Our final chapter in Costa Rica was set in the town of Turtuguero on the northern Caribbean. After two long wonderful weeks of having a rental car, getting back to public transportation for our last leg seemed such a challenge. The voyage took nine hours. Seven hours on bus and two on river boat. The bus leg of the trip was unbelievable hot, smelly, stuffy, reeked of body odor and was standing room only. It made us appreciate even more what a luxury having a couple weeks in the car was! That being said, the view out the window still takes our breath away and makes it well worth it! The 2 hours on boat was painless. We piled into a long thin boat and headed down a canal that could have set the scene for "Jungle Book". The mysterious water was home to turtles, snakes, Cayman crocodiles, American crocs. The lush surrounding jungle was filled with monkeys, exotic birds, colorful frogs, iguanas, rare lizards, and poisonous Vipers.
(banana fields)
(on the bus)
(boat ride)
The town itself is very interesting. You can only get to Tortuguero via boat or plane. I don't think its quite an island but more of a peninsula. On one side is the beach and the other is swamp land. The beach is 22 miles long yet the town only exists in a 300 x 400 meter area. The rest is just thick brush and forest. From what we learned, most tourists choose to stay on the outskirts of the main peninsula where nicer accommodations can be found. Backpackers head to the heart of the town where prices are more affordable. As we found in the southern Caribbean, residents here are beautiful Jamaican descendants and speak a broken English Creole dialect.
(Tortuguero)
It took about 10 minutes that first afternoon to explore the entire town of Tortuguero. At first it was a bit eery with it's swamps, local drunks staggering the street, and it's "nothing to do" vibe ... but little by little we picked up on it's charm. No cars can be found in Tortuguero only the occasional bike and lots of boats patiently waiting for the adventuresome traveler. A dirt road runs the 1/4 mile through town. On the far side of town sits the entrance to the muddy national park where we hiked one afternoon in our rented rubber black boots. The remainder of the town is full of shops and sweet smelling bakeries catering to the tourists who ensure the towns survival.
(Antonio and Coco's house)
(Tortuguero)
(Viper snake in the national park)
Tortuguero was hands down the hottest, stickiest, muggiest place we've been. This made it particularly painful that we could not swim in the refreshingly cool ocean due to shark and barracuda infestation. Luckily, our funny hotel had a little pool which we soaked in when the sun was at its strongest. (This detail made up for the tens of roaches peaking out from there nasty holes in the shower and napping on my toothbrush!).
(Adam and Cait on the beach)
The main purpose of our long journey to the northeast was the hope of seeing a giant Leatherback turtle. We were a couple months early for their main season of coming to shore to lay their eggs. Knowing this, we were still excited to do a night walk with our guide Roberto hoping we would get lucky. We had fun walking barefoot in the dark and letting the moonlight trick us into thinking every huge piece of driftwood on the beach was one of the enormous creatures.
The day before we left we were up by 5am for a morning canoe trip through the canals where we spotted a lot of wildlife. In addition to searching for animals at Tortuguero, we did a lot of walking on the endless beach and making friends with the local kids and stray dogs. Though the town had its challenges, we are both glad we made the journey to this hidden swamp land!
(Cayman Croc)
(poisonous frog)
(camouflage lizard)
(sweet little girl and her playful puppy)
(our friend Antonio who had ice cream with us)
(Cait and Coco)
(Adam's plate of lobster tales)
After 3 nights in Tortuguero it was back to Alajuela for our final few days. This is a city we have really come to love and appreciate. It has all the characteristics of city life but with a much more small town feel. We loved that we only crossed paths with tourists at the hotel and never out and about town. We spent our last bit of time trying to blend in with the local day to day bustle. We walked many many miles exploring all the ins and outs of Alajuela. We spent a couple evenings people watching and eating ice cream on the main square. We made it priority to stuff our faces with as much sweet mango as possible knowing it's just not the same in the states.
When Tuesday the 5th of April came, it was time to leave Central America. It was bittersweet for sure. There were so many things to miss in these countries! But...the adventure isn't quite over yet! Mid-day on the 5th, we took a flight to Ft. Lauderdale Florida where the final part of our 3.5 month adventure would unravel....
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