Read about day 2 here.

This morning it was an early wake up, 5:00am! My luggage was outside my room at 6:00am as requested and then I wandered down to the hotel restaurant. There was coffee and hot tea available for anyone who wanted it. We will be stopping along the way at La Ceiba for our breakfast. Everyone was on the bus by 6:30 and we were on our way to Tortuguero.  Located at about 3300 feet, San José is in the mountains and you forget that when you are in the city. As soon as you leave the city limits you notice the mountains and the lush green trees and foliage. We traveled along the winding roads for a while and then stop at La Ceiba Restaurant at a little bit before 8:00 for breakfast. The restaurant is large and airy and breakfast is served buffet style as is the norm for this program. The buffet had plenty of variety and everyone had a great breakfast. Our group is really good about sitting at different tables at meals and getting to know each other better. Since it is now common knowledge that I am from Holbrook I get lots of the questions from my fellow travelers about any and all things Holbrook. It’s fun putting faces to voices that I had only heard on the phone! Pedro gave us a meet time to be back at the bus so we all wandered around the restaurant grounds to see what we could see. We found a beautiful old kapok tree – Pedro says it’s about 300 years old. This tree was huge!!! Of course we all had to take our pictures in front of it and those pictures give you and idea of how truly big and beautiful this tree is. As we gathered back at the bus our driver Didier spotted a baby three toed sloth in a nearby tree. This turned into a typical opportunity for Pedro to give us some information about an animal, its habitat, and all sorts of fun information - you count the toes on the front “hands” to determine if it’s a two or three toed sloth. After the sloth sighting, it was back on the bus to continue our journey to Tortuguero.

As we travel toward Tortuguero, Pedro points out Turrialba Volcano and since the morning is clear we can see smoke coming out of the top even though it is way in the distance. As we travelled through one of the small towns we spot an unusual sight – there is a horse standing up in the back of a small beat up Toyota pick up truck that is passing through town.  Not something that you would typically see back home but something that doesn’t really seem that out of the ordinary here! We finally reach the river rock paved road that takes you to the Caño Blanco Dock.  We will catch the river taxi that will take us to Pachira Lodge in Tortuguero there. The road passes by several banana plantations and Pedro takes the opportunity to give us information on them.

Once we reach Caño Blanco everyone took the opportunity to use the restrooms since it’s about an hour and a half ride on the river to the lodge. Our bus and driver leave us and will be back to pick us up in a couple of days. The boat we get on is large enough to hold all 19 of us plus all of our luggage. The boat is flat bottomed and life vests for each of us are readily available. The weather has turned a bit grey and drizzly but the Reven Tazan River is flat and calm. During the boat ride to the lodge I just sit and soak it all in. Occasionally either Pedro or the boat driver will spot a bird and we see several different species of herons, egrets, Aningas and even some spider monkeys.

We arrive at Pachira Lodge which is located right on the water. The hotel has cement sidewalks that take you to the hotel front desk and dining room and also to the rooms where we will be staying. My room has two double beds, bedside lamps, overhead fan, a private bathroom with walk in shower, and a room safe. There are also bins for recyclables – it’s great to be green. The room itself is a nice size with three big screened windows, as well as more windows toward the ceiling for cross ventilation – no AC, but don’t worry you won’t miss it at night. It got cool enough that I actually pulled up my blanket. There isn’t a TV, telephone or alarm clock (more on this one later) and to be honest I didn’t miss any of those amenities either. Free WIFI is available near the hotel front desk located next to the dining room. The hotel also boasts a large turtle shaped swimming pool that is located right next to the hotel’s tiki bar.

Everyone leaves their things in their rooms and heads to the hotel dining room for lunch. The dining room itself is large and airy with large screens and overhead fans. Lunch is served buffet style.  After lunch we meet at the dock at the hotel for a short boat ride over to the village of Tortuguero (translates as “Region of Turtles’).  Once we arrive our first stop is the Sea Turtle Conservancy where we see a short introductory video about the area and the endangered green sea turtle.  Tortuguero is considered the most important nesting site for the green turtles in the Western Hemisphere. Green turtle nesting season is from July through October and we are scheduled for a night walk while we’re here in hopes of observing a green turtle laying her eggs.

After the visit to the Sea Turtle Conservancy we walk over to the beach to see the area where the turtles actually come ashore to lay their eggs. The sand is dark grey and there are actually tracks from the turtles that have already made a nightly visit to deposit their eggs.  There are even signs on the beach advising us not to touch the hatchlings – let nature be!

Soon we leave the beach to wander into the actual village.  The buildings are pretty much all one story with colorful paint jobs. The village even has a roller rink! We walk along the main thoroughfare and there are numerous little shops and small restaurants. There even a few neighborhood roosters strutting about.

We return to the hotel for a little down time before dinner. As I’m heading to dinner I hear these loud bellows coming from above me. Turns out it’s the local pack of howler monkeys that hang out in the trees on the hotel grounds – more on these guys later! After dinner, which is also served buffet style, we head back to the dock for our trip back to the beach at Tortuguero. Once we are ashore we are sorted into small groups for our excursion. We walk along the local air strip adjacent to the beach. It’s very dark as we walk along but everyone is really hoping that a turtle will be spotted soon. Once the local national park guide spots a turtle digging a nest they notify our local guide, Eddie Rankin and he escorts us to the spot where the turtle is. You are only allowed a total of two hours  for the opportunity to see the nesting turtles. We waited over an hour before a turtle was spotted for us so we only had about 45 minutes to see her once we got to where she was. You aren’t allowed to take a flashlight or camera along with you so everything that you see is all that more special. By Eddie’s estimate our turtle was about 300 to 350 pounds. When we got there she was just finishing up digging the hole where she was going to lay her eggs. As I watched the turtle laying her eggs it occurred to me what a special opportunity this was and that this species of turtles have been laying eggs on this very beach for a long, long time. She soon finished laying her eggs and as we watched she laboriously starts covering up the hole with beach sand. Soon it is time for us to leave and this is a memory that I will carry with me forever. Everyone in our group seems to have the same feeling… what a great new memory for September 11^th.

Day 4 >