I had journeyed to the tiny town of Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast. This took two days, four buses and a boat. Worst of all, I had to spend a night in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Unless you are looking for a prostitute or a gunshot wound, I can't recommend it.
Most people come to Tortuguero for the turtles, but there is also a huge amount of other wildlife to see. I went on a boat ride around the Rio Tortuguero and saw everything from Iguanas to Howling Monkeys. There are two iguanas in the picture below, can you spot them....
...how about the one in this picture?
My favourite was the Green-backed Heron, who hunts fish by catching an insect, placing it in the water and then swooping down on any fish that tries to eat the insect. This bird is cleverer than me.
I also got heavily rained on and broke out the Machu Picchu poncho for its second use. Five Nuevo Soles well spent.
During the day I wandered round the jungle in Tortuguero National Park. The park mainly protects the sections of the beach in which the turtles lay their eggs, but also a huge area of rainforest which is largely unexplored. I immediately become at least five times more interested in something when people start using words like "unexplored" or "unclimbed", so I set off for a walk. I hoped that if I was really lucky I'd see a couple of iguanas, of maybe even a monkey. Well I saw more wildlife than I have seen in some zoos!
While I was still on the fringes of the jungle, right next to the town, a group of howler monkeys swung through the trees above me. It turns out it's not that hard to spot monkeys because they leave a path of destruction wherever they go! They sometimes try their weight on branches before they climb on them, in case they are too weak to take their weight. This results in a load of weak branches being snapped off and thrown down to the ground - no matter who is standing underneath. I tried not to take it personally.
Going further in I saw a few families of white-faced monkeys, who were the most inquisitive. They sometimes came down from the tops of the trees to have a look at me, before bounding back up again and throwing discarded bits of fruit in my direction. Cheeky monkeys.
I saw lots of Iguanas and lizards scurrying away from my footsteps as I wandered around, and even a snake. Although it was so fast I didn't even get to see its head. There were lots of beautiful butterflies floating around and I saw an unidentified cat running into the bushes. The park ranger said this was probably an ocelot, but I only saw it for a quarter of a second so I am not counting it as a sighting!
By nightfall I was itching to see some turtles! We headed out at about 8pm and wandered down to the beach. The turtles that are nesting now are the huge Green Turtles. They weigh between 90kg and 120kg when hauling themselves up the beach to lay their eggs. Each female can lay up to 140 eggs in one night, a feat she manages between five and eight times per season. She first digs a big hole, about a foot deep and five feet in diameter, before climbing in and digging a small shoe-box size chamber for the eggs. After laying the eggs, she covers them with sand, then covers the hole, and digs another just like it to confuse predators. After about two hours, she struggles back to the water and swims off, exhausted.
It really was a fantastic thing to see. We were then told that only one in 1,000 hatchlings survives. After hearing this I had a sudden urge to save the turtles, so bought a turtle sticker for $5 to donate some money. This was a better use of my money than paying $9 for a cup of coffee. I'm still annoyed about that.
No hanging around, I got in a taxi and hightailed it down the river to the town of Cariari. Next were several buses to the town of La Fortuna, home of the most active volcano in Costa Rica. Hopefully I'll get to see some lava! Ciao for now.
A nice little church in Tortuguero.
Fine dining by the river for $5.
The Iguana game again - can you spot the female...
...and this picture contains a Jesus Christ Lizard, names so because they can run on water, but can you spot it?
A large heron dries its wings in the sun after catching a fish.
A huge butterfly with an eye design.
A white-faced monkey lounging around, watching me sweat my way through the jungle!
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