Tortuguero National Park

This weekend, I went with some other ACM students to Tortuguero National Park, a location that has been described as Costa Rica’s “mini Amazon.”  We were joined by Jasmin, a German student who was working with the sloths on the cacao farm, and Geovanny, a biologist on the farm who has been helping Joe (the other ACM student doing research here) and me with our projects.  The journey to the park was an adventure in itself, involving three buses and a boat ride on the river to arrive at Tortuguero.  The park and the tiny village next to it are only accessible by boat or airplane!  On our way back, there were several people on the boat who live in Tortuguero Village, and who were traveling to buy groceries and other supplies for the week.  I thought it was hard enough that my host mom here takes the hour-long bus ride into Guapiles to buy groceries; these people were living an even more rustic life!

Hard to see, but the boat on the left is named the "Hakuna Mattata"

The boat ride was beautiful, and it was nice to catch up with Lauren and Tim who I haven’t seen since we left for our field sites two weeks ago.  We arrived in Tortuguero and checked in to our hotel (only $8 each!) and headed out to find a late lunch/early dinner.  Unfortunately, this isn’t the high season for tourists (that starts when the turtles come to nest on the beaches in June or July) and almost every restaurant was closed in between lunch and dinner.  We finally found a place to eat, and sat on the patio with a beautiful view of the ocean to order our casados (a typical Costa Rican meal consisting of rice, beans, fried plantains, salad, and meat or fish… of course we ordered fish in a town that’s right on the ocean where we saw fishermen walking right past us with the day’s catch!).  The weather had been overcast and drizzly all day, but our hearts sank when the sky opened up and it started pouring in the middle of our meal.  We sat and waited for hours for it to pass, but had no luck.  While we were waiting for the rain, we did see an anteater run right past us which was really cool!  I’ve never seen one before; it looked like a little bear with a long snout.  

The rainclouds did make for some beautiful views!

We took advantage of a short break in the rain to head back to the hotel, but were disappointed that we weren’t able to explore the national park that day.  The rain finally let up and the clouds cleared for a few hours after it got dark, and we went out to the beach to look at the stars.  I think that was the part that made the whole trip worthwhile, as wet and soggy as the rest of our time was.  We were literally in the middle of nowhere, with no big sources of city lights nearby, and the stars were spectacular.  Added to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach, and their crests that seemed to glow in the dark as they broke, it was a pretty magical place.

In the morning, we headed out at 5:30 am to eat breakfast because we wanted to get in a canoe tour before we had to catch the boat back at 10:30 (Tortuguero National Park consists mostly of wetlands and is best explored by a boat ride through its canals rather than on foot).  I ordered a giant bowl of fresh fruit with yogurt and granola… delicious.  The sky seemed to be threatening rain, but we wanted to see something before we had to go back, so we decided to risk it.  Unfortunately, a few minutes after we left it started to pour again.  It alternated between pouring rain and sunshine throughout our whole three hour tour, so we were pretty soaked by the time we got back.  BUT, the tour only cost 8,000 colones ($16) including our entrance fee into the national park and we did see some cool animals… Several caimans (like small crocodiles); many different species and colors of herons; dozens of howler monkeys; a bird called a Great Currassow (Pavon Grande in Spanish); toucans; and an adorable family of white-faced capuchin monkeys including several females with tiny babies clinging to their backs that crossed the river in the trees above us.  Geovanny told us that we would have seen more if it hadn’t been raining, but it was still a cool experience.

Not wet yet...

Me and Jasmin

Herons on the river

There's an iguana on the horizontal tree branch - click on the photo to enlarge it

The boat ride back to the bus station was pretty wet and cold, and I’ve never been so happy to get onto a bus just to be dry!  But even if the rain put a damper on our trip, it was great to see some of my friends that I haven’t seen in a couple weeks and talk about our projects.  I have many memories of vacations with miserable weather (being holed up in the tent with Sarah in the Boundary Waters and spending the whole day eating trail mix and doing crossword puzzles comes to mind, or my Sylvania Wilderness camping trip with Kate and Gabby when the campstove broke and we had to build a fire with wet wood to make “pancake pudding”), and I think they make for some of the best bonding experiences.  If nothing else, those of us on the trip will have something to look back on and laugh about in the future!