Tortuguero, Costa Rica Wild, Remote and Amazing
Ranger Station, Tortuguero, Costa Rica
"In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful." — Alice Walker
Silly me to confuse Tortuguero with Tortuga and let my imagination run wild with tales of pirates, treasure maps and chants of “ho ho and a bottle of rum”. About the only thing the two places have in common is that they are located on the shores of the Caribbean. Pirates potentially did visit Tortuguero but more in search of fresh turtle meat to supplement their diets than any other reason.
Tortuguero, is a remote region located in the Limon province of Costa Rica and a key destination in the Tortuguero National Park. Located on a sandy spit between the Caribbean and the Tortuguero River it gets it names from the twenty two miles of protected black sandy beaches which are nesting grounds for Costa Rican turtles. Nesting season was over and there was nary a turtle or baby for us to see when we visited.
Besides turtles though, the national park is a bio diverse place with eleven different habitats including rainforest, mangrove forests, swamps, beaches and lagoons. Given it’s location between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean and its proximity to both the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer this location gets about 250 inches of rain. Sigh! if only we could divert some of this rain to drought ridden California.
It is remote, only accessible via boat or small plane, so definitely a location for bird and animal enthusiasts and for people seeking to totally unplug from the humdrum of their daily life.
The black sandy beach on the shores of the Caribbean. Due to the proximity of the continental shelf and the steep drop off close to the shore, swimming in these waters is not safe. Though visitor dip their toes and in general enjoy walking on the beach and enjoying coconuts from the enterprising sellers who bring their carts with fresh coconuts right to you.
Main Street Tortuguero
Tortuguero is home to a small population, all of whom are engaged in the tourist trade in some fashion. While there are thirty or so lodges in this area, people in town also provide a bed and breakfast to visitors who show up. In addition there are bars, a grocery shop, a coffee shop with a state of the art espresso machine and souvenir shops galore.
We stayed in these cabins that were nestled amongst the rainforest with concrete paths connecting us to the central core of the resort. This truly is a location to unplug with no televisions, no air conditioning just ceiling fans revolving lazily, and limited wi-fi.
This was definitely the closest I’ve come to nature in a long time and also to close encounters of the natural kind. I stepped out one morning in my flip flops heading for lunch only to see a snake slithering away out of my path. Yikes! I absolutely did not need that. One of the members of the group was visited by spider monkeys hanging out on their porch. Our tour director told us to make sure that we always had our cameras with us when we left our rooms because you never knew what you might find when you left your room. So so true!
At night I was lulled to sleep to the noises of jungle around me and perhaps work up in fear a couple of times a night imagining a jaguar hanging out outside my window. No we did not encounter Jaguars but we did see a lot of other flora and fauna indigent to this area.
Birds abounded in this area, herons, kingfishers, egrets and a host of others that our guides named but I have forgotten. I thought to create a collage of all the birds I saw but it became too crowded and I had a hard time picking just one. Then this one just insisted on being the model for this part of my post, shamelessly showing off his plumage, turning his head, this way and that. It was only fitting since it’s called the Anninga or snake bird and Anninga was the name of the lodge where we stayed. What a treat!
There are three types of monkeys in this area, the spider monkeys, the howlers that we could definitely hear all night and the white faced capuchin monkey. We spotted this tribe as we were heading towards San Jose frolicking in the trees and grounds and chattering at us.
The Emerald Basilisk or the Jesus Christ Lizard as it’s called in this part of the world due to its ability to walk on water. Well camouflaged, it was only the eagle eyes of our boat captain and the green pointer of our guide that allowed us to finally see this guy. Fortunately he stayed still long enough for me to capture both him and his female who was not far.
The waters are infested with alligators and caiman. Our tour director was very careful to explain the differences but for the life of me I am lost but this big guy was sunning himself on a sand bar as we passed him by. Another fellow slithered into the water right before we could point, click and shoot.
This iguana really moved around, he was at the resort swimming pool at one time and then I happed to capture him by the bar before he scampered into the forest.
Our first toucan sighting was at a rest stop on our way where we stopped for a spot of breakfast and a cup of coffee but then there were two that we spotted in the trees around our resort. We also saw a large variety of parrots but since we are heading to the Cloud Forest next and I’m told there are a large number of colorful birds I am going to wait before I post about these bright and colorful birds.
Sloths are normally nocturnal animals but this guy decided to make his way from his branch down towards us as we sat in our boats patiently filming him.
There were so many plants and flowers but this one with its big rounded leaves struck with me. Being in the rainforest where it can rain at any time, these are called the poor man’s umbrella.
As we drove from San Jose to where we were to catch a boat to take us through the canals to Tortuguero, we crossed miles of banana plantations which is one of the main crops in this region.
Each banana plant is covered in plastic bags to ensure that the ripening fruit gets an equal distribution of heat. Every week workers visit and tie a ribbon to the top of the bag to count off the week. This allows them to know precisely the right time to harvest the bananas which are harvested in teams of three. The entire process of growing the plants, to harvesting, packing and shipping employs many workers who are provided all living facilities to entice them to stay and work here.
Another phenomenon that we crossed on our way towards Tortugero from San Jose was the convergence of the Sucio River with the Sarapiqui River. The Sucio River is called the dirty due to the brownish color of the water which is due to Sulphur deposits from the Irazu volcano.
It’s been an incredible adventure so far. I can’t wait to explore more of this diverse country and share my wanderings with you.