JAN 22-23, 2013 TORTUGUERO NATIONAL PARK, COSTA RICA

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Tuesday Jan 22, 2013  TORTUGUERO, COSTA RICA
"TUANIS" is our word of the day to learn, it is a  more informal version of PURA VIDA - really meaning Life Is Great - a greeting to each other when you meet or are asked how you are.

Today we are heading from San Jose to the East Coast of Costa Rica to see the country and spend two days in the conservation Tortuguero Park.

OK we're ready for the Caribbean today!  After breakfast and a glass of champagne we left the Barcelo San Jose Palacio at 7am for our trip heading East to the coast.  First we had a short drive through San Jose city centre, population 1.3 million at 3200 feet altitude.  We are so glad that we had taken the two days to walk around downtown and take the guided tour walk.  We recognized many spots, buildings and parks and we were thrilled that we had seen many of these attractions in depth and from the inside.  We would have missed so much historical and cultural background if all we had was this quick drive-by in the 40+ coach!

The City's name San Jose comes from the name of the Patron who founded San Jose in 1737.   The original name of the country's capital city was much longer - Vida Nueva Del Rocce Delmonte Del Valle Arbore!  Try saying that in a hurry!  The Costa Rican flag is 5 stripes and 3 colours with  Blue at the top and bottom representing the ocean on both sides of the country (Caribbean on the East and Pacific on the West), then it is white representing Peace (there has been no standing Army in Costa Rica since 1949, although they do have a very large Police Force) and the middle is Red representing the blood of the Costa Ricans killed during their Civil War.

SOCCER is huge in Costa Rica (we passed the impressive modern soccer stadium on our way through San Jose City Centre).  Number two in the league are the SABRISSAS - the favourite of our Guide Elston  (colours purple and white), but first in the league is ALAJUELA colours red and black.  All 7 provinces in Costa Rica have their own soccer team.

POLITICS:  A major part of Costa Rica's history revolves around the very short Civil War in 1948.  This was precipitated by the 1944 election won by ? , but it was felt by the general populace that fraud and corruption helped him win.  The general population did nothing about it although they were very unhappy.  By the time re-election came in 1948  the general populace were ready for him and he lost the 1948 election but he refused to accept defeat and did not step aside for Ortillis but "coincidentally" the electoral building was burned down so it could not be confirmed that Ortilis had won the election.  

This was followed in 1948 by  a short 44 day civil war when? organized an uprising of University Students and civilians who stormed the Army barracks in San Jose ( we saw the bullet holes when we toured it 2 days ago!).  The final result is that ? escaped to Nicaragua and then ? ran the country for 18 months. During this time he nationalised many industries and services (like banking and insurance) and generally earned the respect and support of the people.  ? also banned reelection to prevent the same thing from happening in the future, and he also abandoned the standing army because so many people lost their lives during the war.   Today CR is the only country in the world with no standing army although they do have a very large police force.

The political system today consists of an Executive branch (like a cabinet) with a woman President Laura Chinchiga elected in 2010.  There are two main parties who end up essentially alternating with the majority vote/ (based on the voting) every 4 years:  National Liberation & Social Christianity Unity.  There are also 20 or so small parties emerging and working hard to get representatives in office.


We crossed over the Continental Divide at 750am  and at the same time passed a large number of tractor trailers parked along the sides of the highway heading into San Jose - this is due to a restriction on the hours when they can enter San Jose City Centre - so the trucks are parked waiting for time to pass so that they can enter the city.

As we drove on, we entered the Braulio Carrillo National Park - 115,000 acres of protected land with the largest biodiversity of flora and fauna.  This was an amazing road conceived and started in the 1800's - steep up and down, with no stopping allowed and no turn outs for photos which was a shame,  and winding as we descended towards the Caribbean Coast over 3,000 feet lower.   We passed through the Zurqui tunnel, the only tunnel in CR.  Prior to the tunnel being built the migratory animals used to go higher or lower to seek food as the seasons and the food supply changed, but now the animals now use the tunnel, although initially there were lots of animals killed by the motorists using this tunnel, but apparently the animals are now a little more "streetwise"..

3 of the 4 species of monkeys to be found in Costa Rica live in the Braulio Carrillo National Park, along with 50% of bird species to be found in Costa Rica and 10% of raptors.  Du to the difficult terrain and its' inaccessibility the park is very pristine with dense forest descending into tropical rain forest.

Towards the bottom of the very long run down from the Continental Divide we passed a very recent accident with a semi trailer on its' side in the ditch, probably going too fast as it took the curve.  This was just before we crossed a long, high bridge crossing the point where the Suelo river meets the ? river. and also where the 3 provinces of San Jose, Limon and Cartago also meet.  The colour of the water from the rivers changes as they mingle and move on - very rusty and orange with mineral sediments.

The scenery started to change quickly as the terrain levelled out - some tree cutting had taken place here in the past, and the huge trees and bamboo from the higher up more inhospitable terrain disappeared.

We stopped at 840am in the town of Guapiles for a break at the butterfly garden Selva Tropical and bar / restaurant Las Potrancas.  (Butterfly Farms are where butterflies are raised and shipped abroad for weddings etc.)  The number of butterflies inside was awesome - so many, all different sizes, and beautiful colours, they were landing on our hats, shirts and even faces and hands - but somehow never standing still for the perfect photo.  Elston (our Guide) also found a tiny, and I mean tiny maybe 1 or 2 cm, bright red Blue Jean frog which he brought out of the foliage in the Butterfly Garden to show us all! ..............

Unbelievably, we also saw a brown throated three toed sloth sleeping in the trees at the butterfly Gardens (Cost Rica also has a two toed sloth).  At 10 months old sloths are abandoned by their mother - returning 1 year later to reclaim their territory and telling the 22 month old sloth to go and find it's own territory!  The solitary sloth only comes down from the tree once a month for the bathroom.  They are vegetarian with a very slow system!   Sometimes you will find two sloths in a tree when they are mating, or a mother and baby.  The very large Ground Sloth is now extinct, and the Armadillo and ant eaters are related to the same order as sloths.   Sloths are the slowest animals on earth and spend 8% of their time sleeping!  Many insects live in their fur and studies have shown that 30+ series of insects, mice etc. have been found living in their fur - the sloth's own eco system!  So the sloth is a very important species.

Laving Las Potrancas at 1030am and heading North we drove through several small villages (Rita & Cariari) on the way to the 47,000 acre Tortuguero National Park where we boarded the boat to the Tortuguero Lodge andwould spend the next two nights. The road was one lane, but mostly good condition, requiring lots of braking and moving over (or a vehicle coming the opposite way moving over) so that we could pass. North of Cariari we drove through huge banana plantations owned by corporations such as Chiquita and Del Monte - Costa Rica is second in the world for the the amount of bananas exported, Ecuador is first.  There are 70 varieties of banana plants in the world, Costa Rica produces Valerie, Cavendish and dwarf bananas but didn't start producing bananas until the early 1900's when their coffee exports started to decline.  (India is the world's largest producer of bananas but they eat most of what they produce).  The banana plant is 70% water, so they need to be grown in areas with lots of rainfall.  As we looked out the window of the bus, we could see the clouds increasing and getting darker as we got closer to the Coast and Tortuguero - we may be using those raincoats soon!

Each bunch of bananas weighs 60 to 80 pounds, so picking ripe bananas is very heavy hard work for the workers. The workers make a "train" of 25 bunches of bananas using a cable.  Each banana plant is ready to harvest in 9 months, then you start again with the new shoot from the plant that has just produced its' crop - the total life of each banana plant totalling 25 to 30 years.  The blue plastic bags covering all the bananas are impregnated with an insecticide to prevent against insects and wasps, they also act as a micro climate to induce the bananas to grow inside the blue plastic bags, and the bags also prevent the bananas from sunburn.

We hit gravel road round 1020am, North of Cariari and had lots more rattle and roll in the bus.  We passed maybe 12 buses on this stretch, mostly the 45 passenger, but some 30 passenger buses and a couple of mini vans - this Tortuguero National Park is very popular and generates big tourism business for CR. We crossed the Pavona river at 1045 and at this point we had been driving through plantation and ranching lands for some time - the only "wild animals" we saw included goats, dogs, and cattle.


We arrived at the river bank and restaurant / bathroom stop (at least 50 ladies lined u waiting to use the bathroom!) where there were 50+ parked cars, plus large buses and mini TURIsm buses - all waiting to pick tourists up and continue on their tours, or, like us, drop us and our overight bags off, for a couple of nights inside the Tortuguero National Park.   This rain forest area had been logged copletely in the mid 1900's but Costa Rica changed direction when Dr Alex Carr arrived in the 1970's and advised the Costa Rican Government that they had something special that tourosts would pay money t come and see - so the area was turned into National Park.  Now the forest has regrown (amazingly so, very large trees) and the reptiles, turtles, birds, and animals are starting to come back.  The locals used to catch the birds and animals to eat or sell, but when it became a National Park this was outlawed and there was a fine if they were caught with wild life, but that fine has now been changed to a minimum 5 year prison term.

We climbed aboard two boats with open sides and a roof along with our overnight bags, and soon Captain Midor had backed us into the very shallow river and we were turned around and cruising along the very shallow and winding river on our way to the Laguna Lodge in Tortuguero National Park.  We stopped occasionally to look at special birds and monkeys that we (or more likely Elson or Capt. Midor) spotted on the river banks!  We cruises 3 rivers  -  the  Viola Asuerte river which is fresh water about 50 feet wide, ultimately joining the Tortuguero River, Penitencia River, and Tortuguero Lagoon, brackish mix of fresh and salt water, on which our Lodge for the night was located.

Around 12:30pm we left the Viola Asuerte river and entered the Penitencia (penitence) river which was much wider, maybe 150 feet, and deeper.  If we had turned left instead of right we would have reached the border with Nicaragua in approximately 3 hours. Very shortly after entering Penitencia River we passed what is known as the "hotel zone" where various small lodges are built along the river banks. Being high noon the sun was very hot and we really appreciated the cooling breezes coming off the water from the boat going fast - even if we were wearing our compulsory life jackets which make you so hot.  There were 23 of us on our boat plus Guide Elson and Captain Midor.      We arrived at the Tortuguero river and lagoon - brackish water at 12:45pm, and were really surprised to see so many small and medium sized lodges and boats along the banks.  Even though we still felt like we were in the middle of the jungle, Elson told us that in fact we were only 200 feet from the bank across to the Caribbean Sea!  Then it was full speed ahead on our boat to the Tortuguero Lodge - our home for the next 2 nights.

This was a good start to our time in Tortuguero and even though this was not a "spotting boat safari, along the way we had spotted much:
TREES:  huge Kapok trees,Breadnut which has lots of seeds - it is related to the Breadfruit Tree which has no seeds)
REPTILES:  Caiman (small type of crocodile) with lines on his tail  (Note: the American crocodile which you do not find in Tortuguero is much larger up to 20 feet long and has spots on its' tail), Green Iguana,  turtle on a log,
BIRDS:  Osprey sitting in a tree with its' wings hanging down, white egret, reed Kingfisher, Little Blue Heron with grey beak and greyish coloured legs, Grey heron, Bay Wren, Anhinga sitting on a log at the side of the river with its' wings spread wide open to dry them so that he could fly again after diving for fish and getting them wet
ANIMALS: Central American spider monkeys

Arriving at 1pm we were pleasantly surprised to see the Laguna Lodge since we knew that this was not going to be the most basic of all the resorts that we would be staying in.  Laguna Lodge was right on the Tortuguera Lagoon banks with a small open air bar and deck over the water, and a large dining room with roof but open sided, that would seat maybe 200 guests at one time, sitting at the water's edge.  Our first stop was reception where we were given our room assignment (our group of 8 were all assigned rooms next to each other) ours was room #58.  There are probably 12 pr more bocks of rooms at Laguna Lodge, each a long wooden building with a shared deck and 2 very comfortable leather rocking chairs out front, most facing out on to the lush tropical and ver well maintained grounds, or 1 of the two very nice swimming pools.

We took the short walk to our room and it was clean and comfortable with a queen size bed and a single bed inside, with a night table and 2 reading lights on the wall.  There was a bottom and top sheet on the beds, and 2 blankets in the small clothes closet with 3 coat hangers and no door - you really don't need to bring very much when you come here.  The separate bathroom was spacious with a shower, hand basin and toilet and a clean white towel each.  There were 2 small bars of soap but no shampoo or conditioner.   There was a window at the front and back of the bedroom which were covered in screening to keep out the insects, and wooden shutter doors for privacy which was essential at night for privacy due to the shared deck if you had a light on inside.  We actually kept the shutters open and the lights off since it was still incredibly humid and sticky at night when we went to bed, although it had cooled off if you woke up in the early hours of the morning.  On the deck there was also a water jug that we all shared to fill up our own water bottles and try to stay hydrated.  You could hear the constant roar of the waves from the Caribbean Ocean crashing on the beach which was maybe 100 yards away.

We headed back to the dining room for our buffet lunch which as very good - salads and fruits, chicken and Gallo Pinto (beans and rice) which was served at every lunch and dinner that we had every day in Costa Rica.  The staff were excellent continuously coming to our tables to give us water and juice, and then coffee after all 3 meals each day.  We took the one hour before we had to get together at 3pm to check out the two pools (very nice), watch the Montezuma Oropendola  (black with yellow tails) building their nests at the top of the very tall palm trees (we figure must be related to the small weaver birds in Kenya).  We also walked out to the beach and watched the waves crashing on to the beach.

At 3pm it was time for our first boat safari in Tortuguero and we headed 1/2 mile down the lagoon to the Turtle Sanctuary - started by Dr Alex Carr back in 1974 - where we watched an informative and enjoyable movie all about the turtles of Tortuguero.  Then we walked down the beach with our guide to the small village located here. It is still the long holidays for the school kids here (from mid December until the first week in February) so unfortunately we couldn't visit the school which is a typical activity for the tour group when the school is open.  But we walked from one en of the village to the other (maybe there are 60 very modest homes here) most of them running home based businesses for adventure tours, boat tours, nature tours, hotel rooms, restaurants, and souvenir stores.  Everything related to Costa Rica, and specifically Costa Rica.  It was so hot and humid -  our tshirts and shorts and underwear were all soaked but at least it wasn't raining!  At the very far end of the village we came to the HQ for the Tortuguera National Park - Terry spotted  a Toucan here high in the trees - little did we know that during our entire 10 day tour we would only spot one more toucan also hidden in the trees - we truly expected to see many!  We also saw a spider monkey in the trees, so it was a very enjoyable and rewarding afternoon - even though we did pass up on buying an ice cream each, as tempting as it looked!                                                              

The boat picked us up at the village and took us back to the Lodge where we all made a mad dash to the bar for Happy Hour and 2 for 1 drinks!  The Cuba Libre's (rum and cokes) went down extremely well at abut $7 each (or 2 for 1 during happy hour) as we watched the sun set on the opposite side of the Tortuguera Lagoon behind the high canopy of the rain forest.
           
We were most definitely remote and in the rain forest, but we have to admit that we were amazed at the couple of hundred tourists we had seen come in by boat at the same time as us that afternoon, somehow we had the preconceived idea that it would be quite remote and pristine!





Wednesday Jan 23, 2013  TORTUGUERO, COSTA RICA

What a night in the Laguna Lodge!  We had a torrential downpour in the middle of the night and since the roof of our room is tin you can just imagine the noise!!  The wind changed during the night sometimes gusting sometimes quite calm, but it made for an interesting night.  We had the fan on when we went to bed - we were so sticky - but the temperatures cooled down and we turned that off eventually and even threw the light blanket on!  We had been sleeping with nothing on at all, not even the top sheet - and the wooden shutters open for the breeze - but since everyone that walks by can look in (and even talk to you!) we kept the lights off!  There is a purified water tank outside our room for the set of 6 rooms in our unit of wooden chalets (all connected in 1 block with a long verandah in front and 2 amazingly comfortable wood and leather rocking chairs for each room.  It looks like everyone is 80+ years old as they sit and rock in the chairs!

We woke up at 530 but the alarm was set for 630am so we had a slow start and managed to download and backup photos prior to our breakfast at 7am.  Everyone was in the herd mentality with a long line for the cooked eggs!  Pretty spartan buffet - pineapple, watermelon, toast, spicy wiener sausage, eggs, beans and rice, pancakes and cereal with fruit juice, water and Costa Rican Coffee.  The egg line took half an hour to clear!  Everyone was excited, noise level high and by 730 our group was finished and ready for the boat ride departing at 8am.

Gerardo Aguilar Munoz was our Naturalist Guide and  Juan the Captain.  There were 3 boats for our group of 40, so our own group of  8 managed to get on to the same open air (no top) boat - complete with hats, sunscreen, cameras, binoculars and wildlife identification cards and anticipation and we were off!

We spent two hours on the Tortuguera river and lagoon and were thrilled with everything that we spotted (and mostly Gerardo & Juan spotted!!):

BIRDS:  juvenile green heron, yellow crown heron, bare-throated tiger heron (3 months old and not yet able to fly), great tailed grackle, a nest with 2 eggs and Momma green heron close by, blue heron, white egret with yellow feet, black (male) and female (brown) grackle, ring kingfisher (the largest species), royal terns, Northern jacana, bare throated tiger heron (full grown),, small yellow tropical king bird, osprey (migrated from North America), 2 flying grey hawks, turkey vultures, oscillated antbird, black striper antbird, nun bird?, royal terns.

TREES:  breadfruit & mango trees, wild ginger plants with flowers, extremely large
tropical almond trees 100-120 feet tall - they could not be logged when they were logging this area prior to becoming a protected National Park in 1952, and as well as being too hard for them to log, they also sank when loggers tried to float them in the water! Pachita aquatic flowers and fruit which was a huge round ball, huge rattan palm, and royal palm.

Across the lagoon from the Laguna Lodge where we were staying, we could see the Manatus (manatee) Lodge across the lagoon.

REPTILES:  LIZARDS & IGUANAS: huge iguanas with wattles that they were shaking about and nodding their heads up and down trying to attract the boring brown female iguanas, Jesus Christ lizard (walks on water and we saw it!!) Emerald Basilisk (a female and a larger emerald green one), spectacled caiman (like a baby crocodile)

ANIMALS: two cows who looked stranded on a very small island with huge amounts of healthy green grass; two toed and three toed white faced sloth hanging in the top of the tree (they come down just once a week!), spider monkeys high in the trees, howler monkeys.  We also had a large troop of howler monkeys walking along the tree branches (whereas the spiders tend to swing from branch to branch, hand by hand).  The howler monkeys live between 25 to 30 years old.

After travelling along the Tortuguero Lagoon there is a meeting point of the 4 rivers which is across from the Tortuguero Park Headquarters:  Chiquero river, Tortuguero, Penitensia (which continues North all the way to Nicaragua, about 2 to 3 hours by boat to the border), and Tortuguero Lagoon which runs in from the Caribbean Sea.  As we cruised along we spotted the Red Frog Lodge, and Tortuguero Hill which is an extinct volcano and only 120 metres high!  Again we were advised as to the history of the Park which really started in 1959 when Dr Archie Carr arrived from USA and started working towards implementing conservation in the Tortuguero area in Costa Rica.

The boat turned around at 10am and we headed back towards Laguna Lodge.  This area gets 240" of rain each year.  We saw the black anhinga female bird sitting on a branch with her wings outstretched drying her wings, they spear fish and kill it before swallowing.  But they can't fly with wet wings so they sit and spread them to dry them out before they can take off again.

Back at Laguna Lodge I arranged for a water taxi to take us back to the Turtle Conservancy since yesterday the store had been closed when we were there and this is also where you can sponsor a turtle.  Afterwards we also called in to the small village to pick up a couple of Costa Rica wildlife identification reference cards to help us with our spotting. The water taxi fee is normally $10 each but with some negotiation we got it for $8 each.

Buffet lunch was enjoyable sitting at the tables for 6 and enjoying the open air and views of the birds and boats on the Tortuguero Lagoon.  We had another couple of hours before our afternoon boat safari at 3pm, time to download photos from the camera to the computer and also to enjoy the beautiful grounds.  Some folks enjoyed a swim while others wandered through the Botanical Gardens and mini rainforest (with identification plaques) set up right on the property.

Our afternoon boat safari departing at 3pm was enjoyable again, we just can't get enough of all the birds that we see  - we even saw a nest with anhinga and 2 chicks, and bare-throated tiger heron nest with chicks.  Our first stop before entering the Tortuguero National Park is a stop at the Park Headquarters where our boat guide has to take in the Park Passes showing that the daily Park fee has been paid for each of us on the boat.  Costa Ricans used to keep exotic birds and animals as pets - but nowadays if anyone is caught with wild birds or animals as pets it is an immediate 5 years prison sentence, not just a nominal fine like before.

We cruised along the Chiquero river to the Tortuguero river in the incredible heat of the still afternoon - we were so glad to get into the side channels (originally made by the logging companies many years ago to cut the trees down, then float them back out - but for us it meant that we were out of the heat and in the protection of the rain forest shade.  Again our spottings were numerous:

REPTILES: fresh water slider turtle, 2 black river turtles sitting immobile on a log and right behind them a caiman (small crocodile) sitting on a log in the middle of vegetation - he didn't move an inch even when we pulled over to look at him!  The largest that they grow to is about 2 metres long.
Emerald Basilisk Lizard.

BIRDS: Swallows, Yellow Crown Night Heron, Ring Kingfisher flying along with a fish in its' mouth. the fascinating Boat Billed Heron - such a unique beak, but always hiding in amongst the trees at the water's edge so impossible to photograph, and the Blue Heron, and an immature Blue Heron - which are white!  Green Heron.  Bare throated Tiger Heron.

FLORA & FAUNA:
There were many very tall wild almond trees - the wood was too hard for logging companies so they left them alone - the almond trees also sink if the loggers try to float them on the river to be processed!
Here the termites build their nests in the trees (not on the ground like Africa and Australia) and we saw a termite nest high in a tree that had been vacated by the termites and had now been taken over by bees.
This is secondary rainforest (34 years of growth) and amazing how high and dense it can already be after 34 years.
The Mimosa tree have large pods with seeds which explode and the loud cracking noises as the seeds explode is amazing, spreading their seeds all through the rain forest.

ANIMALS:
Spider monkeys including a Mom with her young one clinging to her, high up in an almond tree.
There were even squirrels running around.

Somehow the boat safari went by way too fast and we were heading back to the Laguna Lodge long before we were ready - we could have stayed out there way longer!  But we were back at 5pm in time for Happy Hour at the bar overlooking the Tortuguero Lagoon!  Today we tried the GU?? cocktail  made from the local Costa Rican liquor and a lemon juice - excellent!  After a couple of those we headed over to the swimming pool and into the rain forest to see if we could see the tree frogs which had been spotted the night before!  We were lucky enough to find 3 but not lucky enough to get any decent photos - trying to protect the camera from the rain and figure out my close up settings at the same time with no flash!  Never mind it was a great experience and Jan Dicks had taken us to where she had sene them the night before so we were thrilled to just see them clinging to the stems of the foliage.

After a shower and change (we felt clean and dry for only about 5 minutes) we had our last buffet supper and sharing what we had seen that day - we truly enjoyed Tortuguero and would love to go back.  I suspect if it was pouring with rain it would not be anywhere near as much fun in the boats with no roof but for us it had been perfect!  We soon fell asleep looking forward to our next day's adventures!