Sunday, September 28, 2008

Tortuguero



After Puerto Viejo, we took a trip up the coast to Tortuguero national park. It was pretty difficult to get to; there are no roads! A 3 hour bus ride took us up as far as Puerto Limon, and from there we had to go out to the nearby port of Moin. From there it´s a 4 hour boat ride through the canals and lagoons to get to Tortuguero. As the guide book says though, the boat ride is at least half the experience and we saw some incredible wildlife on the way there...



Emerald basilisk lizard. This is a male- you can tell by his crest on his head. They can run on water!



Crocodiles! We saw 2 up pretty close and they were very impressive. We trusted our guide, Eddie, knew just how close to get!



Spider monkeys including a mother and baby. They´re really agile and swing from tree to tree using their tails.



Beatiful birds like this humming bird.

The most amzing thing that we did there, though, was watching enormous green turtles nesting on the beach. It was a beautiful moonlit night with the occasional lightning flash and thousands of stars and our guide led us through the darkness to see the turtles with special infra-red torches. We saw one turtle laying her eggs - you can get scarily close because they go into a sort of trance while laying so, as long as you´re quiet, they won´t be disturbed. Then we rushed off to another part of the beach, where rangers had found another turtle. This one was covering her eggs with incredible strength - she showered us with sand! Then, the most moving bit, she dragged herself back down the beach and swam out to sea. Sadly, no photos, of course, but we´ll never forget it!

Unfortunately, that night, Rob was really unwell, so was confined to our incredibly basic cabinas for the next three days. He´s fully recovered now, though, thank goodness! I did manage to get out on a canoe tour on the river, though, which was great. I saw loads more wildlife like caiman, a sloth, an iguana and a mountain toucan.

A great place but we´re glad to be back in relative civilization and preparing for the next leg!

Rachel x

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great photos! - keep them coming.
CMcI

Anonymous said...

What an experience - to be able to see those amazing animals!
Really glad that Rob's better now. Looking forward to hearing about your next adventures.
Lots of love, Mum (Di)