It’s strange arriving in a new place at night. It’s disorientating and at the same time a bit like having a present in front of you that you can’t open till morning. We were dazed when we landed in San Jose. Thirteen and a half hours to Houston followed by a three-hour connection and then another three-hours thirty to San Jose, and that wasn’t including the drive from Tauranga to Auckland.
The clinical like airport with its chill air-conditioning gave way to the embrace of a humid tropical night and the craziness of taxi drivers jostling for business. We smiled and pushed past. We were looking for our name on a board. There he was, our driver waiting for us.
We had found a local Costa Rican company online who had arranged our 12-day itinerary, providing suggestions for places to visit and booking accommodation, a rental car and transfers for us. The company, CRS tours, is part of the international Pack for a Purpose programme where tourism companies sponsor local projects and encourage clients to bring worthwhile donations with them on holiday. We were asked to bring stationery for one of the three schools that CRS sponsors in remote and impoverished areas of Costa Rica. Andrew had had some fun at Warehouse Stationery and at least a quarter of our shared suitcase was filled with writing pads, felt-tip pens, pencils, rulers, highlighters, Sellotape and the like. Our driver was impressed with the bag of goodies we entrusted him with to take to the agency.
On the drive to the hotel he told us a bit about him and his country; how he owns the transport business with his uncle and that he has never the 3 years of operating had picked up any New Zealanders; and how life in Costa Rica is pretty good and that it’s the most stable country in Central America and as a result living standards are much higher than its neighbouring countries.
We arrived at our hotel. It was 9.30. The woman who checked us in told us that there are no water bottles in the hotel rooms because Costa Rica is trying to reduce all plastic and drinking from the tap is fine. Recycling bins sat in the hallway outside our room. In the information CRS provided us on Costa Rica there were a lot of references to the country’s strong environmental stance and they even sent us a link to an App with our itinerary so we wouldn’t print anything.
We hadn’t eaten much in 24 hours and didn’t want to go to sleep too early, so put our bags in our room and walked 100 metres down the ill-lit street to a very cool corner bistro with dark walls dripping in vintage memorabilia and a pretty jazz singer crooning in the corner. The restaurant specialised in Argentinian steaks, but the menu was mostly Italian influenced. We ate bruschetta topped with some of the best prosciutto we’d had, then cannelloni for me and lasagne for Andrew washed down with a velvety Argentinian Malbec.
The alarm went at 5.30am. We were to be picked up at 6.15 to start our 3-day adventure to the Tortuguero National Park. There was time for a coffee and oh, that breakfast spread was too enticing. A true Costa Rican spread with fried plantains, rice and beans, soft tortillas, white cheese and tropical fruits. And that coffee was superb. I had made the mistake of accepting what they call coffee on Air NZ. Big mistake.
We were on the bus and off towards the Caribbean coast. The city quickly gave way to coffee plantations and market gardens and then we were driving up the mountains through the Braulio Carrillo National Park. Over 25% of Costa Rica is protected conservation land and the surge in Eco-tourism has helped turn this spectacular nature into income, no doubt keeping those keen to cash in from the exploitation of natural resources quiet. The road rose to 1000 metres through dense cloud forest. We were told it’s always wet and cloudy up here. The huge plate-like leaves of “poor man’s umbrella” or Gunnera keep the forest floor obscured from view. We saw a few monkeys high above us, dangling precariously over the road. It was Saturday but there were many trucks on the road, mostly dump-trucks carrying rocks. The roads are like the majority of New Zealand roads, not wide and with no barriers. We were taking it all in, as in 3 days’ time we would pick up our rental car and be joining the throng.
It took 2 hours to reach our breakfast stop. Yes, we’d already eaten, but this was all laid on for us so why not have some more? It was a similar traditional spread, not nearly as nice as the hotel, but the fried plantains were delicious, and I don’t eat bananas.
Outside the restaurant, we encountered our first sloth. High above us in a tree, he looked like a sodden old jumper that had been thrown over a branch. Then he moved. My only goal in Costa Rica was to see a sloth in the wild. I actually thought it would be similar to expecting to see a kiwi in the wild in NZ, so to see one outside a restaurant beside a main road was quite unreal.
Below the tree we found lots of tiny red frogs with blue legs. These are the poisonous dart-frog or blue-jeans frog and they’re only a centimetre long and have a very distinct chirp. Nature is everywhere here.
Back on the bus and another 2-hours’ drive past banana and cassava plantations and then cattle ranches with white Braham cattle – the type from India with floppy ears and accentuated withers; they’re good in the heat so are the main breed used in this part of the world.
The scale of the banana plantations is incredible. Signs outside these vast plantations are emblazoned with renowned brands; Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte. Each banana bunch is wrapped in a blue bag to protect it and when they are picked, they are hung on a moving wire that takes them through the plantation to the processing plants. Our bus had to stop while a draw-bridge-like arm came down across the road and a succession of suspended banana bunches sailed across in front of us.
Finally, we arrived at the port of Cano Blanco and we were all loaded onto a fibreglass longboat. Two seats on each side, an aisle down the middle, open sides and a canvas roof. The only way to reach Tortuguero National Park is by boat or air and the boats are strictly commercial tourist boats.
It took just over an hour to travel 40kms up the canals to our lodge. The further we went the denser the rainforest got. We saw spider monkeys swinging through the trees, great white herons stalking in the shallows and an unnerving number of vultures circling.
We were welcomed to Pachira Lodge with a luscious tropical fruit cocktail and then ushered off to lunch. Pachira Lodge is an Eco lodge nestled in the forest across the canal from the village of Tortuguero. The lodge makes every effort to minimise the environmental footprint of their operation and there is no plastic to be seen. The lodge is made up of cabins set in lush tropical gardens and connected by concrete paths above which large orb spiders hang in their intricate golden-silk webs. There’s a beautiful pool area and lots of shady outdoor areas to relax and take in the remarkable environment around you. The rooms have no air-conditioning, just a roof fan, and there’s a wide gap around the top of the walls covered with mosquito nets for air flow. Monkeys frequent the lodge and a young Spider monkey played up for our cameras not long after we arrived.
There was no time to rest our jet-lagged bodies. After lunch we were off on our first excursion; a 2-hour canal tour to spot wildlife. Tortuguero National Park covers 31,174 ha with a network of canals and waterways running through it. The best way to see it is by boat. We were in a small flat-bottomed boat with an outboard motor and no sides or roof to obscure our view. It costs $15 US to enter the Tortuguero National Park and the park office was only 5 minutes boat ride from the lodge. We pulled up to the jetty at the Rangers’ office and our guide jumped off to pay the fees. It must be an honesty system as there’s no “gateway” to the park as such. We then raced up the canals, slowing when we reached the narrower areas where we were much closer to the forest. It was stunningly beautiful. Greens of all shades overlapping and stabs of colour from tropical blooms: the bright red lobster-claw plant, magenta ginger flower and soft mauve clematis clambering across the canopy. Ficus trees dipped their long shapely roots into the tannin-stained waters. We saw a Jesus Lizard. A few Howler Monkeys walked over the branches above us, black and woolly with thick set necks. Cute spider monkeys swung by, chattering away.
Tortuguero means Turtle Catcher, named because of the Sea Turtles that nest along the Caribbean coast from July to October. It wasn’t the season for the Sea Turtles, but we were lucky enough to see a good-sized river turtle sunning itself on a log.
Then we saw more sloths. The slightly smug, slightly spaced out half-smile on the face of a sloth is oddly endearing. I have a lot of affection for this funny creature. Because they move so slow when they put one arm in front of the other to climb a branch their arm hovers like they are waving at us. Our guide told us the sloth only comes down to the ground once a week to do a poo. Why they lumber down to the forest floor to defecate is not entirely known but it is a ritual they follow fastidiously.
Our attention turned to a flock of toucans, too high to see properly, and then to the macaws, herons and anhingas, or snake birds, drying their large wings. There were more vultures, twelve tiny bats under the roof of a jetty, and three very large spiny-tailed iguanas.
The sky was darkening, from both clouds and the early sunset of the tropics. The sun sets before six here. It was time to head back. We were feeling quite exhausted and a swim to freshen up was just the thing we needed. Then a beer while looking over the canal into the inky blackness, listening to the symphony of insects.
It rained overnight. The guttural call of the Howler Monkeys cut through the jungle. A troop of monkeys ran across our roof at 4am. Most probably they were Spider monkeys, but they could have been Howlers.
The next morning, we took a guided walk through the jungle. We were told to wear covered shoes and mosquito repellent, but it was hardly “wild”. The paths were concrete and there was a rail running alongside. It was interesting though; our guide Marco knew his stuff. We saw large blue land crabs, red-eyed tree frogs, bullet ants (named because their bite hurts more than getting shot), a very small green headed snake, spiders, lizards and lots of beautiful lush tropical plants. It rained briefly but heavily; the dense greenery protected us from getting too wet. This is the dry season in Costa Rica. Back at the lodge, we were told someone had found a Boa Constrictor, in fact two, outside a cabin. The larger of the two was relaxing in the leaves beside the path, the other was tightly curled around a tree directly above. Neither seemed too fazed by the attention they were getting. It was incredible to be so close to these genuinely wild creatures.
More swimming followed, then lunch, then more swimming. Some monkeys visited and a flock of toucans with their comical banana beaks landed in a tree only a metre from us. Then it was off on another excursion, this time to the village of Tortuguero.
Tortuguero is almost directly across from the lodge and sits on the peninsula between the canal and the Caribbean Sea. The village grew from turtle hunters and traders settling here. Before the establishment of the National Park in the mid-70’s turtle hunting was prolific, and the species was quickly becoming endangered. Our guide took us first to the Turtle Conservatory and told us about the effort that was made to educate the locals of the value of the turtles alive, rather than dead. By employing the youth in tourism and science they were able to teach the next generation that they could earn a good living by protecting the sea turtles and end the cycle of hunting. Now the economy of Tortuguero is solely based on tourism and thrives. We walked to the beach where the Green Sea Turtles will start arriving around June and nest here until October. We had to use our imagination as to how it would look with these 1.5-metre-long creatures lumbering up the beach en masse. A local was cutting coconuts and selling fresh coconut water for $2 US, or $4 US with a shot of rum. We opted for the pure version. The US dollar is widely used here.
We were starting to get to know some of the people in our excursion group. Three young women from Madrid, a French family from Lyon, a Costa Rican family with the most energetic wee boy, an American family of 5 from Seattle and two young German doctors from a town in Northern Germany near the Danish border.
Our guide was in no hurry and we all wandered slowly along the beach towards the village, chatting about our travels. Tortuguero village is small and made up of bright-coloured ramshackle buildings that seem to have given up fighting off the encroaching forest. Commerce consists mainly of souvenir and craft shops, eateries and back-packers. A lot of young people who perhaps find the lodges too pricey opt for the more authentic village experience. One of the shops was selling dog food packages wrapped in beeswax for $1. By the looks of the village dogs, this tourist gimmick is working. What a dogs’ life – no cars and everyone feeds you.
The light here is lovely. At 3pm the shadows are already long and by 4.30 it’s evening and everything is bathed in gold and pink. We admired the turtle mosaics on the school walls and the giant installations of a macaw and toucan and then sat in the village square people watching while we waited for our boat home.
That night the Howler Monkeys weren’t so loud, or perhaps we just slept more heavily.
After a leisurely start the next morning it was time to leave. Our Tortuguero experience was almost over. We were soon on the boat and racing through the canals, stopping briefly to admire another sloth waving at us, before arriving back at Cano Blanco where our bus was waiting. A repeat of that 2-hour drive over mostly gravel roads and through picturesque rural Costa Rica followed, and we were then back at the restaurant where we had eaten breakfast the first day, this time for lunch. After refuelling, it was time for us to hit the road alone. We said our good-byes to our fellow travellers and found our rental car representative who set us up in a cute Daihatsu 4×4, our transport for the rest of our Costa Rican journey, and then we were off towards our next destination, Arenal Volcano.
Wonderful reading! I’m envious that you saw sloths. I missed out in the Panama islands. What a great adventure you are having