Boat ride through the jungle. Tortuguero is really only accessible by water – surrounding towns exist off of single docks – all of their goods ferried in as needed. Larger hotels and eco-lodges (like the one we stayed in) sit right on the water with private boats hauling tourists as needed.
The ants go marching one by one…
touch-me-not (mimosa pudica)
Tortuguero
½/14 – 1/3/14
Tortuguero was a completely spur of the moment thing. Most of the stuff I have done so far I had at least slightly researched. But this time I didn’t even know tortuga meant turtle until mid-way through the trip. Which made it easier to learn it wasn’t breeding season and I wouldn’t be seeing any. Ah, well, there were still plenty of other things to see.
For $199 each we got 5 meals, transport from our middle of nowhere hostel in Puerto Viejo, transport to our hostel in San Jose, and the actual tour – awesome guide, beautiful hotel, access to the national park by boat, etc. More money that I had wanted to spend, but not the worst deal.
Access to Tortuguero was first an hour and a half drive down a dirt road – past the Chiquita banana farms, and then the Del Monte banana farms, past houses and wilderness to a ferry port. A boat then met us there for the 20 minute ride to the hotel. Despite being so remote, a fairly large population lives here, mostly supported by the tourist industry.
Our little group included Danny, me, a (newlywed?) couple from Dublin, Highway, and his daughter, Keela. We were quite a random group. The couple from Dublin seemed fairly quiet until the group started playing Kings (a drinking game) and the husband corrected his wife that yes, she had swam with sharks “that one time when we were drunk in Thailand.” Brilliant. The whole table couldn’t stop laughing. Highway was a character all his own. He left the States sometime in October and has been traveling through South and Central America ever since. With a graying beard, long hair, and brightly colored bandana, you would never have guessed he had been a Marine for 20 years. Over one meal, he showed us some pictures from his travels that looked absolutely gorgeous. I was suddenly wishing for an infinite amount of time to keep going. His daughter, Keela, is a freshman at Boston University and had flown down to visit him over her winter break. She was pretty close to my age but had already seen so much of the world. All of us got along really well, swapping pictures and stories.
Day 1:
5am: Accidentally wake up because I’m an idiot with a phone an hour and 20 minutes off
6am: Pick-up from Hotel
8am: Breakfast
10am: Start on dirt road: see banana processing, visit wildlife preserve
1:30pm: Arrive at hotel
2pm: Nap by the pool
4pm: Visit the turtle rescue center and town of Tortuguero
6pm: Card games
6:30pm: Dinner
8pm: Rummy
Day 2:
5:30am: Wake up
5:50am: In line for tickets to park
6:10am: Animal sightseeing by boat in Tortuguero National Park!
8am: Breakfast
9:30am: Hike
11am: Check out of hotel
noon: Back on bus
1pm: Lunch
5pm: Dropped off at hostel in San Jose
1/1/14
I had made sure to have a room for New Year’s Eve, but after that was completely up in the air. Which I realized the next morning while checking out of the Lotus Garden. The Lotus Garden lady gave us a map with some phone numbers and Danny used his amazing Spanish skills and called around, but alas everything was full. Just as we were about to give up, hotel Casa Moabi called back and said actually they were just kidding when they said they were full – a $45 room is ours to split. Sweeet.
This place was in the middle of nowhere. We thankfully took a cab because who knows how far “just down the road” is. The cab driver almost got lost (literally putting the car into reverse in the middle of the road/oncoming traffic). Turn right off the main road, down a dirt road, past an Argentinian restaurant, left at the yellow arrow onto an even smaller dirt road – and tada! You’re there!
Howler monkeys screeched in nearby trees. Birds chatted all day long. We were in the middle of the jungle and still just a 15 min walk from the beach. The entryway/main area was completely open and filled with hammocks/games/local tourist information. The owner/manager guy and his girlfriend were European (I think…?) and their first language was clearly neither Spanish nor English, though the manager dude spoke both fluently. He rents out entire houses on the property so in the main area we were pretty alone except for a British couple volunteering and staying there while on their gap year. (Which, btw, the US needs to adopt this gap year thing). I taught Danny Skip-Bo during down time. When the wifi wasn’t working, manager dude was super helpful in pointing us in the direction of pizza (La Casa Del Pan) and in booking us a trip by phone the next day.
Casa Moabi website: http://www.casitamoabi.com/
