Thursday March 15

TORTUGUERO NATIONAL PARK

Tortuguero is on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, just south of Nicaragua. It covers 47,000 acres, and is surrounded by 500,000 acres of rainforest. It is most famous for being the breeding grounds of 4 species of marine turtles, including the leatherback. During high breeding season, several thousand turtles will nest per night. In fact, Tortuguero means "Place of Many Turtles".

Last night we saw a cockroach the size of a volkswagon beetle, and a walking stick crawled up Frankie's leg because Anton took too long to photograph it.

They don't call it "rainforest" for nothing. It rained all night, and kept most people awake because all the lodges have tin roofs. The howler monkeys weren't really the issue!

We went for a two hour cruise through the jungle canals this morning. It rained for 75% of the cruise. The boat wasn't covered this time. They gave out rain ponchos and we enjoyed the cruise tremendously. We saw a lazy 3-toed sloth, lots of birds including toucans in flight, blue herons and snowy egrets, some giant iguanas in the trees, and monkeys. The driver found a caymen (crocodile) and took us so close that Frankie could have reached out the boat and touched it. The boat driver beached the front of the boat on a small island of reeds, letting all the rainwater in the boat drain to the back where it was bailed out. Then he scared up some "Jesus" lizards, so named because they literally ran across the water (without sinking) to get away from us. They ran on their back paws with their front paws spread up in the air, and toddled back and forth in super speed. So cute! Perhaps the nicest sighting was a giant blue morpho butterfly dipping past us in a narrow jungle channel.

We had a half hour break at the hotel and then back into the boats for a 5 minute ride to the turtle reserve. We walked along the beach (Caribbean Ocean) where the turtles come to nest, but it is off season for them. The reason they like this particular beach so much is because the sand is black, which helps retain the heat for the eggs.

We walked through Tortuguero village, a long strip of shops and homes. The sun was out and we were looking for shade, it was so hot. The concrete trail through the village ended at a sign stating that rubber boots were required beyond that point, because of the venomous snakes. There was a shop nearby renting out rubber boots if you wanted.

After 2 hours there, we were shuttled back to our resort for lunch and then almost everyone hit the swimming pool because it was so hot and sunny. The rain came just as we were finished at the pool.

There was another 2 hour jungle cruise in the late afternoon. It didn't rain, but it was overcast, which kept us from getting fried to a crisp. We saw lots of species of parrots and toucans, monkeys, another sloth, some giant lizards, and we chased a river otter down the canal until it found a fish and tottered away.

In the evening they had Caribbean music for us in the bar area, and a Caribbean dinner. We love this jungle place.
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