Wednesday March 14

SAN JOSE TO TORTUGUERO

The population of Costa Rica is currently 1.3 million. Costa Rica means "Rich Coast". The Spanish named it such when they landed and saw all the natives decked with gold baubles. Little did they know that the gold really came from Peru; the Costa Ricans were trading vegetables for gold.

This morning we left our comfy hotel in San Jose. We drove through Braulio Carrillo National Park. Braulio and Tortuguero National Parks average over 190 inches of rain per year. Today we had sunny periods, followed by sudden unexpected rainshowers. We never knew what to expect from one minute to the next.

We stopped at a restaurant for lunch that had a beautiful enclosed butterfly garden. We loved the gigantic blue morpho butterflies.

We stopped at a banana plantation and watched the busy workers. Each banana plant (not tree) produces only one bunch of bananas, and it takes half a year for them to grow. They are picked 30 days early for shipment to Canada and the US. The stalk of bananas was hooked onto an overhead tram which brought the bananas from the field to the processing area. Then bunches of bananas were separated from the stalk (they say 60 to 80 bunches per stalk), thrown into a big vat of water and disinfectant, inspected for grade, and packaged into plastic wraps being sold under the DelMonte name.

In the early afternoon we reached the dock where we left the bus behind and the majority of our luggage. We were only allowed a small bag each, to serve for the next few days. We boarded a covered boat and cruised through jungle rivers and canals for 2 hours to reach our jungle lodge. We did see a roseate spoonbill water bird, and a caymen (small crocodile).

Our lodge is very interesting. Set in the jungle, our cabins are all separate and very basic. There is no glass on the windows, just screens, so we are told to expect an early morning wakeup call from the howler monkeys, which can be heard from over 2 miles away. There are lots of birds, and we really enjoyed watching the long line of leaf-cutter ants carrying leaves and twigs in a single file line until we found the spot where they popped down into the hole of their nest.

We went for an explore before dinner. There is a bar area, a spa, a turtle shaped swimming pool, and a restaurant. We had an orientation in the restaurant before dinner. After dinner we discovered that there is free wifi available, so we could send the blog!
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