Turtle power
“I want a baby caiman” is not something you hear from your fiancée every day but in context it made some kind of sense. Or at least it did as far as we had just seen one, along with its mother, although we never really discussed whether it would be happy living in our bath. Perhaps it was the early morning leading to a whiff of delirium, or maybe it was simply the fact we were on a canoe, cruising through the waterways of Tortuguero National Park surrounded by stunning scenery and a veritable feast of wildlife. It started slowly, with herons and iguanas, but built up a head of steam to take in not just the caimans but a tree full of squabbling toucans, an extended family of capuchins and a lone howler monkey cresting a tree. Oh, and a black river turtle, ensuring we ticked the box for the the place’s namesake creature (Tortuguero means ‘place of the turtles’).
After pausing for breakfast, we returned on foot to see another side of the park. A sleeping sloth and a pair of spider monkeys were the animal highlights, plus lots of lizards scuttling across our path and butterflies and many other insects. Indeed, I don’t think I’ve had quite as many things buzzing around my head in the last two months as we did here. It was a longer than anticipated walk and was very humid, but as we were walking parallel to the beach, the soothing sound of the sea helped ease our passage.
From this you can probably tell we were enjoying ourselves; we knew we were on to a winner on the journey in. To rewind, Lauren beat the Beast of the East and escaped the snowscapes of Britain to join me in San Jose. I met her at the airport, fulfilling a lifelong desire to meet a loved one off the plane bearing a sign, and believe it or not we were very happy to be reunited. Dinner, a night in a hotel that was as a definite cut above the digs I’ve been used to of late, and you’re all caught up and with us on our voyage to the Caribbean coast. Escaping the capital, the countryside quickly became the Costa Rica of the glossy magazines. We went through a lush green national park and eventually arrived at the dock to catch a boat to the village. As we snaked down the river, the sky was blue, and everything else was green. If that wasn’t enough to suggest we were on our way to a magical place, anywhere only accessible by boat has a certain allure.
Tortuguero village is tiny, a speck in the national park, down a narrow strip of land with the river on one side and the sea on the other. We were staying at Hotel River View and following a free upgrade - always a bonus - we were checked in and had a fantastic view of... yup, the river. We took a turn of the place, deciding on options for the next couple of days and had a quiet evening in our beautiful new home. Having overdosed on wildlife for the first few hours of the following day, I relaxed with a book and some rum while Lauren battled her jet lag before an evening of cocktails and pizza.
On our final day we hit the beach early to catch some rays. However, despite our best efforts, it finished Caribbean Sun 2-0 Pale Skins as we did a depressingly good impersonation of Brits abroad and turned a fetching shade of pink in places. In the afternoon we visited the Sea Turtle Conservancy to find out about the excellent work that happens at the global epicentre of research and education for sea turtles. It was an interesting experience and the best thing on offer given we were outside of turtle nesting season.
Finally, we wrapped up our stay with another smorgasbord of local fauna on a night walk. It exceeded my expectations as I wasn’t sure how much we were actually going to be able to see. I needn’t have worried as we saw: three sloths (one of which was even active!), a pair of raccoons, two porcupines (I didn’t know they climbed trees), an anteater (see previous parentheses), an armadillo, an opossum, some bats, some snakes and a frog. Plus the stars looked incredible as the night was black as pitch with no light pollution, and standing on the beach watching the fat yellow orb of the moon slowly appear from behind clouds was a spectacular moment and capped off a great start to our holiday.
After pausing for breakfast, we returned on foot to see another side of the park. A sleeping sloth and a pair of spider monkeys were the animal highlights, plus lots of lizards scuttling across our path and butterflies and many other insects. Indeed, I don’t think I’ve had quite as many things buzzing around my head in the last two months as we did here. It was a longer than anticipated walk and was very humid, but as we were walking parallel to the beach, the soothing sound of the sea helped ease our passage.
From this you can probably tell we were enjoying ourselves; we knew we were on to a winner on the journey in. To rewind, Lauren beat the Beast of the East and escaped the snowscapes of Britain to join me in San Jose. I met her at the airport, fulfilling a lifelong desire to meet a loved one off the plane bearing a sign, and believe it or not we were very happy to be reunited. Dinner, a night in a hotel that was as a definite cut above the digs I’ve been used to of late, and you’re all caught up and with us on our voyage to the Caribbean coast. Escaping the capital, the countryside quickly became the Costa Rica of the glossy magazines. We went through a lush green national park and eventually arrived at the dock to catch a boat to the village. As we snaked down the river, the sky was blue, and everything else was green. If that wasn’t enough to suggest we were on our way to a magical place, anywhere only accessible by boat has a certain allure.
Tortuguero village is tiny, a speck in the national park, down a narrow strip of land with the river on one side and the sea on the other. We were staying at Hotel River View and following a free upgrade - always a bonus - we were checked in and had a fantastic view of... yup, the river. We took a turn of the place, deciding on options for the next couple of days and had a quiet evening in our beautiful new home. Having overdosed on wildlife for the first few hours of the following day, I relaxed with a book and some rum while Lauren battled her jet lag before an evening of cocktails and pizza.
On our final day we hit the beach early to catch some rays. However, despite our best efforts, it finished Caribbean Sun 2-0 Pale Skins as we did a depressingly good impersonation of Brits abroad and turned a fetching shade of pink in places. In the afternoon we visited the Sea Turtle Conservancy to find out about the excellent work that happens at the global epicentre of research and education for sea turtles. It was an interesting experience and the best thing on offer given we were outside of turtle nesting season.
Finally, we wrapped up our stay with another smorgasbord of local fauna on a night walk. It exceeded my expectations as I wasn’t sure how much we were actually going to be able to see. I needn’t have worried as we saw: three sloths (one of which was even active!), a pair of raccoons, two porcupines (I didn’t know they climbed trees), an anteater (see previous parentheses), an armadillo, an opossum, some bats, some snakes and a frog. Plus the stars looked incredible as the night was black as pitch with no light pollution, and standing on the beach watching the fat yellow orb of the moon slowly appear from behind clouds was a spectacular moment and capped off a great start to our holiday.
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