Tortuguero: Part 1

So we are catching up a bit but at the beginning of January, Pam and Paul Caswell - Steph's parents - came to Costa Rica.  We toured around with them for a week or so.

We met Pam and Paul in San Jose and spent a night there walking around downtown San Jose and going out to dinner.  Daniel was with us having come a couple of days beforehand.  When we went to park our car at the hotel, we were met with a guy who guided us to our parking spot and we negotiated something for $10.  All Spanish with a good deal of hand gestures.  We thought the deal was $10 for the night.  So as we leaving the parking area, an attendant summons us over and tells us we have to pay for the parking.  As we pay for parking, we look back and the first guy is starting to wash our car by hand.  Pura vida  (the national motto).

The very next morning we got up early since Pam and Paul were part of a tour.  Heading east northeast out of San Jose, we followed the tour bus to a breakfast place, Restaurante Selva Tropical, in Guapiles which also had a butterfly garden.  And, of course, there was rice and beans for breakfast. There is a pic with a butterfly on Gab's face.  Because there were extra seats on the tourist bus that Pam and Paul were taking, Gab rode with her grandma and grandpa while Daniel and Christo stayed with the Schuckers.  Almost immediately after we left the restaurant, the tour bus pulls over and everybody gets out.  Well the Schuckers did too and we were rewarded with a view of a sloth.

We then drove a while and went through banana groves.   The Caribbean side of Costa Rica is very different from where we live.  The east (Caribbean) side is very very green and lush.  And as we found out, very rainy.  The west side is less lush but it is pretty green at elevations a good bit above sea level.  For us, living right by the beach, we have had no rain since we arrived on December 17th.  It is very dry here.  As we drove through the lushness of the area to the northeast of Guapiles, there was plenty of evidence for plantations and signs for Dole and Chiquita.

To get to the Turtle Beach Lodge (TBL) in Tortuguero National Park, we had to take a boat since the park is accessible only by boat. We parked near the 'port' and had a snack and used the bathroom.  On the way to the men's room there was a 'generator' room which had a generator and probably 30 car batteries. The ride to the lodge was via canals and rivers some of which were made by the locals hundreds of years ago as a method of travelling north and south without venturing into the ocean.  Our boat was a long and skinny one with a center aisle and two seats on either side.  We stopped on the way in the village of Tortuguero where we had some snacks.  Lunch was planned at the lodge when we got there.  Below are links to some of the pictures from the first day which is primarily from the ride to TBL.  There was a night guided tour for that night but it was cancelled due to rain.  More to come in a second post on Tortuguero.