On Monday, March 21st, I left my house at 7am and look a bus to San Jose, the capital. From there, I took a taxi to the bus station for the Caribean coast. At the bus station, I met another student from the school who was going with me to Tortuguero.

Her name is Bettina, she is from Switzerland and speaks English and German and some Spanish. At nine a.m. we boarded the bus for Cariari. The bus ride took about two hours and provided a good view, from the window, of Parque Nacional Braulio Carillo: large hills of green trees and along the road, pretty, little waterfalls next to the bus.

We arrived in Cariari where we purchased a ticket to ride another bus and to take a boat to the park. I thought the bus would not take very long, but in reality, it was about an hour long and very hot and crowded. People were standing in the asiles and the windows were well above the heads of those sitting. In this part of Costa Rica there are a lot of (I think) banana farms. The Caribean coast has quite an interesting history. I do not remember the date, but I believe sometime around 1900, or before, banana growers in Costa Rica hired people from Jamaica to work on their farms, thus creating a community of Jamaicans in Costa Rica on the Carribean coast. To spare you all the history lesson, in Costa Rica there are decendants of those orginial workers and more on the Carribean coast (I think) than other parts of the country. The carribean coast, in general, says my guide book, has a more relaxed, Rasta vibe. On the coast, I definately smelled that rasta vibe. No, but seriously, I enjoyed being around Raggae music and Jamaicans a little bit...it gave a taste of home! (Hartford!)

Ok, so when we arrived at the dock, we got on the boat. The moter boat took off down the river to the park. The only way to get to this park is by boat. I felt really adventurous! The ride took about 1 and half hours. We arrived around 3:30pm. Vale la pena...It was worth it. The next morning we went on a canoe tour with a local guide at 6 in the morning. We saw all kinds of beautiful wetland birds on the river, a small crocodile, poison dart frogs (little red frogs) and interesting plants and flowers. Our guide spoke spanish to us almost the whole way. His family is from Jamaica, and you will never guess what I said to him. I told him that I had a lot of friends from Jamaica but I only knew one word: Gway!

With the morning tour, a walk through the park in the afternoon and a hike around and up the Tortuguero hill, I saw three different kinds of monkeys, a few little bats, a tree that walks 1 cm each year, bullet ants, the carribean sea and a couple hundred ants walking single file along a root on the ground. The looked like a giant snake!! A little scary! The last night we were there, we ate at a restuarant that served chicken cooked in coconut milk, a Carribean specialty.

I am very glad that had the chance to go, because it was one of the places I most wanted to visit here.