Tortuguero

We got a 2-hour bus from San Jose to Cariari, from where we had to get another bus and then a boat to Tortuguero. The boat ride was better than some of the 'nature cruises' we've taken. We saw a crocodile, a couple of toucans and watched some howler monkeys swinging through some trees right by the bank – as well as the now customary kingfisher.

We reached Tortuguero at about 5:30pm. When we landed we were asked if we had reservations anywhere. The guy said we'd find it difficult if we didn't because the place was full. If we wanted to go with him he'd see what could be found. Occasionally we had been warned that people (especially taxi drivers) get a commision for bringing in customers – so we figured we'd see what we could find on our own. Unfortunately, we found out that the fella was telling the truth. There were so many touristy types walking about that it seemed that there couldn't be room for them all.

We wandered aimlessly for a while asking any places we passed if they had room – no one had anything – before a few locals decided they'd help us out. It was during this time that we ran into a nice French couple we'd met on the way over who were in the same boat – if you'll excuse the pun. So we wandered from place to place following a variety of local guys and eventually found some very expensive places. It seems they knew how few rooms were available and adjusted their prices acordingly. The French guy did say that he'd managed to find somewhere cheap but a bit nasty so we decided to check that out first. It was down a dark alley well off the main strip, but the lady only wanted $12 and it wasn't too bad. She also made us as much at home as possible by putting up a curtain, changing the sheets on the bed and folding the towel into a swan shape. Class. We bought some more mozzie coils, squished any obvious offenders and settled in for the night. Thinking back, what we found was pretty incredible – a nice French couple. That was a joke by the way. It certainly saved us from spending a night in a hammock – or worse.

After having dinner in a cool cafe and admiring the thousands of big fat frogs all over town, we managed to get a decent night's sleep in the end. Iff had to light another coil at about 5am after the first went out and the mozzies came back, but we got away relatively unscathed. When we came to pay in the morning, the lady first tried to charge us $20, then 12,000 Colones (about $24!) before she settled for 5000 C (about $10). I dunno what the French guys wound up paying, but in the end I reckon $10 was fair enough. Turns out the Frenchies were just here for the night before heading on elsewhere. We found that there were plenty of free rooms for the Sunday and bid adieu to 'The Ritz'.

It was our first full day in Tortuguero, and we weren't entirely sure what to do with ourselves. We definitely wanted to get a guide to show us (hopefully) turtles laying eggs on the beach that night. We happened to be staying next door to a guide called Don Chico, who's recommended in our guidebook. We went to chat with him to see if he could provide both tours for us, and we liked him instantly. He talks very quickly, so we couldn't catch everything he said, but it was clear that he believes in conservation first and tourism second; his job is to educate people while protecting the animals and their environment. Quite right. We asked him about searching for turtles that night, and he was delighted to do that for us. We agreed to buy our park entrance tickets during the day and meet up with him at 7:45 that night.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the town. It's very chilled out, a lovely Caribbean coastal town. Our hotel was right next to a sports field, and there were baseball games happening that afternoon. We watched them for a wee while; those guys were good! We hit the souvenir shops looking for something for Kirsten, a postcard for Beth, and anything with manatees on it for Tam. We then made our way to the park entrance to get our entry tickets for that night. On our way we passed a little local boy who called to us and pointed into a swampy-looking area in front of his home. There was a big ol tiger heron in there, presumbly looking for fish. Very cool! We then got our park entry tickets and stopped to read lots of signs about the park until insects drove us out. We also spotted lots of little crabs around the park office. Genius.

We had an early dinner and then got ready for our turtle expedition. Chico had warned us to put on loads of insect repellent and closed shoes, so we followed his advice. Out came my horrid bowling shoes and Iff's old hiking shoes; we're glad we've held onto them! On went the nasty DEET spray and our trendy headlamps, and we were ready to go! Chico appeared right on time, and off we marched to the nearby Tortuguero National Park.

We didn't actually have to go far. There's a network of guys who work in the park to monitor turtle activity (and protect the turtles from ignorant people if necessary), as well as a team of researchers who monitor the turtles. Once we entered the park, various park guys gave Chico the info. He's been doing this for nearly 30 years and knows everyone; we were glad to be with someone who was a bit favoured by the park employees. They told us to go to a certain section of the beach, so we did. The beach has numbered sections, which makes it really easy to locate a turtle spotted by someone else. We got into place with a few other groups on the beach. The other groups each had about 15 people in them, but luckily there were only 3 or 4 other groups there; we'd been worried that the beach would be crammed full of tourists.

We waited around for quite some time while the park employees verified that a turtle was settled in enough for people to approach her. During that time, Chico gave us loads of info about the turtles. The ones laying eggs at this time are green turtles, but at other times of year they have other turtles there as well. He explained that the green turtle likes to come onto land during nights with little or no moonlight. She makes her way up the beach untiil she finds a spot she likes, then she “cleans” it (as he put it). She clears away any detritus, makes sure there aren't already eggs there, and then digs a huge hole. She lowers herself into the hole so that she's slanted over it. Then she deposits at least 100 eggs, each the size of a ping pong ball. Once they're all laid, she covers them with sand (blindly because she can't see underneath her own tail, let alone in the dark). Once she's happy with the area, she makes her way back to the water. She's huge and unwieldy, cumbersome on land, but this whole process takes less than 2 hours. She might repeat the process up to 4 more times over the next few months, each time laying fewer eggs.

Finally we were told that a turtle a few beach sections away was ready to be viewed. So we all made our way over there. I was so excited, I couldn't wait. We all neared the turtle but first had to wait until a group of 4 or 5 researchers did their thing. Then we were given the ok to approach the turtle 1 group at a time; a researcher laid down next to the turtle to shine a red light on her eggs as she laid them into the sand. We were the second group to see her, but unlike the other huge groups, Chris and I got to be with the turtle on our own. Chico stood back so we could see better. First up, I was struck by her size. She looked about 4 feet long and 3 feet wide, a massive creature whose head was barely visible in the dark. Secondly, I saw the pile of eggs underneath and gasped as she laid more eggs on top of them. Everyone was trying to be as quiet as possible, as unobtrusive as possible, but this turtle had to be aware of all the people around her (especially when each group of 15 people gathered around her, a number I thought should have been vastly reduced). I was amazed at how she just calmly laid her eggs as if nothing was happening around her. It was magical for me.

Each group then took a few turns coming back to the turtle to watch her lay more eggs. On our last turn, we saw her covering the eggs up with sand. She was blindly slapping sand onto them with her big back flippers and then patting down the mound of sand to be sure. All blindly. I was absolutely amazed. I wanted to see her finish the whole process and go back into the water, but all the guides suddenly had us all walk as quickly as possible to another bit of beach nearby. There was a turtle there who had finished laying her eggs and was making her way back to the water. Chico made sure we had a great view of her as we all followed her about 6 feet behind. I was awed by the sight of this mother making her way back home. She had to work so hard to heave herself over that sand, stopping every other push to rest. I could feel her excitement as she got closer to the water. And when she felt the first wave of water touch her, she was so powerfully energized that she only needed one more great push. When the next wave came, she was covered enough by it to disappear within it. We all clapped, and I was moved to tears. Chico made fun of me but in an affectionate way. “Tranquila, tranquila,” he said with a smile.

And that was it. Chico led us back to our hotel, and we thanked him profusely. We could not have had a better guide. We went to sleep very happy indeed with our alarm set for an early morning departure.