Tortuguero National Park, Semana Santa Week of Wonder

Our boat at the port of La Pavona, on the Rio Suerte

Our kids were out of school for the week of Semana Santa (week before Easter), so we decided to head to Tortuguero National Park which has been on our Costa Rica bucket list.  It is not the prime season for nesting (the more frequently-sighted green sea turtle starts in June or July), but there was a chance we could see a leatherback sea turtle nesting.  Even if we did not see a turtle, this stretch of the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica was new territory for us and well worth the trip.  

In spite of everyone being sleepy from getting up in the middle of the night to view the full lunar eclipse, we hit the road early for the 4.5 hour drive from Nuevo Arenal to the port of La Pavona.  La Pavona is about 15 minutes past Cariari on an unpaved road.  The port consisted of covered, guarded parking, a nice restaurant and store, with $1 “deluxe” bathrooms, and a dirt river bank sloping into the muddy Rio Suerte.  We boarded a long skinny covered boat with outboard motor for an hour and 40 minute trip to Tortuguero Village.  Right away the boat got stuck in the mud (que suerte!) as we were turning around, and the boat captain tried several maneuvers to free us, then asked for help from the passengers.  One man got in the water and helped to successfully push the boat free. The first hour was very reminiscent of Disney’s jungle cruise: a windy narrow river with jungle on either side.  It was a slow trip, due to the water level being low.  We spotted a few birds, but no crocodiles or caiman.   Once we met the larger and deeper Rio Tortuguero, the going was easier, though then the motor started to smoke, and we had to stop occasionally for it to be restarted.  After two stops to unload a couple of passengers at other locations, we arrived in Tortuguero Village.  Again no dock, just a muddy river bank, where a handful of boats can dock in the mud, side by side.  We knew we had arrived when we saw the large billboard welcoming us to Tortuguero National Park.

Jungle cruise

At the port in Tortuguero

We were met at the dock by a friendly guide and walked 5-10 minutes past the soccer field (cancha) to our hotel which is the only one right on the beach.  Tortuguero Village is located between the Tortuguero Canal and the Caribbean Sea, within the national park.  There are no cars; only access by boat or airplane.  We stayed at Cabinas El Icaco (www.hotelelicaco.com), a great bargain at $40 a night for all five of us!  This is the least expensive hotel in which we have stayed in Costa Rica, but we found it to be perfectly fine.  Although the bed that Nik and I ended up with was strangely firm...I felt like I was sleeping on a sidewalk, but Nik did not mind it.  We had dinner our first night at Miss Miriam's, next to the soccer field, where we enjoyed some very fine chicken, rice and beans.

Nik demonstrates the Caribe vibe

Sully and the Caribbean

Dinner at Miss Miriam's...

...overlooking the cancha, with a game in progress.

Cabinas El Icaco's inviting hammocks

View from the hammocks

Our room at Cabinas El Icaco was not fancy, but great for $40 a night!

Some views of Tortuguero Village...

Canal-side park

Escuela by the beach

The next day we really enjoyed a 3-hour guided kayak tour, on which we saw caiman, spider monkeys (our first sighting!), lots of interesting birds, basilisks and iguanas.  We paddled through several waterways, ending up in the Caño Harold.

Heading off on our kayak tour of the canals

Henry, uh, not paddling!

Stalking a caiman!

Caiman!

Caño Harold looking very jungly

Toda la familia!

Green ibis

Tiger heron...

...taking flight.

Boys at the beach

We had arranged for a turtle tour that night at 9:30, but beforehand we enjoyed a lovely and memorable dinner at Wild Ginger: fantastic food, just off the main path through town, very near the beach (www.wildgingercr.com).  The owners are an American-Tico couple who have really developed something special, and it was a real treat for us!  Here we had the best guacamole and palm heart hummus as appetizers, then Caribbean beef stew, chicken roulade (wrapped in bacon!), ginger chicken salad, followed by volcano chocolate cake for dessert.  And the cocktails!  Espresso martini for me (to stay awake for turtle tour!) and a tropical cosmo for Nik.  

Delicious feast at Wild Ginger

We met up with our guide for the evening, Elvis, at 9:30 sharp.  One other tourist, a young man from the UK, joined us for the tour.  The moon was out (now two nights past full), and the moonlight looked magical shining off the waves.  We were in search of the leatherback, the largest sea turtle, that nests this time of year.  We were told that we had a 50/50 chance of seeing one; we needed some serious luck!  We walked south along the dark beach for at least an hour, with a few stops to look at turtle tracks that had probably been made that night.  Elvis told us that often turtles come out to check out the beach, but then decide it is not a good place and go back in the water.  We saw two places where this had happened; the turtle came out of the water onto the beach, then turned around and went back.  At the second spot, the turtle had traveled quite a way on the beach before she went back to the water without making a nest.  We ran into conservation volunteers heading the opposite direction who were out looking for turtles too, to mark nests, measure turtles, etc.  They had not seen a turtle yet that night.  They said that due to recent weather, not many turtles had been coming up on the beach in the last week or so.  They thought the nesting cycle may be “restarting” and that more turtles were due.  We walked for a while after we passed the volunteers, then sat for a break while Elvis told us more about the turtles.  While sitting there on a log, Sully fell asleep on my lap.  

Then, while Elvis was still talking, Madeleine spotted a turtle coming out of the surf!!  She pointed it out to Henry and then we all saw it.  Elvis told us all to sit and be still and quiet.  We watched as the turtle slowly slowly made her way up the beach, then her path curved, and she was coming toward us!  I thought she might come too close and get scared off or run into us, but eventually she stopped and started to smooth the sand with her front flippers.  It was hard to see her, as the moon had gone behind clouds.  Perhaps this is why she came out at that time, as the beach was a bit darker.  Jaguars are a big threat to sea turtles and their eggs, and there is a population of jaguars living in the forests of Tortuguero that runs along the beach.  I tried not to dwell on this fact, as we walked and sat on the beach in the dark!  

After much smoothing, our turtle did lots of digging with her smaller hind flippers.  We waited and watched, as best we could in the dark, while she worked away.  Elvis occasionally gave us updates on what she was doing, and it reminded me of a woman in labor, going through the different stages of giving birth.  She knew exactly what to do, even though she only does this every five years.  On each five-year cycle, a turtle will come onto the beach to make nests every 10 days or so, making 6 to 10 nests in total.  After she so carefully makes the nest, lays the eggs and covers the eggs back up, she never comes back to check on them.  The babies are on their own once they hatch (after about 60 days); they have to make their way to the water under cover of darkness and swim for 24 hours to avoid predators.

Once Elvis was convinced that the turtle was done digging and was in the process of laying her eggs, he went to check with his flashlight.  Guides are trained to know when it is safe to come close to a turtle; once they are done preparing the nest and have started to lay eggs, they are not bothered by people nearby.  Our turtle had kindly oriented herself with her back to us, so it was easy to come close to peek at her eggs in her nest. It was incredible to see these alien-looking eggs, freshly laid.  Once she was done laying her eggs, she very carefully buried them with sand, using her smaller hind flippers to pack down the sand.  Then she spent a lot of time smoothing the sand around the nest so that potential predators would not find the nest.  We had heard that turtles sometimes make fake decoy nests to confuse predators, and it’s possible that this is what our turtle went on to do.  

We had been watching her for almost an hour, and we were supposed to be off the beach by midnight, which was fast approaching.  So we headed back north toward the Village.  By this time, Sully was very tired, having taken two little naps while we waited for and watched the turtle.  Nik and I took turns carrying him, which was especially challenging while walking in dry sand.  We met up again with the conservation volunteers, who had found another turtle making a nest on the beach.  She was still in the process when we arrived, which made our second turtle sighting that night!  We did not stay to observe however.  It was time to get our hatchlings to bed!  

We were not able to take photos during the turtle tour, so these pictures are borrowed from Wikipedia.

Digging a nest

So very big!

Eggs deposited in the nest

What we might have seen 2 months later; turtle hatchling!  Aww!

How incredibly lucky we were to be able to see the whole process from start to finish!

Thursday morning as we headed for the dock to take the boat back to the "mainland", we passed many Tico families arriving in Tortuguero and heading for the beach.  Thursday and Friday of Semana Santa week are the big holidays, so it was probably a good time for us to head for home, to avoid the crowds.  Our boat ride was equally long returning, and just as scenic.  When we were leaving Tortuguero, our boat captain insisted that all passengers put on life jackets.  Apparently since this was a holiday, there would be more safety enforcement by the policia.  Once we left Tortuguero Canal and entered the smaller Rio Suerte, we were allowed to take off and stow our life jackets.  Since the water level of Rio Suerte was still quite low, or perhaps lower than two days before, our boat docked before we got to La Pavona.  We disembarked in the mud and walked along a dirt road back to the parking lot.

Heading back...

Life jacket gecko

Safely arrived back (near) La Pavona

Car ride refreshment: guaba.  Inside are many black seeds covered in a sweet, cottony pulp;
you eat the sweet pulp and spit out the seed.

Sun shadow over Volcan Arenal

Home in time to dye Easter eggs

Brilliant eggs, thanks to our imported-from-the-US egg dye kits.