Other posts about this trip can be found here.
July 7th
Today I woke up at 5 am, got ready and went down to the lobby for breakfast. Again we had all the tasty fruits for the buffet. After getting in to the motor coach, we drove through the Braulio Carrillo Park, we saw cascading waterfalls that come down the roadside hills towards the road. We were driving towards the Caribbean coast, and once we drove through a mountain tunnel. We were heading east.
We went to a privately owned rainforest to take the Rain Forest Aerial Tram. Since our coach couldn’t go inside the rainforest to take us to the tram, we got down and boarded their mini busses. While waiting, our guide pointed two Toucans far away up on a tree. Right after we started driving to the tram, we saw a big white bird on a tree. Then we saw a poisonous snake on a leaf. Photo time!
Big bird
The aerial tram was wonderful. It was me, Jaime, Micki, Jessica and our local guide Joseph on our tram. Initially we were about 10 feet above the forest floor and we saw a lot of varieties of trees and the occasional colorful flower. We saw and heard little waterways flowing through because everything else was very, very quiet. Taking good photos was not easy since it was dark (97% of sunlight ends in the canopy) and the tram was moving. After reaching the half way point, we turned back and came at a higher elevation. We probably were about 150 feet above ground, may be even more. Then we could see a different view of the trees and insects that hung out up there. There were sparsely located colorful flowers and fruits. Towards the end of the tram session, we saw two Toucans. I couldn’t photograph them because they were mostly hiding.
After getting down from the tram, I saw a neat blue insect. Another guide was showing something to a group of tourists and I noticed that it was a stick insect. Basically, the whole insect (which is about half a foot long) looks like a dried up stick. Unless you know what to look for, it just looks exactly like the tree branches. Our tour director then showed us a sloth climbing a tree. Click, click, click! We all were obvious tourists.
Sloth!
Then we took a private walking tour of the rainforest with Joseph. He explained to us about different plants and flowers. He pointed a leaf ant hill, which is several square meters in area. It is on the rainforest floor but nothing was growing on it. We saw these ants carrying heavy leafs to the main entrance. Contrary to the popular belief, they do not eat the plants. They feed the plants to a specific kind of mushroom they grow inside their nest! And then they eat the mushrooms. So basically they harvest mushrooms.
After the walking tour, we were waiting for everyone to gather around when we saw two red poisonous frogs. They were about an inch long and looked very cute. We also saw two more Toucans and some white faced capuchin monkeys!
We left the property around 11 am and arrived at our lunch destination at noon. They owned a small butterfly garden which we checked out before eating. Two women served lunch, mostly buffet style. Food was good and I petted a black cat that wanted attention. Actually, it just wanted some food. We left at 1 pm and drove 40 min on the Pan American highway, which is the longest highway in the world connecting Alaska and Argentina!
Then we turned to a smaller road. Children and people waived at us and we saw plenty of chicken and cows. Houses looked very similar to Sri Lankan homes, but with different roofs. Most houses had a fence and a gate or in many occasions, their porches were fenced and sometimes the cars were parked on the porch itself!
Then we turned to a gravel road. Only one vehicle could travel on this narrow road. But, sometimes our driver Rafael could drive with another vehicle coming towards and passing us. He was a terrific driver and I felt very safe in his vehicle. He also washes it every day and keeps it very clean. Before passing another vehicle, he would stop for a moment and chat with the other driver. Everyone is so friendly here, no wonder it is rated the happiest country in the world right now.
We stopped at a banana packing plant. They bag the banana bunch with blue plastic to keep away the insects and to protect it from hitting anything else around. This packing plant was owned by Del Monte company. We watched how they transport bananas and how they use water and wash them before packing. We were not allowed to go inside, but could watch it from outside through a mesh. Since I have banana plants in my garden in Sri Lanka, this wasn’t anything new to me, but it was interesting to see people from our group taking photos with banana flowers etc. Couple of people were selling coconut water, and Jessica and Micki bought and drank them. Although geographically Sri Lanka is as far away from Costa Rica as it can be, I saw many similarities between the two cultures.
We resumed driving on the dirt road. This road leads to the port where we would take a boat to Tortugeuro, which is an area surrounded by water (it is a very thin peninsula; one side is the Carribean sea, others are rivers and canals). There were fences along the road and I saw many, many beautiful birds and lizards on them. I felt sorry for those who napped during this part of the trip. We didn’t see many people (probably because half of Costa Ricans live in San Jose), but saw cattle playing on the fields and all these wildlife. It was awesome!
Finally we arrived at the port where we boarded our boat to Tortuguero. It was open on both sides and had a roof. Everyone in the bus fit in one boat, where our tour director Monica took another boat with our luggage. We were asked to put on our life jackets. Then we took off. The river eventually falls in to the Caribbean Sea, so at one point we took a left turn on the river to go towards Tortuguero. We saw some white faced monkeys.
On the Tortuguero river banks
After about an hour on the boat, we arrived at Tortuguero, at our hotel called Laguna Lodge.
This is the location of Tortuguero and the hotel. Map is from the hotel website.
This entire island is a rainforest expect the couple of small hotels and the 1300 people village. When we arrived, we were given this drink called “choco-coco”, which is chocolate and coconut based (if I remember correctly). For a person like me who loves chocolate and coconut, it was delicious. I mean, it was out of the world tasty. We also got a snack. Then I saw a huge lizard on top of a coconut tree.
the five foot lizard
I walked to my room which was located at the end of one block of rooms. It is actually a wooden cabin with two beds, pastel yellow color walls, two wood windows that had a mesh (for controlling insects), and some open grills (with mesh) at the very top of the walls for circulation. It had a small fan on the ceiling, a spacious bathroom and a porch that connects all the rooms in this row of rooms. Some chairs on the porch where people could sit and chat or read. My room number was 54, and it was a wonderful cozy place. Just beautiful. I was about to go out for dinner when I heard a gecko. In Sri Lanka, we had so many geckos in our house. This was a wonderful sound to hear. I lied down in the bed for a few moments and noticed that the scent of the room was familiar. It was the same that I would feel when sitting on my own bed in Sri Lanka. So far away, yet so similar.
My cabin room
I left the room and started walking towards the beach which was about 2 min walk from my room. I heard a loud noise and noticed two screaming parrots flying over my head. Then a fellow tour member showed me two woodpeckers. Finally I reached the beach. There weren’t very many people but I saw some of the fellow tour members. I sat on a log and wrote my journal. I was there about an hour. The sun set was behind me (the beach faces east). With the wind and the sand and the waves crashing with a rainforest behind me, I was in a state of mind.
Dinner was great. I had pasta with mushroom and black olives. There was a pasta station with “make your own pasta” where you select the ingredients and a lady would cook it for you. So yummy!