Hello lovely people no. 41 (no. 3 in Costa Rica)

And now we are are four

We bid farewell to Colin & Annabelle, who return home to Broadway, Somerset (via a waterfall and a night in Liberia) after their trip to New Orleans and Costa Rica. We will miss you on our next adventures!

The rest of us pack up carefully – including still damp clothing from our dousing / not yet dry washing – because at the end of our drive today is a boat trip. We are heading for La Pavona, the embarcation point for a boat to Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast where we are spending three nights. It is a town built on a strip of land, sea one side, tidal river the other. 

The drive is uneventful, the scenery changes from mountain rain forest to lowland banana plantations, and other agricultural crops we cannot identify. We stop three times to try and load up with cash (our guide book says most places in Tortuguero don’t take cards and that its ATM is frequently out of notes or broken). We fail miserably at the first two stops and are able to withdraw some colones at the third, but not many and no dollars. We assume we will manage!

La Pavona is slickly organised: $10 a day to leave the car in a secure compound; a cafe and restaurant to wait for the next departing boat. A beer is in order

The boat arrives, effectively a metal rib with a big on-board engine. All seats are filled and we leave half an hour ahead of the scheduled departure time. We travel at speed, the boat sits low in the water, the water is brown and murky. No crocs right? We are told not, maybe some caimans but it is not the right season. Reassured? Our boatman is clearly experienced, slowing and accelerating for the bends and shallows and avoiding fallen branches. The journey takes just over an hour and it is fascinating rushing through the tropical rain forest

We are met off the boat to be guided to our very centrally located hostal, beach side. The town looks feels very different to any we have experienced so far. Low lying, ramshackle, a mish-mash of single story buildings. It has a very Carribean vibe, regaeton blaring from a few bars, a gathering of men slapping their dominoes as they play

Our guide explains that the previous day Tortuguero received an unseasonably long and extremely heavy rainfall which combined with a high tide had flooded much of the town. Including the access to and garden of our hostal which are both muddy and dishevelled!! We are a little surprised at quite how small, dark and inadequately ventilated and lit our rooms are, but the larger airier ones on the first floor are occupied and there is no choice. It will be fine . . . and the entire hostal – ignoring the muddy garden – is spotlessly clean. We have found this everywhere so far visited/stayed: accommodation is sparkling clean, no litter lines the roads. Everything is pristine. Pura Vida!!

A sundowner on the deck of a bar on the lagoon side followed by an excellent dinner at Taylor’s Place, a lovely restaurant – where Ray, his wife and niece cook and serve all diners – means we barely notice the torrential rain on the way back to our hostal, escorted most of the way there by Ray who leads us through some back alleys as a short cut to try and stop us getting drenched. Another thing we have so far noticed: very friendly and keen to help locals

Tortuguero is famous for nesting/hatching turtles (wrong season for us) and its eponymous national park, much of which consists of river and canals and is best explored by kayak or canoe. We book a 6 am tour and after a degree of hanging around at the dock, a walk to the park entrance, and a queue to pay the park entrance fee we finally board the canoe with our guide and paddler, Mr Hooker

The waterway is reasonably busy with other tours and most other guides/paddlers know Mr Hooker who is acclaimed as a maestro, and frequently greeted. It is very humid, and we keep to the river rather than the small canals we have read about (which surprises us) but we see lots of birds, hear and spot howler monkeys, a couple of nearly submerged caiman, and iguana. Green macaws screech and fly overhead

After a couple of hours on the water Mr Hooker says it is time to head back and as we do, you’ve guessed it, the heavens open and at the end of the 15 or so minute return journey (Andy and Simon helping to paddle for speed) we are again soaked to our skin

It is hot and the rain stops and we steam gently on the walk back from the park entrance, stopping for breakfast at a local bakery

A change of clothes, and we explore the town, stopping for lunch at another lagoon side cafe

Restored, we return to the national park entrance and walk “the jaguar trail” – it is late afternoon, we heed our guide book advice to hire wellingtons and are very glad we did. The path is largely underwater

We don’t see a jaguar but do see some monkeys and a few more  birds, and admire the crashing waves as the park joins the ocean

After dinner we stop for a cocoloco night cap from a cart vendor we resisted earlier: a healthy dose of Nicaraguan rum (he claims it is better than any from Costa Rica) and a strange tasting mix of pre-prepared pressed pineapple poured into a green coconut. What’s not to like!

A lazier start to our next day and breakfast in the hostal garden – the place is growing on us after we have acclimatised to our rooms and its location on the beach is very charming

We walk – along the beach and back along an inland path, spot frigates, pelicans, toucans and an iguana. We admire the busy leaf cutter ants

After lunch overlooking the sea we are all tired, and it is very hot and humid, so we head back for a rest and Simon and I claim the two hammocks in the hostal garden

We leave Tortuguero the next morning, after another night of heavy rain, retracing our steps with a return boat trip to La Pavona where we are pleased to find the car intact. We wait out another rainstorm before driving towards the pacific coast and our next adventures

Until next time, hasta luego 

ALISON