlights to navigate our way. The turtles are extremely sensitive, and if they sense you coming, they won't nest. It was a weird feeling being in the dark, walking in lines of two without saying a word. You could only really see anything when the lightning lit up the sky, and the stars were spectacular. After sittingfor an hour, we headed back the way we came and soon found tracks heading towards the tree-line. It was a green turtle, approx. 25-30 years old (so I'm told). She had just arrived on the beach so we left her alone for about half an hour to let her do her thing. She ended up getting tangled up in all the driftwood and vegetation and didn't end up laying her eggs. I think we probably stressed her out as well. She headed back down to the ocean and we all stood in a line perpendicular to the shore to watch her go back in the water. We had to stay behind her at all times, but I felt kind of guilty that we were all crowding around her. I'm sure it was intimidating. But maybe they're used to it since they're tagged and so closely monitored...but probably not, and I'm just trying to justify it. It was an incredible experience though, and it made me so happy. Watching her disappear into the ocean was amazing.
We got back to the lodge at around 1:30 and then had to get up at 4:30am to go on a boat tour this morning...talk about a short night. However I did get to have the first truly hot shower since I got to Costa Rica. And I've been converted into a coffee drinker so it's been keeping me going. (I have no choice...it's all my homestay family drinks...)So this morning we went on another boat tour and saw tons of wildlife. Later in the afternoon we went on a jungle tour around the property. We had to wear huge rubber boots because the mud was so thick. My boots got stuck several times, and this couple from Spain had to keep pulling me out. I'm a great person to have along on a tour =) As usual, it was super hot in the rainforest, and we had to wear long sleeves and pants because of the mosquitoes. My jeans were covered in mud by the time I got back. It was a beautiful area, but so much time was spent watching your step and getting stuck in the mud, that it wasn't as enjoyable as other hikes I've been on. The vegetation was really cool though. I felt like I was in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids." I did get to see several red poisonous frogs, which made it all worthwhile. The rest of the afternoon was free, so I hung out at the beach and at the pool. The meals here have been delicious, and are included in the tour =D Tomorrow morning I'm heading back to San Jose and then to Cartago. August 15th was Mother's Day, so this is a long weekend. Hopefully my trip from San Jose will be better than the last one. Being in Tortuguero has reignited my love for Costa Rica. I'm definitely not ready to go back to Cartago. I'm planning on waking up extra early so that I can enjoy the beach before we have to leave, but I may feel differently when morning rolls around.
Next week I'm taking Monday off so that Sharon and I can go to Volcan Arenal, and then I'll be home before I know it! I can't get over how quickly it's going by. Anyway, I should go to bed. It's an early start tomorrow, and the internet is super expensive here. Oh and Andrea, happy belated birthday! I'm sorry I couldn't call you. I couldn't find an int'l phone card. And I tried to send you an email tonight, but hotmail won't work for some reason. Ok, now I'm really done. Hope all is well with the friends and fam. See you soon!

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