We were collected from La Quinta very early in the morning to be driven to a restaurant in Squirres. Here we were given breakfast, in a restaurant dedicated to transferring people to Tortuguero.
We were not not to get on the bus, because others already had seats. These people had come from the capital, San Jose. Eventually we were allowed on the bus, that seat more than 40 passengers. The seats had very little legroom and the guides who sat in the front weren't prepared to move, so for the next hour and a half, Peter sat with legs as far apart a possible and his knees squashed into the seat in front. A lovely young Costa Rican realised his dilemma and put his seat into the upright position, which helped somewhat.
Eventually we arrived a Puerto Blanco, where we were met by total chaos. The luggage had to be dragged through stinky wet mud to nearby boats. No one seemed to know what to do and much beckoning and shouting endued. There was so much luggage it had to go in a separate boat. This had to be sorted as well. So the passengers had to re-lug the belongings to another place and make sure that it departed in the right order on the right boat.
Soon the passengers were herded onto other boats and according to which lodge they had been booked. Forty in each boat. We felt like Brown's cows!
Despite the noise and number of people; three boats each with forty people and most if whom were very noisy Spaniards; we did manage to see a crocodile.
Our cabina was lovely once we arrived, as was the lodge, Aninga, named after the water bird. There were only about twelve of us staying at this lodge, so we were very delighted, thinking that we would now be able to do some quiet tours together.
This did not happen, after lunch at two o'clock, we met down at the wharf to go on a boat to see animals. (Stupid time of the day!) However instead of the twelve of us going alone we collected the noisy Spaniards from another lodge. Three boats left to get tickets into the National park, where we were told we would be going down Harold Canal, so that we would all be in different canals. Not the case! All three boats travelled down the one canal! What do you think we saw?
Well as you can imagine, we didn't see much at all. Too noisy, too many people, too many boats, wrong time of the day! And only for two hours! Guide not really interested or observant. The boat driver spotted more than the guide.
Turtle sunning itself....
Baby caimans, one iguana in the distance, some howler monkeys a long way off and a spider monkey dashing for cover!
It poured with rain in the night, but we woke to a cloudless morning! A walk after breakfast with our guide, Noel, yet again saw us join forces with the other hotel guests. This time, however we were divided into language groups. Not many English speakers, so a little better. The walk was a disappointment. It was along the hotels' pathways. Noel was ill- informed and arrogant. Not really interested in finding much at all. Indeed the visitors were the more keen-eyed.
I think this bird is one of the Triganae Family and fortunately sat over the top of the walkway on a branch and could not be missed.
Blue Land Crabs live in the mud on the jungle floor.
In the afternoon we went to Tortuguero Village, really just a packpackers type village with not a lot going for it. Saw holes dug by the turtles and souvenir shops with shoddy artifacts.
At 11.00am, I went zip-lining whilst Peter spent the time in and by the pool. What is zip-lining? Long cables are strung high up in the canopy. You wear a harness and gloves. A strong rope is attached to your harness with a carabena (?) and mechanism with rollars in it. You climb up very high for the first line, get attached to the line by placing the roller mechanism onto the steel line and safety harness is clipped to the roller. You hang onto the rope hanging below the roller and zip down the line. One hand is held behind your head on the steel rope whilst with the other hand you hang on for dear life to your safety harness. In this way you can skim across the tree canopy. I thought this would be an excellent way of viewing the rainforest and maybe sighting some animals and birds. Wrong! You are too intent on hanging on and wondering if you will stop in time. It was fun,mbut I don't need to do it again!
We saw this mother Sloth right outside the dining room. She had a young baby that she kept in another tree for camouflage while she forraged for leaves.
The great part about Tirtuguero was that we met two really lovely other younger couples, a pair from San Jose, Costa Rica and a pair from Stuttgart, Germany. Cleo and Juan were Costa Rican. Cleo, a dancer, was a real live wire and happily prattled to us in slow Spanish with much hand gesturing and animation. She spoke no English. Juan, her husband is an artist of some repute having been accepted into the Bienale twice and winning it once. His work is exceptional and we were treated to a viewing of his portfolio as well as an electronic viewing of his most recent works. The hotel used his paintings exclusively. He worked in many mediums, charcoal, oils, watercolour and also sculptured.
Eric, a periodontist acted as a translator, when our Spanish was impossible for Cleo and Juan to understand. His wife/girlfriend Laura an interior designer, spoke no Spanish and was not as fluent in English. So our conversations to an outsider would have sound quite comical. English, Spanish and German being translated all the time.
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