Tortuga Lodge Tortuguero

... as you can see we took full advantage of Mom’s new Nikon camera. We arrived into the small town of Tortuguero and the town was quaint and colourful, with dirt pathways and palm trees everywhere. We stayed at Miss Junnies Lodge and booked ourselves in with a guide to see the turtles. The viewing is strictly controlled as 100’s of people can be on the beach at one time. The conservationists organized two viewing times to break up the amount of traffic on the ...

... claws that Wolverine would be proud of.

Umberto then took us to see some baby Caimans that he had seen a few days before. At first it was difficult to see them in the reeds but then all of a sudden there they were. Umberto took the boat closer into the reeds so that we could see them better. A bit later we came across a fully grown Caiman floating motionless at the river’s edge and then another mouth open wide as though it was panting in the heat.

An Anhinga ...

... preferring to take the better jobs. Many of the houses we passed on the plantations seemed very poor, just small corrugated iron shacks.

We travelled through small villages each with a very obvious graveyard filled with large white tombs. Apparently, the dead are buried above the ground as the many earthquakes experienced in the country meant that bodies could move about if buried below the ground. I suppose it was to make sure the bodies were ...

We´ve come out to the carribean side for some serious wildlife action. This national park (another one) is a serious of river canals and tributaries which you can explore by canoe or on foot if you don´t mind the snakes. The town can only be accessed by boat again and once again there is no traffic, just the odd bike. It has that laid back carribean feel and a pretty windswept long stretch of beach. And the best banana cake I have ever had. It was a ...

... from what the locals are saying. The town of Tortuguero was neat. There is a large Caribbean influence in the culture and food in the area. Most of Costa Rica is latino, but the black and mulato cultures are more common on the Tortuguero coast. The homes are all very small, with rusted sheet metal roofs. They had elevated walk ways through the town where local artisans sold souviniers. Although there is a problem with drugs in the town, it did not ...

... matter what tripe) is more important than making a valuable measured contribution. One or two have even fully admitted this trait!

2) Israelis are as tight as a duck's butt, annoying (but in a different way to Americans) and the original narco-tourists. Actually, they're great, but -only- ever as individuals. As a group they're usually pretty unwelcoming and despite sharing common languages with others, make little/no attempt... I got on with two French dudes ...

... American experience. Went out for ridiculously expensive pizza that night where we were the only table in the restaurant bar another couple. I can't quite remember but I think that our dinner was possibly more expensive than what I would spend on casual dining in Australia. The next morning we went on a trek through the cloud forests. I was really hoping to spot some wild life but unfortunately there wasn't anything much around. The cloudforests are much the same as ...

... up in this kind of "end of the world" community, being histerically laughed at by other chronics. While certainly not trying to put a negative spin on things, I must note that today I walked at least 8 miles down the beach, looking for hatching turtles. There were hundreds of turtle tracks and fresh pits dug from only a night before, but no little ones... save one. And he couldn't make it, poor fella. I also found a mature green ...

After leaving Cahuita we headed out for the long trek to Tortuguero. tortuguero is a small island, with now cars, in middle of a bunch of canals that go on for miles into the rain forest. Once we got to PUerto Limon we had to take a five our boat ride through a canal to get to Tortuguero. We did a canal tour the next morning and saw all sorts of wildlife: crocs, caimans (little tings that look like crocs), toucans, other birds, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, white faced monkeys ...