Tortuguero to Cahuita
Friends,
The last week has been amazing. In only one day we went from watching the lava flow at sunrise to reaching one of the farthest reaches of Costa Rican civilization, Tortuguero National Park. In less than 24 hours we went from seeing the lava flow to watching giant green turtles laying eggs at midnight.
The adventure began at 8.30 am with a 4 hour drive to Cariari, a small backwater town in the middle of banana plantations owned by huge us interests. If you saw what i saw, you would only eat organic bananas from now on. Massive pesticide use.
At Cariari we boarded a bus for another 1.5 hour drive down a dirt road to the canal. After much pushing and shoving we began the long boat ride to Tortuguero. We saw many birds, including blue herons. The boat ride was another 3.5 hours to Tortuguero village, through the most incredible river i have ever seen, you might as well have been in the Amazon, the forest was so thick and huge. We also saw some of the biggest spiders ever, shudder>>>> Not only that, we saw caiman alligators and monkeys, etc, etc, the list goes on. Think Amazon.
Reaching Tortuguero, a small village of 600, there are no roads, no cars, no internet. The only way to this village is by boat or plane, no roads. Tortuguero sits at the edge of the northern border, on the Caribbean ocean. After finding a good meal of Comidas tipicas *typical CR food, beans and rice etc* , we went on the turtle hike, seeing 3 turtles, one laying eggs, and on our hike back, saw dozens of baby turtles returning to the sea. Awesome.
The next day we visited the national park for a hike alone. We saw more wildlife here than anywhere else. In one hour we saw:
Land crabs
Lizards
A huge tree snake going for a bird,
Monkeys
Leaf cutter ants
Giant butterflies
Birds
Parrots
And who knows what else we didn't see. After we saw a beautiful Tiger Heron, a large tiger striped Heron the size of a great blue heron. Beautiful.
After a dinner of pizza and drinks, the next day we set off for a 4 hour boat ride south to Moin, where we saw more wildlife like giant sloth's, more Caiman and crocodiles.
Reaching Moin, we took a taxi to Cahuita, where we are now, a sleepy little village with no paved streets and a decidedly Caribbean atmosphere. It would be easy to think we were in Jamaica. We even met "jimmy cliff", a colorful local character who shared his coconut milk with us.
we had dinner last night at "Miss Ediths", a genuine Creole restaurant, where we had mixed seafood, mine was jerke style, *wow, spicy, even for me* , absolutely wonderful. Emily wanted to adopt miss Edith, i think.
Today we went for another hike, where we saw the best white faced monkeys so far. They were used to being fed, so they came within arms reach, which was cool until they realized we weren't going to feed them. Every time I reached into my bag for a lens, they came closer, which became scary when I tried to scare them away. The male wouldn't have any of that and began to show his choppers, which scared Emily to bits and we beat a hasty retreat back into the forest, with the male following us. Those monkeys went form being cute little Disney characters to actual, wild animals. We were quickly reminded this was the real deal. Our advice after that was *what would the croc hunter do* and do exactly the opposite.
The forest by the Caribbean was very windy and more than once branches and coconuts fell within feet and sometimes inches of us, so we headed back. At the park entrance there were locals selling yummy homemade Pattis *think empanadas* and wonderful banana bread.
Tonight we again eat Creole and tomorrow we take off further south towards more azure seas to Puerto Viejo and Playa cocles. Our potential plan is to go back early to San Jose and check out Volcan Poaz before returning.
And Dad, I'm getting your emails just fine.
Good to hear from all of you, good luck in the elections,
k
The last week has been amazing. In only one day we went from watching the lava flow at sunrise to reaching one of the farthest reaches of Costa Rican civilization, Tortuguero National Park. In less than 24 hours we went from seeing the lava flow to watching giant green turtles laying eggs at midnight.
The adventure began at 8.30 am with a 4 hour drive to Cariari, a small backwater town in the middle of banana plantations owned by huge us interests. If you saw what i saw, you would only eat organic bananas from now on. Massive pesticide use.
At Cariari we boarded a bus for another 1.5 hour drive down a dirt road to the canal. After much pushing and shoving we began the long boat ride to Tortuguero. We saw many birds, including blue herons. The boat ride was another 3.5 hours to Tortuguero village, through the most incredible river i have ever seen, you might as well have been in the Amazon, the forest was so thick and huge. We also saw some of the biggest spiders ever, shudder>>>> Not only that, we saw caiman alligators and monkeys, etc, etc, the list goes on. Think Amazon.
Reaching Tortuguero, a small village of 600, there are no roads, no cars, no internet. The only way to this village is by boat or plane, no roads. Tortuguero sits at the edge of the northern border, on the Caribbean ocean. After finding a good meal of Comidas tipicas *typical CR food, beans and rice etc* , we went on the turtle hike, seeing 3 turtles, one laying eggs, and on our hike back, saw dozens of baby turtles returning to the sea. Awesome.
The next day we visited the national park for a hike alone. We saw more wildlife here than anywhere else. In one hour we saw:
Land crabs
Lizards
A huge tree snake going for a bird,
Monkeys
Leaf cutter ants
Giant butterflies
Birds
Parrots
And who knows what else we didn't see. After we saw a beautiful Tiger Heron, a large tiger striped Heron the size of a great blue heron. Beautiful.
After a dinner of pizza and drinks, the next day we set off for a 4 hour boat ride south to Moin, where we saw more wildlife like giant sloth's, more Caiman and crocodiles.
Reaching Moin, we took a taxi to Cahuita, where we are now, a sleepy little village with no paved streets and a decidedly Caribbean atmosphere. It would be easy to think we were in Jamaica. We even met "jimmy cliff", a colorful local character who shared his coconut milk with us.
we had dinner last night at "Miss Ediths", a genuine Creole restaurant, where we had mixed seafood, mine was jerke style, *wow, spicy, even for me* , absolutely wonderful. Emily wanted to adopt miss Edith, i think.
Today we went for another hike, where we saw the best white faced monkeys so far. They were used to being fed, so they came within arms reach, which was cool until they realized we weren't going to feed them. Every time I reached into my bag for a lens, they came closer, which became scary when I tried to scare them away. The male wouldn't have any of that and began to show his choppers, which scared Emily to bits and we beat a hasty retreat back into the forest, with the male following us. Those monkeys went form being cute little Disney characters to actual, wild animals. We were quickly reminded this was the real deal. Our advice after that was *what would the croc hunter do* and do exactly the opposite.
The forest by the Caribbean was very windy and more than once branches and coconuts fell within feet and sometimes inches of us, so we headed back. At the park entrance there were locals selling yummy homemade Pattis *think empanadas* and wonderful banana bread.
Tonight we again eat Creole and tomorrow we take off further south towards more azure seas to Puerto Viejo and Playa cocles. Our potential plan is to go back early to San Jose and check out Volcan Poaz before returning.
And Dad, I'm getting your emails just fine.
Good to hear from all of you, good luck in the elections,
k
posted by Klaus Larsen at 3:41 PM
1 Comments:
Hi both of you:
I am glad you get my mail. I found out I have a leak in the washer, but they will be here on Wednesday to fix it.
Other than that, no big news. The biggest is probably that I went to Nordic House and Nelldams Bakery for rugbroed.
Today I called an old friend from school. He lives in Montpellier in Southern France. He used to live in Africa until his french wife got sick and died. I have not seen or talked with him for 45 years, so it was kind of strange, since I did not recognize his voice, but in other ways, it was like we had just seen each other. I will see if he can visit here at some point.
Loooking forward to your stories. Take care. Love Dad and Jeppe
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