Parque Nacional Tortuguero, Limón Province, Costa Rica
Tortuguero - the Mini-Amazon
The
way there is not that easy
when
Gine originally read about it, she said we have to go there because
where else can you visit the “Mini-Amazon”. Then it started to
get a little bit more complicated: lonely planet says the boats leave
from Limon... Gine couldn’t find any information about a boat
leaving Limon – all they offered were complete tours 1-2 days,
starting around 300 US$ pP. Ok, that was so not what we wanted. Then
Gine started to write to some hotels in Tortuguero and that is how we
got some more information: there is a public ferry daily leaving La
Pavona, in La Pavona is a paid secured parking. Where is La Pavona...
on the internet you find a map on how to drive there. We asked if we
have to reserve the ferry and got told no: because if there are more
people they use more boats.
Why
do we go to an area that is so difficult to reach?
- it’s called the Mini-Amazon-jungle of Costa Rica – it’s the best place in Costa Rica to visit if you are a nature lover
- there is no road going to it: the only way is by boat or by plane
- even here they have a volcano: the Tortuguero Hill in San Fransisco is an extinct volcano
- it is very wet here: the dry season Jan – April has 7-12 days of rain, as where the rest of the year it rains around 22 days: when it rains too much than the road to La Pavona is flooded and closed, as well the town’s dock is underwater – you should always be prepared for rain: so have a rain poncho with you
- the National park was created in 1972 to protect the most important nesting site of the green turtle (by the way Tortuguerso means turtle catcher) – to see the turtles you have to come in July
- also it is famous for the Tortuguero Canals: they were built from 1966 – 1974: 4 canals making a 105 km long water highway – built by wood mills
the
drive to the end of the road
This
morning we had 1.5 hrs drive ahead of us – after turning off the
main Highway we had 50 km of small tiny road ahead of us to the ferry
station. Halfway there was a little town: super busy it is like drive
where you want – park where you want and if there is a spot
anywhere on the road go through...
then
we came through a lot of banana plantations, in between it started to
rain a little bit but then the sun came out again... I can’t
believe how many bananas they are growing here. Right on time we
arrived at:
Covered
Parking
you
can’t miss it – there is this huge parking lot with covers –
and you only pay 10 per night for parking. And also right away we got
approached to buy a ticket to Tortuguero, when we also got approached
by a guy who worked for the hotel we are staying and he told us, that
we can book the ticket with Luis. Parking and then we got some more
information on how it works: where the dock is, that on the other
side we will get picked up... and so we are ready to:
our
private boat ride to the town
we
learned that it is the dry season and the river is at the moment very
low, in the wet season it can be up to 3-4 m higher. At the moment
there are not a lot of crocodiles around because it is so dry. Also
there are no stones, but a lot and lot of mud at the bottom of the
river and sometimes it is only 1 foot deep – so you have to be
careful when driving the boat. As in the wet season it can go really
fast out to town at the moment it takes somewhere between 1 – 1.5
hours and if it is really bad it can take up to 3 hours to navigate
through the river.
Actually
it was only us two on the boat and a local guide who went to San
Fransisco. We had a lot of fun – sometimes super slow – sometimes
faster – once we scratched the mud on the ground... we saw a few
birds along the way and a lot and lot jungle – at the shores of the
river you can only see green going from the bottom all the way the
trees with no space anywhere between. It was so much fun... but we
are really in the tropics here!!
our
Beachfront Hotel
we
arrive at the dock and already we get approached if we need a place
to stay or for tours... so we start walking in the direction of the
hotel .... but then we do phone them so that we don’t get lost,
that is when our guide found us and the reception girl came too...
they were super nice and no we would not have found the place by
ourselves: I mean who thinks about turning from the main road and
walk over green grass around some houses and then through a archway
of green and you enter the hotel complex. Our room is towards the
garden at the ocean and we can see the ocean right from it. Super
cool. But before we can do anything we need something to drink and so
we start:
A
walk around town
I
mean they say you can’t get lost in this town: on one side the
river and on the other the ocean – one main road with all the
action. We walk towards south and come by a cute looking restaurant
inviting us for a milkshake – that would be the perfect to cool us
down... and so we enjoyed a pineapple-banana and a chocolate-banana
shake.... now we are ready to explore. We came by the tour guide to
get informed about tomorrow mornings tour... then we went all the way
to the National park... once in a while we checked out the river and
then back to our hotel.
What
we discovered in this town that for once that here a lot of satellite
dishes with christmas picture painted on them – and a lot of rusty
engines lying around – as per Paul we had to take a picture of each
and we admired the crankshaft – pisten – bulldozer....
Some
cool facts about this town:
- the lady from the store told us that around 1000 people live in Tortuguero, 750 of them are children because the only think to do here is eat and make love. She said she is at home – in the store or in the church, but she lives here because of her parents
- around 100 local guides are here – in the high season (July) when Europe has summer vacation and the turtles are nesting they have on a few days 1000 tourists here a day
- there are no cars here – the police does has a motorcycle (and you can hear) it when they go around
- the first wood mill opened in 1940: that brought a school and a doctor to the town, but it neve really took on and they left in 1972.
- They cut down some of the forest and the mill was located where today’s dock is
- in 1972 the 1st telephone came,in 1979 the government started the public transportation by boat and in 1982 the first electric generator stated
Relaxing
to the sounds of the waves
now
we take a little time to relax: a jump into the pool freshes us up,
so we can relax in front of our room and listen to the ocean... but
we can’t sit still for long, so we walk to check out the caribbean
ocean: they say it is not for swimming because of the strong waves
and all we see is in both directions .... ok it’s time to hit the
town again:
Sunset
over the river
wondering
along we came by the Bakery and there they had this yummy cooking
cakes: that means time for a break we got the very best banana bread
we ever had – right with river view.... and then we came by the
little park which was perfect to sit and watch people, boats coming
and going and also to see the sunset... it is super amazing. We love
this little town in the water jungle.
We
try Guanabana:
when
we went for supper and wanted to order the fruit smoothie (we have to
get our daily intake of vitamines in!) we asked what the Guanabana is
– which we see everywhere, then he brought us a little sample to
try it: I think it is something you have to get used too and Paul
thought it was super strange. So we ended up with good old pineapple
with our yummy supper and Paul couldn’t help himself and had to
have shrimp again!!
- Guanabana or Sourfruit is native to tropical regions – we saw earlier the evergreen tree and it’s funky looking green fruits (if it gets below 3 C the tree dies) – by the way it can be invasive
- we could try it today – I’m not sure it is kind of strange: the flesh is white with some fibers and they say it tastes similar to pineapple as a combination of strawberry, apple, sour citrus fruit with underlying texture and taste of coconut and banana... guess it is a fruit mix
- they say it can be used as alternative treatment of cancer from the neurotoxin in the seeds of the fruit
Caribbean
music
Sitting
around our hotel to catch up with diary we got entertained with
Caribbean music – it is a lot of fun to sit around listen and enjoy
the warm weather.
2025-05-23