Limón Province, Costa Rica
Up early for our next departure at 6am. We had a private 2 hour transfer to Mawamba Lodges Rio Dante restaurant in Guapiles where we were in the hands of our next accommodation provider (Mawamba Lodge) who have package deals including accommodation, transfers, tours and meals - as it is very remote. We had an hour at this restaurant for breakfast. We haven’t yet met anyone so far since being here who is going to this area of Costa Rica. Many tourists seem to go only to La Fortuna and perhaps to the Pacific Coast.
Some observations about Costa Rica thus far:-
- It is very clean here
- Tourism is a very strong industry
- Current spring break in USA means there are a LOT of Americans here right now
- Visitors are a mix of young families looking for a more active holiday through to older couples.
- We both really liked La Fortuna and the Arenal area. This is one of the few places we have been that Tim has said he would actually return to.
- Being so close to the equator, there is 12 hours of sunlight, and 12 hours of darkness each day with sunset and sunrise the same time all year round.
- English is well spoken.
- Our Spanish repertoire is increasing!
- There is no social security but plenty of jobs.
- Roughly 20% of the population are from Nicaragua - they come to Costa Rica for better jobs, better education, better conditions and better pay (according to our driver this morning).
- The pineapples taste really, really good.
- The local currency is Colones but US dollars are widely accepted. At some places, you may pay in US dollars but get change in colones.
Through the drive this morning, we have observed lots of pineapple crops (lots and lots of these), sugar cane, and papaya plantations, pepper trees and some large factories that make fruit juice.
Costa Rica has only 0.03% of the worlds land mass but 5% of the world’s biodiversity. It is only 272kms at its widest and much of the country is National Park and protected. Recycling is everywhere as sustainability is important locally. Our guide was fascinating and even Tim was quite impressed with his horticultural knowledge. Tim will probably not ask him to play scattergories.
After the drive, we embarked onto boats for the 90 minute boat trip to Tortuguero. There are no roads here! The trip was fascinating (and beautiful) and we saw crocodiles, caimans, hawks and monkeys swinging through the trees.
On arrival we checked into Mawamba Lodge for 2 nights. There is no air conditioning or TVs here. But there is a beautiful pool, a fan above the bed, power and hot water.
There is no phone reception here at all and WiFi is weak and only available in common areas - something I suddenly found quite frustrating when I wanted to talk to my mum and sisters.
It is really hot and humid here (in La Fortuna it was warm but not unbearable and the nights were cool enough for a blanket.) I suspect we won’t need blankets here! So, first up, it was time for a really nice lunch (food is included here as part of our package) and then we went for a swim. And then, our first tour into Tortuguero village. Obviously no cars here, but it was really cute and caters to tourists. Lots of colorful buildings, restaurants, shops and bars. We then walked along the beach back to our resort which took 20 minutes.
Given the volcanic activity in Costa Rica, this beach has black sand, unlike other Caribbean beaches. It was then time for more swimming in the pool! (The Ocean here is too rough for swimming).
Dinner was nice and we had a few drinks with others on the tour. Whilst La Fortuna was full of American Tourists, Tortuguero has Europeans - and on our table for dinner were couples from Switzerland (Zurich and Lucerne), France, Austria and a girl from South Africa who has lived in many places - including Australia (Five Dock actually), and London and is staying in Costa Rica indefinitely (this is her 5th visit).
It was a very hot night, broken by torrential rain at about 3am which was a huge relief.
Day 2 of our visit started with breakfast followed by a guided walk through the lodge grounds for a couple of hours with sweat just dripping off us! The guide is truly knowledgeable about biodiversity here, and we saw lots of fascinating plants and animals including baby and large green iguanas (they grow to 2 metres long and like some smaller reptiles they can survive with the loss of their tail.
The tail is strong with lots of meat so monkeys will often attack and break off the tail to eat it). Iguanas are also eaten by indigenous people and apparently they taste like chicken. We saw small bats, and small bees that don’t sting.
We also saw the butterfly garden and frog farm.
Another cooked buffet lunch (meals are really good here) and a swim, and it was time for our canal tour by boat. We saw Toucans, turtles, caimans, monkeys, and lots of other birds. Too elusive was the jaguar though. We even heard our first howler monkey! Thankfully we got some cloud cover as the heat was incredible!
We passed on the night tour. I was a bit flora and fauna’d out and as it appears as though the others only saw insects and grasshoppers, we were pleased to have saved that $60 US.
We then had our final drinks and dinner with the couples from Switzerland (who travel a lot - they have even been to Snooky mum & Lee) and Austria. We leave Tortuguero in the morning to head to our final Costa Rican destination.
Barb
2018-03-31
Sounds like a great trip. Maybe a little too hot for me. Loved your blog. Keep having fun.