On our way to Tortuguero
We had to get up early for our transfer to Tortuguero. Breakfast was at 6am. There were many guests in the hotel that were waiting to get into the breakfast room when it opened as everyone was more or less leaving at the same time. There was not enough space for everyone. So we suggested to an Argentina couple to share a table with us. This way we could practise our Spanish. For Koen it was not a problem at all, for me it was a bit more difficult as my language lessons had taken place too long ago.
The minibus that was picking us up was a bit later than foreseen due to the heavy traffic. We were not alone in the bus, there was one other couple that accompanied us to Guápiles. We first drove from the capital through the cloud and rainforests. The weather was mainly cloudy and with fog and rain, but the sun appeared from time to time when we came closer to our destination.
We passed several banana plantations on our route. They even closed the road to allow the manpowered banana trains to pass.
The minibus stopped in Restaurant Hotel Suerre, where we had our second breakfast/brunch of the day (this was included in the price of our stay in Tortuguero).
Then we continued our way with another bus and were eventually dropped off at the central point where all boats of the different Tortuguero hotels picked up their guests.
The bank of the river was very muddy due to the rain, so it was not an easy task to get in the boat, but we managed. The boat trip would take more or less an hour. We were hoping to spot some wildlife in or around the water…
Arrival at our accommodation
We had a reservation in the Manatus Hotel and were very pleased that there was air conditioning in the bedroom. 30 Degrees outside and high humidity resulted in continuous sweating.
Immediately after our arrival in the hotel, Koen decided to cool off in the swimming pool. The water was just lovely. I wanted to see animals so I decided to go for a walk on the hotel grounds to view the local fauna and flora at my leisure.
After a late lunch (a super nice ceviche), we saw a group of monkeys passing through the garden of the hotel.
Visit of Tortuguero Village
In the afternoon, we participated in a trip to the village of Tortuguero that looked the same as in 2009 when I first visited Costa Rica. We had a guided tour that passed by the beach where the turtles came to lay their eggs (they were not there at the moment that we visited).
Then we continued to the large shopping pedestrian street with crabs hiding along the side between the roots of the trees.
Wildlife encounters in Tortuguero
Before dinner, we took another walk looking for animals that were mainly active at night. We were lucky because we saw a lot of green frogs with red eyes, the blue jeans frogs (very poisonous), bullfrogs, a sloth and an opossum.
In addition, we were very lucky having received boots from the hotel because there was mud, mud and more mud. Also good to note that the many insects did not care about the deet lotion that we had put on :-).
So satisfied with our first full day in Costa Rica! Now looking forward to more wildlife the next days.
