Tortuguero, Costa Rica – April 23-25, 2011

The 23rd was an early one: up at 5 a.m. for 6 a.m. departure to the coast and stopped at 7:30 a.m. just at a crossroads for breakfast in a nice restaurant.  The road to this point was very good as we wound our way through the volcanic mountains that surround San Jose.  The whole area is virgin forest as it is part of Braullio Carrillo National Park, over 450 square kilometers of protected area.  We had to go through one of the passes so had some amazing views of the countryside during this part of the trip.  Eventually we arrived at a much flatter part of the country and for the last hour or so of the journey we only had very bumpy gravel roads.

At 8:45 we started driving past large fields of bananas and apparently this is one of the larger plantations in the country.  We stopped at a processing or packing plant (not sure what they call it) for a quick look at the operation.  It is right at the side of the road but also right in the middle of all the fields of bananas.  There are long lines of pulleys that stretch in every direction and runners come running down the line pulling hundreds of bunches of bananas behind them.  I assume someone else, like the pickers, put the large bunches of bananas on the pulleys and every so often the runners just start pulling them into the plant.  The bunches of bananas that come in this way are all 2-3 feet long and look very heavy.  Someone at some point has inserted cardboard pieces where the bunches within the bunches exist. 

The first people in the plant have the job of cutting the big bunches of bananas that were still hanging on the pulleys into smaller bunches of bananas – maybe 6-10 bananas per bunch – and throwing these smaller bunches into the pools of water behind them.  The bananas float and they are sprayed in the tanks so they get clean and they move automatically to the next station.  The next person takes the bananas from the water and puts them in a tray and puts the tray on a conveyer belt.  The next people trim the bunches of bananas and at some point after that the bananas get bagged and labeled.  That part of the operation was a bit further away from our viewing point.  The last part of the process has someone taking the bagged and labeled bunches and putting them into cardboard boxes for shipping. 

The whole process moved very quickly and it was interesting to realize that the bananas were picked, moved from the field to the plant and then packed and ready to be shipped in about half an hour.  I wonder how long it takes for them to get from there to my local grocery store.  I like my bananas firm and these looked ready for me to eat.  They weren’t really green as I’d always imagined them when picked.  And I should also mention that all of the first really large bunches of bananas are covered in blue plastic.  That’s how they grow on the tree and the bag keeps the sun from burning them and protects them from the bugs and any fertilizers or pesticides that might be used.

There were people at the plant selling fresh coconut and they had some really big beetles on sticks of sugar cane so we were taking pictures of them.  They were brown horned beetles almost four inches long.  They seemed rather stupefied and I don’t know if that’s what they are always like or whether the hot sun and all the sugar cane they were eating had affected them.  I was just glad I’d seen them there in the great outdoors and not somewhere in my room.

There were lots of banana fields as I already noted and there were also pineapple fields and palm oil fields and coffee fields.  It was a very fertile area and the crops were very healthy.  Obviously the area wasn’t rich enough to do anything about their bumpy stone roads (I’m no longer calling them gravel) but we did survive.  At one point along the way the guide got out and went into the forest and came back to the van with a big leaf with a tiny red frog on it.  We all tried to take pictures of it before it hopped away but it was a very active frog.  We also stopped twice along the way to see two different sloths.  I never really did see the first one but the second one was quite clear.  He moved around the tree quite slowly and even hung upside down for us as if posing for photos.  I no longer remember whether he was a two-toed or three-toed sloth but the guide did tell us how to tell the difference.  I just don’t remember what he said.

We eventually arrived in a small port town and boarded our boat for Tortuguero.  It was almost a two hour ride on very calm waters with lots of vegetation on both sides.  The boat was small but had a cover so it was a very relaxing ride on a hot sunny day.  Our pilot and guide were both really good at spotting animals and birds and we made several stops along the way.  We saw herons and other birds whose names I have forgotten, and caimans whose name I didn’t forget.  Caimans look like alligators or crocodiles as they are of the same family but caimans are usually smaller.  I know alligators and crocodiles are not the same but can never remember the difference except one has a pointed head and one has a more rounded head.  Just to make things more complicated, a caiman is an “alligatorid crocodilian”, which to me sounds like it is a bit of both.  I remember that caimans have stronger next muscles than the other two and can raise his head quite high, and I think he has a pointed mouth instead of a round flat one but I’m not totally sure. 

We arrived at our resort about 12:30 p.m. and had lunch at 1 p.m.  We then had a quick tour around the resort before heading out on another tour at 3 p.m.  The resort is on one of the canals that run through the area of Tortuguero National Park.  Most of these canals are natural and formed when the salt water meets the fresh water from the rivers and silt and sand start to build up until an island is formed leaving just a canal or waterway.  Some of the canals are man-made though and were used for floating timber out of the area back before the park was created.  Now that it is a national park nothing can be cut or removed from the area.  The 312 square kilometer park is on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and includes coastal waters, sandy beaches, lagoons, swamps and rainforest.  As a result it has a great diversity of flora and fauna and that’s why everyone comes to visit even though you can’t get here other than by boat. 

Our 3 p.m. tour was to the museum and to get there we had to get in another boat and go over to the town of Tortuguero.  There are small boats full of tourists going in all different directions as tour operators pick up and drop off at various resorts around the area and take the tourists to see all the sights.  The museum is very small and our guide said we could go to the beach and he would tell us about everything that was in the museum so that’s what we did.  The island is very narrow so it probably didn’t take even five minutes to get out of the boat, walk to the museum and then beyond it to the sandy beach on the other side.  There we found a long sandy beach that was almost deserted and beautiful blue water of the Caribbean.  They discourage swimming in the water and there was no one in the water at any time we were on the beach.  I guess perhaps the caiman don’t make good swimming companions.

This beach is really important as a nesting area for green turtles and also lesser so for leatherback, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles.  Our guide explained why the area was so important, when each of the groups of turtles were active and how the park protects them.  He also talked about how the islands and canals were formed and told us about the town and the national park.  It was a short talk but it was good especially since we were on the beach and it was a beautiful day and there was a cool wind blowing off the water. 

From there we took a walking tour of the town and that didn’t take any time at all.  Because the island is so narrow there is not room for any width to the town.  At one point there might be two streets but don’t think cars or anything because there aren’t any in this little town.  Tortuguero and the surrounding area have a population of 1,500 and it takes all of ten minutes to walk from one end of the town to the other.  Yet people live here year round.  They have a school and clinic and a number of hotels, restaurants, pubs and souvenir shops for the tourists, and tourism is certainly what keeps them alive.  The buildings are all very small and basically only one storey.  Some of the ones near the water are on stilts but the tides are very low here so there is not much change in water level at any time of the day or of the year, whether it is dry or rainy season. 

We then went back to our resort by boat and had two hours to explore before dinner.  The area is very isolated and the Evergreen Resort is very rustic, as they all are in this area.  There is no internet so we didn’t bring laptops with us so we just had to enjoy our surroundings.  The rooms are individual bungalows or cabins and they are all on stilts about ten feet off the ground.  There is a pathway about six feet off the ground that joins all the units.  Supposedly the raised walkway protects people from the water level in the really rainy season and from the snakes in the area.  Luckily I didn’t see any of them around the resort area.  The resort is actually quite large and I think there were 50 or 60 units.  There were restaurants at both ends but we were assigned the one specifically.  I don’t know whether the other was different or the same.  There was a bar area that had a TV in it and mainly played sports.  There was a small zip line through part of the rain forest but we never did see anyone on that, and there was a 2 km walkway into the rainforest but it seemed to be closed except for the first quarter mile or so.  Reception was just a small cubicle with room for a couple people and not much more.  There was a large room full of rain ponchos and rubber boots and kayak paddles, and best of all there was a pool area.  It was very refreshing as the days were very hot and very humid.

The rooms were very simple with just beds and shelves on the inside and a bathroom that sometimes had hot water and sometimes didn’t.  There was a porch out front and out back so you could watch the wildlife around the area.  The two side walls were screens the upper half of the wall so there was lots of fresh air in the room.  Unfortunately it was also very humid air so everything seemed wet.  The ceiling fan was the only thing that kept the place cool so it was really appreciated.  It also helped to dry out any wet clothes we had. 

There were monkeys up in the trees in the area.  The howler monkeys were incredibly noisy and made a great racket around bed time and again really early in the morning.  The capuchin or white-faced monkeys were much quieter and friendlier so I liked them much better.  I never did see or hear the spider monkeys so I think they must have been off on holidays while we were there.  There were also many really noisy birds up in the trees but you seldom saw them at any point.  I guess they just like to be heard and not seen.  And of course there were supposed to be lots of tiny red frogs but they were almost impossible to find.  One thing I enjoyed around the resort was all the beautiful flowers.  I had to keep my camera with me the whole time because I never knew when another beautiful flower would appear – or a monkey or a lizard or whatever.

After dinner we had some more free time and then went off on another tour.  We got back in the boat at 9 p.m. and went over to the town and walked into the national park.  We wandered around the beach area in the dark until almost midnight but didn’t see anything.  We were hoping to see a turtle coming out of the water and going up on to the sand to lay some eggs but we did not see anything.  It was not the season for them but we thought we might be lucky anyway.  I guess not.  However we did see some tracks from the night before so the walk wasn’t a total waste of time.  The walk itself was very hard as the sand was very deep in places.  It was also a cloudy night so you really could not see anything.  I had my head lamp with me but we weren’t allowed to use the white lights on the beach as it would discourage the turtles from coming ashore.  The night was hot and there wasn’t much wind so I was absolutely soaked by the time I got back.  I had a shower and went to bed right away as it had indeed been a long day from 5 a.m. to midnight.

On the 24^th we were up for breakfast at 7 a.m. and a two-hour boat cruise at 8 a.m.  It was very relaxing riding up and down the canals and we saw more caimans, birds, monkeys and lizards.  The Jesus Christ lizard is very hard to find but our guides did that part for us.  It is green and looks like green leaves so a great camouflage.  It is called the Jesus Christ lizard because it walks, or rather runs, across the water but we never saw it doing that.  The herons were small and beautiful and they don’t seem to mind humans or boats being in the area.  I guess they are used to it and feel quite safe in the protected area.  We heard more monkeys but they were too distant in the trees to really see. 

Once we were back at the resort I did a short walk down the trail, which turned out to be a really short trail.  It was a really good walk, again on a raised walkway so safe from snakes, and I actually saw more birds and monkeys and even a red frog.  The monkeys were the white faced ones and they were really fun to watch.  There were about six of them and they were eating seed pods and jumping from tree to tree.  Actually some of the time I think they were watching me as much as I was watching them.  I wonder if they enjoyed the show as much as I did. 

After that we went for a kayak ride down some of the smaller canals.  It was very relaxing and nice but we didn’t see much of anything in the line of wildlife.  It did take us up to lunch time so that was good.  The food at the resort was good.  It was buffet style and there weren’t many choices but it was still good.  After lunch we spent the afternoon at the pool and that was really refreshing.  About 4 p.m. the white-faced monkeys put on quite a show behind the pool flying from tree to tree eating fruit and it was fun to watch.  At times they weren’t even ten feet away from those of us trying to take pictures and they didn’t seem to care at all.  They just kept eating and jumping around.  All in all it was a very relaxing way to spend Easter. 

On our last day we were up early and had breakfast and ready for an 8 a.m. boat ride through the canals and a one- hour walk through the park.  After that we went back to the resort at 11:30, had a quick dip in the pool followed by lunch and then our journey back to San Jose started at 1:30.  That of course involved a two-hour boat ride back to the mainland and then a three-hour drive so we arrived back in San Jose around 6:30 in time for dinner.

On the morning boat ride we went through some of the smaller channels and there was more vegetation overhead so at times we were under a total canopy and had only spotty sunlight shining through.  It was quite neat.  We saw more iguanas, caimans, birds and monkeys but nothing new or astonishing.  The best sight was the baby caiman sunning themselves on a log.  There must have been a dozen or so of them and they were very cute. 

Our one-hour walk was through the forest and on to the beach but there was nothing exciting to see there either.  We mainly looked at smaller insects and bugs on the ground level.  Oh, we did see some spider monkeys at one point but they were quite a distance away.  There were leaves with repetitive designs in them and that was very confusing.  Why would a leaf have small holes in, all in arrow and all equidistance apart?  Well, it seems that the caterpillars start eating through the leaves as the leaves are still rolled up and not yet out in the open.  When the do open up, they have evenly placed holes across them and it looks quite unique.

Well, I guess that’s it for Tortuguero but I don’t feel like I’ve done it justice.  It really was quite a remarkable place and it would be even better during the period when turtles are coming up on the beach to lay eggs or when the baby turtles are hatching and hurrying back to sea.  That would be an amazing sight to see.  I guess that means another return visit.