Time with the Turtles

One of the many trees in the area
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We flew from Quito, Ecuador to San Jose, Costa Rica. Once we landed we thought we would save money by catching a bus into the city centre. This turned out to be a mistake as two buses later we were still no where near our hostel. We finally ended up getting a taxi as by this stage it was dark and there was a thunder storm. After the taxi driver dropped us off we realised he had taken us to the wrong hostel (a common scam as they get paid by some hostels for bringing in customers). However we had a look inside the hostel and were amazed at how nice it was - the rooms came complete with king size beds and a Japanese theme so we decided to stay the night.

A Three Toed Sloth in the tree
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Early the next morning we headed off to Tortuguero which is located on Costa Rica´s northern Caribbean coast. We caught two buses through really interesting vegetation which included many banana plantations. This was followed by a lovely boat ride through the canals to arrive at our destination. During our boat journey we saw a large range of interesting vegetation along with river turtles and numerous birds. If you´re interested in tropical flowers Costa Rica is a great place to see them as they are in abundance everywhere. It´s very colourful and photographic.

Each egg looked similar to a ping-pong ball but a bit gooey

Shannyn on the black beach
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The star attraction of Tortuguero is that at this time of year its nesting season for the endangered Green Sea Turtles and this was our primary reason for visiting. The only way to see the turtles nesting is to arrange a night tour accompanied by an authorised local guide. We decided to do a tour on our first evening.

To prevent the turtles from being frightened away and so that their nesting process is not disturbed tourists are only allowed to approach the turtle once it has entered into its 'trance' stage. The 'trance' occurs once the turtle has crawled up the black sandy beach, dug its nest and started to lay its eggs. A local person patrols the beach and then advises the tour guides once the turtle is at this stage. Each group is alotted a particular time slot so that there aren't too many people on the beach at the same time.

The canals of Tortuguero
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We got to sit up behind the turtle really closely - about 50 cm away and observe her as she laid hundreds of eggs. The process was really amazing and each egg looked similar to a ping-pong ball but a bit gooey. She laid the eggs quite quickly, one after the other. Once she was finished we watched as she covered her eggs back up with sand. We also saw other turtles coming in from the sea ready to start their nesting but had to be careful not to disturb them. This is one of the most spectacular sights we have seen during our trip and well worth the long bus journey to get there. It´s up there with Galapagos!!!

Arriving at Tortuguero
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The following day we did a 5am boat trip around the National Park and got to observe an abundance of flowers/plants and also animals including Cayman, Monkeys and many bird species. It was here that we first encountered the Sloth, doing what it does best - lazily sitting up high in the trees eating away. We found the Costa Rican jungle to be much more tropical looking and interesting than the Ecuadorian and Bolivian jungles.

The actual town of Tortuguero is also a lovely place to be in. Its very small with no roads (you can only access it by boat) but the buildings are very quaint and colourful and the people friendly. After our boat trip we boarded a second boat this time to continue our travels further south along the Caribbean. Shannyn