Caribbean stew and turtle hatchlings on the beach

More snakes
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It was nice to arrive in Cahuita after our adventurous boarder crossing into Costa Rica. This was a charming little Carribean village just 30km before Puerto Limon. We checked into the secret garden lodge, a quiet cabinas run by a dutch lady. Cahuita is built on a small cape into the sea which has two long beaches on either side. That afternoon we visited the playa negra which has fine, black sand. A few surfers were showing off their skills.

The next morning we headed to the other side which is also the beginning of Cahuita national park. We walked on a long trail through some jungle about 10km to another beach. On the way we saw a lot of wild animals like monkeys, vivid colored butterflies, tropical birds, spiders, snakes and a white nose coati, a type of raccoon.

Close up of the racoon
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We then settled on the remote beach for our lunch and relaxed in the sunshine. Suddenly 2 green (apparently non-venous) snakes, 50cm long descended from the tree above us and started inspecting our snorkel gear and rucksacks. I tried to relocate them to another tree, but after some time they found a way back through the canopy of the trees and kept coming back down to our stuff. Finally we gave up and started our way back to Cahuita. We saw another coati eating a fruit and didn't mind being photographed from close up.

Getting the boat to Tortuguero National park
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After a delicious meal during the nightly monsoon rainfall we had to run back to our cabina not to get too soaked. Unfortunately a tropical cyclone was forming in our area which meant the next day was very gray and often rainy.Still very warm though but not really a beach day. So plenty of time to organise a few further things for our trip further along. We sorted all our accommodation between Christmas and New Year, as during this time of the year we will not be able to just show up and get a room. So it was a perfect day for some emails and travel research.

Another pretty bird
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The next day we decided to head further up the coast and spent a day in the famous Tortugero national park. This was already an adventure just to get there. We started on the 8am bus to Puerto Limon, another busy port town where truckloads of banana are sent all over the world. Then we had to catch a 30min local bus to a small place called Moin. The canals to Tortugero started from there. So we loaded everything on a flimsy speedboat which took us another 100km up the coast. This was all through jungle rivers and canals which run parallel behind the beach. Just flat, brown water and now waves. Hence the boat could go at quite some speed. We saw already some wildlife like monkeys, crocodiles and birds (mainly herons).

Riverboat back to San Jose
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After 4h on this boat we arrived safely in Tortugero village. There wasn't much daylight left as it gets dark here just after 5pm. We went for a walk along the turtle beach, where we should find some turtle hatchlings coming out of the sand and making their way to the sea. We weren't lucky though and other than lots of tracks in the sand we didn't spot anything.

We gave it another try early in the morning, as this should be a good time to see them. And finally we found a young hatchling, just the size of a hand. Apparently only 1 in 1000 young turtles make it to adulthood. We now joined a local guy for a 3h canoe tour through the national park. It was very relaxing paddling through the jungle on a small canal, only hearing the wildlife around you and nothing else. We saw some young caimans, parrots, herons,capuchin and spider monkeys and very colorful butterflies.

Paddle in the jungle
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In the afternoon it was time to pack our bags and head back from the jungle into the civilisation by many different means of transport. First we had to take another riverboat which brought us upstream a jungle river back to the roads. Then we continued in a 4x4 jeep the dirt road until we reached the first small town. From there we had a public bus which took us in 1h back to San Jose's Caribe Terminal. And a taxi finally to meet our friend Nicole in Pavas.

Cahuita to mila miejscowosc. Dlugo nie moglismy sie zdecydowac na jakis hostel. Jakos jest tak, ze osoby zagadujace nas na ulicy - mile panie - maja najciekawsze oferty. Tym razem pewna Holenderka nas zagadala i okazalo, sie ze za mila cena dostalismy calkiem przyzwoite warunki. W Cahuita zostalismy 3 noce. Cahuita posiada wlasny Park Narodowy polozony wzdluz morza. Naszego drugiego dnia wybralismy sie o 8 rano do parku i spacerek o dlugosci ok. 12 km zajal nam caly dzien. Spotkalismy oprocz mrowek malpki, ciekawe gryzonie, fantastyczne motyle i male weze. Dwa takie dobieraly sie do mojego plecaka. Erik zrobil im cala serie zdjec. Spacerek w czesci byl w lesie i  w duzej czesci na plazy. Oczywiscie nie odbylo sie bez plywania, skakania i zabawy z falami.

Spider monkey
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Po Cahuita postanowilismy wybrac sie na polnocne wybrzeze Morza Karaibskiego - do Narodowego Parku Tortugero slynnego z zielonych zolwi. Podroz byla calkiem interesujaca. Do Tortugero nie ma ulic, tylko rzeki i kanaly. Tak wiec czekala na nas podroz motorowka, ktora trwala ponad 3 godziny. Pierwsze poltora godzinki byly bardzo ciekawe. Nasz pan motorowy tez byl calkiem calkiem. Wygladal, jakby za duzo sie czegos napalil. Lodke prowadzil prosto, ale okazalo sie, ze aligatora, ktorego widzielismy to krokodyl (w Kostaryce nie ma aligatorow), a flamingo to jakis inny ptak. Dnia kolejnego inny przewodnik wysmial naszego pierwszego kierowce.

Heron looking for fish
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Wychodzimi z Erikiem z zalozenia, ze jak nie trzeba przewodnika albo biura podrozy do pomocy, to staramy sie sami cos zorganizowac. Do tego wychodzi nam to o wiele taniej. Pod wieczor wybralismy sie na plaze by znalezc male osobniki wykluwajace sie z jajek ale nie mielismy szczescia. W nocy mozna jeszcze zaobserwowac zolwie skladajace jajka, ale sezon sie juz skonczyl, wiec szanse na ta przyjemnosc byly bardzo minimalne. Z tego wzgledu, ze i tak bylo pochmurno i troche padalo, nie zdecydowalismy sie na nocne blakanie sie po plazy. Poznym wieczorem inni turysci podzielili sie z nami ich wrazeniami, ze mieli okazje zobaczyc male zolwiki. Powiedzieli, ze nad ranem tez jest dobry czas. Postanowilismy wstac rano o 4:30 i o 5 bylismy juz na plazy. Przez kolejne poltora godziny biegalismy z jednej strony na druga i wszystko co widzielismy to slady duzych zolwi i malych, swiezo co wyklutych. Jakby nie bylo slady tez sa ciekawe :) Poza tym widzielismy dwa male zolwiki. Jeden - inwalida tracil ciagle orientacje w terenie i zamiast isc w kierunku wody, krecil sie w kolko. Zanieslismy go wiec do wody. Prawdopodobnie i tak nie przezyje. Podobno jeden na tysiac zolwi ma szance stac sie doroslym. Potem znalazlam jeszcze jajko, ktore sama zakopalam :) uzywajac wlasnych pletworak!

On the beach in Tortuguero
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O 7 rano mielismy kolejny plan programu, czyli 3-godzinna przejazdza kajakiem po rzekach i kanalach. Obserwowalismy najrozniejsze malpy, papugi, zolwie, ptactwo i motyle.