Tortuguero, the life in the village draft


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Published: June 24th 2017
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Geo: 9.38945, -84.1347

Tortuguero is a nice village with lots of the charm left.
Because the lodges are not right in town, you are still in a Costa Rica
town that is not over run with touristy places. The places to stay in the village are mainly hostels and budget hotels. There are of course,
activities you can enjoy by checking with the information centers in
town.

Just a few pictures and stories of some of the interesting things we saw when in Tortuguero. The buildings for the most part of the varied pastel hues you find in many of the towns in Costa Rica. We did not take a picture of the "much anticipated" ATM machine that is coming to Tortuguero. We were told the money would come in and out by helicopter. At present, you can use colones, US dollars and credit cards in many place.

The only way to arrive in Tortuguero is either using the boats from La Pavona or flying into the small airport. As a result everything that is sold in this village arrives by boat. We watched one morning as the vegetable and fruit boat arrived to bring supplies to some of the tiendas at our end of the village.

One afternoon when we were in our room heard a very loud engine outside our window. Looked out and there was the beer boat from Limon delivering beer. There were two boat, the barge and a smaller open boat. Using a board as the conveyor, would push case after case of beer into the smaller boat and then once the order filled, put the board between the small boat and the shore and push the cases ashore. This procedure evidently happens on a weekly basis. The boat was also unloading soft drinks as well.

We had hoped to see more wildlife while we were visiting the area but we mainly saw birds. One of the unexpected sightings was spotting a hummingbird nest with the hummingbird visiting the nest several times while we were watching. Of course seeing the tamandua in two different locations was nice. We were exploring the gardens in Ms. Junie's place, when Jorge our waiter from the night before came to visit with us. He then took us over to a tree with a large gash in the side. Tried to explain what was in the gash and then clapped his hands and made noises with his teeth. To our great surprise, a snout appeared, went back down and then reappeared and showed us enough to realize we were looking at a puerco espin, or porcupine!

While eating at Wild Ginger, we were told of the Coastal Jaguar Project working with the jaguars found in the Tortuguero National Park. When you hike in the National Park, you are told you can go no further than Marker 60 and beyond this point is where the jaguars can be found. According to the researchers, these jaguars are quite healthy enjoying a diet of tapir, racoon and even the turtles that come ashore to nest.

Of course, for us, the macaws and toucans are always a treat to be seen while we are in the area where they are found. Do not know if the time of year, climate change, or what was happening, but we did not see as many of the resident birds as we have seen in the past.

Tortuguero has many choices of places to eat and we had four places we enjoyed our meals, the setting and the service. Wild Ginger, which describes their food as fresh healthy fusion and we found that to
scenes around Tortugueroscenes around Tortugueroscenes around Tortuguero

beautiful flowers everywhere
be the case. They are on the beach side and Jorge, one of the owners was very friendly and we had some interesting visits while we were there. It was interesting to hear the description of how the town changes when the turtles have come ashore and are nesting. Also interesting to hear how the young turtles when they break out of their shells become disoriented and arrive in their restaurant by the bucketful and have to be taken back to the shore! The food is well worth the visit.

Another place we enjoyed was Tuttti's. Danny, the person we were in contact with for the place we were staying, owns Tutti's. We had a very delicious lunch, with Robert having one of the local dishes of fish in a Caribbean sauce. The signs advertise it as a pizza place but they do have a variety of dishes. They also deliver pizza around the village!

We enjoyed a nice dinner and evening at Ms. Junie's Restaurant at the end of the village. The restaurant opens out to the river and we sat outside where we could hear the sounds of the evening as we ate. The food was also quite delicious and the menu was extensive. The family is one of the early settlers and they have a very interesting history on the back of the menu about life in the early days.

The last of the places was La Taberna, a local bar opening out onto the river. We happened into this place when we were looking for another place we had read about and were not finding it and decided to give them a try. The portions were nice and it was more the local fare and we did enjoy the food and watching the local scene in the bar.




Additional photos below
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scenes around Tortugueroscenes around Tortuguero
scenes around Tortuguero

entrance to Ms. Junies
puerco espin.....porcupinepuerco espin.....porcupine
puerco espin.....porcupine

our waiter from the night before saw us checking out the birds and came and talked to us and then showed us the porcupine. clapped his hands to make the little guy come out for a brief time
one of the owners of Wild Gingerone of the owners of Wild Ginger
one of the owners of Wild Ginger

both very interesting to talk to


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