A Broad Abroad

Tortuguero village is small and rambling, with no cars. it is, in my experience, like many afro-carib communities where families blend and take care of each other and the entire family structure evolves very differently than in the US. one can walk the village in about 15 minutes.

One side of the village is on the river, it’s life-blood, the other side on a tumultuous, shark-infested part of the Caribbean coast. when looking at a map I was naturally drawn to accommodations on the beach, but the riparian world of tortuguero is far more interesting and I was glad to have the shady dock at casa marbella to hang out on. For hours I could watch the small boats come and go, the dense forest crowding the canals and the birds that skirt its edges.

the first morning I took a small, motorized boat along with some other casa guests with daryl as a guide. It was a great overview of the park and its the eco-system and we saw lots of wildlife – including the 3 local species of monkeys: howler, spider and white-faced capuchin.

Later, sarah, andrew and dave (of Vancouver), a lovely dutch couple and i took the hike thru a section of the park near the village. We had quite a monkey encounter with the spider and howler monkeys!! Rubber boots are mandatory (verified at park entrance) and are provided by casa marbella. Part of the hike is on the beach where discarded sea turtle eggs abound. Tortuguero, if you haven’t guessed, is named so because it is a turtle nesting ground (tortuga being turtle in Spanish). The previous evening we were able to see a lone baby turtle, just hatched and waddling to the ocean. Talk about an amazing solo-journey!! There are 8 species of sea turtles in the world, 6 of which nest in costa rica , 4 off those in tortuguero.

The next morning I chose to explore the river/canals in a “man-powered” canoe. Alexander, the man powering the canoe with his oars, was an amazing guide and earned my new name for him, Alexander the great! He grew up near the border with Nicaragua and knew all the birds by ear. This allows him to keep his eyes peeled for what he hears and allowed me to see a flock of great green macaws, a highly endangered species. I took this canoe trip with the Roth family from LA, led by Barbara. She and her children are down here for the second time delivering boxes and boxes of school supplies to needy schools in small villages like tortuguero. Kudos!

On my third afternoon I took a sola walk thru the park near the village and had yet another amazing monkey encounter. This one left me with the distinct impression that I was being tracked by a group of howler monkeys. They were getting so close and surrounding me!! I was able to put all the monkey-movie-plots out of my head and enjoy the walk anyway. This time I also wore long pants tucked into my rubber boots to protect my calves which ended up rubbed raw from the boots after my previous hike ☹.

Good restaurants: miss miriam’s for Caribbean fare, villa casona for the same (good food but only had ½ of the menu and took forever – but that’s the carib vibe ☺) – both of those are along-side the soccer field. and GREAT pizza and fruit shakes at budda café – a lovely spot on the river with nice (tho not tico) ambiance and music.

Since I was heading down the carib coast from tortuguero I took the boat to moin (outside of Limon on the coast), which uses a man-made canal, sort of like a mini inter-coastal. There’s an office in tortuguero to buy tickets near the main boat-spot in town (I call it that cuz there is no dock for water-taxis). Best get a ticket and catch the boat upstream (not past the main boat-spot) since it can get full despite the “reservation system”. I flagged it down from casa marbella and was the first one on. It’s 3.5 hours long and flies by due to the lovely scenery but costs a rather pricey $30. I grabbed a taxi with 3 other travelers from the dock in moin to the bus terminal in limon ($2 a piece) and grabbed a bus to cahuita from there (about $1.30).

i’m only providing some of this info, like prices, in case other central american travelers find it helpful :). onto cahuita!

the city of guapiles sits roughly ½ way between san jose and tortuguero village. I made sure I was at the guapiles bus station by 9:30 am since there are several hops involved in getting to tortuguero the cheap way. first of all, let me explain that tortuguero village (and the national park) can only be reached by plane or boat. I chose the least expensive: on a boat from la pavona (not even on most maps) through the canals that connect banana country to the coast.

It sounds pretty adventurous, but in fact it’s how most locals get in and out and it’s fairly straightforward if you know all the pieces: get to cariari by bus (thru guapiles), get a smaller bus to la pavona, which is basically a dock, a soda and also a guarded parking lot for those leaving a car – I’m told for $10 per day. I got a combo-ticket in cariari that included the shuttle to la pavona and the boat to tortuguero village – a total of 2600 colones or just over $5. One can also get each separately and take the “clic-clic” boat for the same price. Our guide-extraordinaire and inn-keeper in tortuguero, daryl loth, prefers clic-clic, the local tortuguero business.

I swear our boat driver was imitating the canal scene from The Italian Job or has maybe seen too many james bond movies, but the speed-boat thru the canals was something to experience!! very narrow in parts with the jungle looming over-head, I understand that driving fast allows corners to be taken more effectively, but the effect is the same: exciting. Just so you know, the clic-clic boat left at roughly the same time and arrived quite a bit later, so not all drivers attack the canals with equal vigour.

A friend who studied manatees in tortuguero for several years suggested I stay with his friend daryl loth – who owns casa marbella and is an amazing guide and conservationist. A nice guy from the boat who lives in cariari and spends several days a week attending a school in tortuguero specializing in eco-tourism, showed me to casa marbella where shortly I met a nice trio from Vancouver! Now I understand the world of MEC (mountain exhange co-op), canada’s more-devoted version of REI.

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