Costa Rica

Hi

We are in the far north east of Costa Rica, living the pura vida in a very small and relaxing little place called Manzanillo. We left San Jose as soon as we could. It wasn’t the worst capital city we’ve seen (by a long way!) but it’s still just a city and we guessed Costa Rica had better things to offer. We headed up to the north Caribbean coast by bus and boat (past crocodiles sunning themselves by the side of the river en route) to a tiny village called Tortuguero. It’s a very popular tourist destination though due to the diverse wildlife here, most notably the 4 species of turtles that nest along the beach in huge numbers. It was made a national park in 1975 and they do really good work in helping the turtles and controlling tourism and ensuring it’s responsible. We lucked out in finding a nice local guide called Ernesto and signed up to a very long day of wildlife adventures. We started at 05:30 with a 3 hour kayak trip through the canals there (It’s called Costa Rica’s Amazon). We saw Iguanas, including a trio of very quite babies, Caymans, a ‘Jesus Christ’ Lizard (runs on water), Howler and Spider Monkeys, the beautiful Blue Morpho butterfly, as well as many waterbirds such as a Kingfisher and Tiger Heron.

After lunch and a little snooze we went for a 2 hour walk through the national park and along the turtle beaches, seeing much evidence of nesting.

Later that evening we trekked off to find the actual turtles. As I said they are very responsible so there are no photos allowed and a team of trained spotters on the beach who call in tour groups when the turtle is settled and laying so as to disrupt the process as little as possible. By the red lamp light we saw a turtle laying some of the 120 or so ping pong sized eggs, before covering them up again, and another turtle hauling her 120kg (16st) frame back to the sea. You don’t get to see that every day and it was a special evening. We also got the fright of our lives while leading the group back to base as the guide called out from behind us. We’d all walked straight past a Ringed Kingsnake (red, black and white) by the side of the path. Apparently they are extremely venomous causing fatality in 10 minutes if bitten!!! The moral here is to always follow the guide.


Another thing I’ve realised is that Wildlife photography is extremely difficult, I’ve always liked the pictures but I have even more respect for them now. I probably just need a much better camera, that’ll be it. I am also starting to get into bird watching…it’s so much better when they are all beautiful colours. Really want to see a Toucan before we leave but that is a long shot. Just today around our lodgings we’ve seen blue grey tanager, grey necked wood rail and scarlet rumped cacique (they’ve got a birdwatching guide book here!)

There is not too much going on here but hopefully we’re going to see an animal rescue centre tomorrow and a tour of a little organic chocolate factory the day after as well as the usual snorkelling and chilling on the beach. Following that we’re off into Panama (we’re only about 30k from the border) for quite a brief visit before we get onto a plane again to head to South America. We go via Miami though and we are both really looking forward to our 3 days there. It’s amazing how much you can miss a good cheeseburger and fries and frappuchino!


MandB