Hola todos!  I had an AMAZING weekend at Tortuguero.  Saturday morning, before we left, we lost power at home because there was a storm and a tree fell on the transformer or something.  So I was glad I was leaving because that meant no hot water or anything!  We took a bus to Cariari, then switched buses to get to the port where we could take a boat to Tortuguero.  We quickly discovered that our second bus had AIR CONDITIONING, and it suddenly became the most magical, luxurious bus I’ve ever been on (but really, there is no air conditioning most places because everything is open air).  The boat we took was about the size and shape of a school bus, a little boat (very different from the giant ferry we took to Montezuma).  We wound through this river in the jungle…well, everything here looks like jungle…then arrived in Tortuguero, a small little town on the Caribbean coast.  We stayed at a hotel and had our own room (more luxury!) and our own bathroom and shower (by now we felt like royalty) and it was just really nice and cute and the people that owned it were really nice too.  Saturday we mostly just chilled in the hammocks and read our books, walked on the beach (black sand!) and just relaxed.  We tried to save some money by cooking food ourselves in the communal kitchen…it was good but we had to improvise a little bit because it wasn’t fully equipped with everything you might need…how do you strain your spaghetti when you don’t have hot pads or a strainer?  Answer: a towel to hold the pot and a plate to strain the water.  Oh yeah and I don’t trust the fruit from these tiny little grocery stores anymore…I ate an apple and when I got to the center it was rotten and black inside…yummy.  And it’s not the first time it’s happened, either—we bought moldy granola bars in Montezuma…I really think they just don’t have enough business to keep the food moving along, so it just sits there forever until someone buys it.  That’s my theory anyways.

Sunday was a long but adventure-filled day.  We got up early to go on a canoe tour on the river.  It rained all day so it wasn’t ideal beach time.  It was a light rain but after about 3 hours we were very wet/hungry/tired when we got back, but it was pretty cool.  We saw lizards, iguanas, some exotic birds that I don’t know the names of, toucans, and 2 types of monkeys.  It was cool too because we got to weave back into the little rivers that ran through the jungle so it felt like we were pioneers or explorers or something.  During the day we just napped and read in the hammocks again—rough life, I know.  (Sidenote to dad: we must get a hammock, they are the best things ever.  Hang it between the 2 poles of the thing where the hot tub used to be, or the front of the nest). 

Now, Sunday night: this is the part that ranks up in my favorite things.  We went on a turtle tour, because if you visit Tortuguero, you better see some turtles!  The tours are at night because that’s when they come out to build their nests.  Lucky for us, we are in turtle season now.  So our group walked along the beach at night, and it was pitch dark out but SO pretty because of the sky—there were more stars than I’ve ever seen in my life…I couldn’t stop looking up but then I’d trip over something on the beach so it was kinda hard to look and walk at the same time haha.  So anyways it was super dark, except you can see the white of the water and the dark shapes of people around you.  The guides find the turtles and we go watch them build their nests.  We got to see 2 different turtles, both Green turtles and they were HUGE.  Between the two of them, we saw them laying eggs, covering up the hole, camouflaging the nest, and returning to the ocean.  

It’s really cool too because they take steps to make sure we’re disturbing the turtle as little as possible.  We have to be quiet on the beach, you can’t take pictures, and the guides use a red light so show them to us because the red light doesn’t disturb them.  Also, there were people from an organization that works in turtle conservation, and they were measuring and tagging the turtles so they could keep track of them (they are endangered).  It’s sad because we learned that only 1 or 2 turtles of every 1,000 eggs laid will actually survive.  They have lots of predators that eat them or people who collect the eggs to sell them as food.  So they are in danger in the nest (they are in there 2 months before they’re born), on the trip towards the ocean once they’re born, and once they’re in the ocean they have bigger fish waiting for them.  So the moms lay a LOT of eggs because of the low survival rate...I think the guide said almost 200 in one nest.

So they dig a very deep hole in the sand, then drop their eggs in, then cover the hole, then use their flippers to fling the sand around to camouflage the nest.  Then they (slowly) make their way back to the ocean and disappear.  It looked like a lot of work.  It takes about 2 hours to complete the whole process.  Anyways, it was one of the coolest things I’ve seen and I’m so glad we went…definitely one of the highlights of the trip, ranking up there with the waterfall!

Sunday we had a beautiful sunny day, so we had a couple hours of beach time before we headed back.  The ocean there was so strange, the water flowed in every direction…like there were waves going sideways and every direction all the time, like it looked like a boat had just come through and made a bunch of waves, except it was like that all the time.  It was really fun though.  Oh yeah I forgot to say on Saturday when we arrived and were walking on the beach, there were some kids playing and they ran up to us and gave us some shells (interesting because most of the beaches really don’t have shells), and then a little later we were just sitting on the beach and they ran up with a bunch of flowers and put them in our hair and stuff.  They were really cute!

And to top off a perfect weekend, on the boat ride home we saw a crocodile!  I was so excited cause I was hoping to see one but hadn’t yet, then I got to see one right as we were leaving.  It was just laying on the bank, didn’t appear to be too interested in our boat…good thing, because we were really low in the water and he would’ve had no problem hopping in!

So all in all, we had an awesome weekend!  I only have a few days left of teaching at my school, then the kids go on vacation so I imagine I’ll be doing something else for a few days before I head home.  I’ll miss them, they’re pretty cute!  I’m gonna try and take pictures with them tomorrow.  Nos vemos todos pronto!   

The river boats to Tortuguero

Navigating the river in a canoe--front row seat!

My artistic beach footprint shot

Part of my beach photoshoot...sometimes I am easily entertained

The CROC