Tortuguero

After a poor night's sleep in our dingy room, and a close encounter with a cockroach, we were shattered when the alarms went off before 7am. We headed to the bank to get more money out - no cash points in the jungle.

We got the 7:30am bus to Limon (1,990C) which took 1.5 hours then shared a taxi with another couple for the 15 min drive to Moin (our half = 2,500C). We waited a while and then set off on the boat at 10am. The other couple hadn't booked ahead so we would have been ok after all.

The boat trip took 4.5 hours including a half hour stop for loos / snacks ($40). The boat took us along a series of rivers, meeting the ocean at several points, but mainly a jungle scene full of vivid green colours. About an hour away, the rain started lightly so the ponchos came out but the roof of the boat kept us pretty dry.

The first hour was more of a guided tour as we stopped to see crocodiles (big ones and baby ones), Jesus Christ lizards (bright green...very hard to spot on leaves!), howler monkeys, herons and egrets and my favourites, sloths! About 5 of them. One of them was hanging out just over the river so we got to see it close up - my sloth hunting dreams have been answered :)

Our destination was Tortuguero, named after the numerous turtles who come ashore to lay their eggs - our main reason for coming to this hard to reach place is to hopefully see them nesting. Tortuguero is a national park made up of jungly wetlands with the rough Caribbean sea on the other side (the sea is too dangerous to swim).

We checked into Cabinas Icaco ($30), about 20m from the beach, into a nice room with 3 beds, a balcony and a view of the ocean. And hot water! And hopefully no roaches.

The light rain turned heavy so we relaxed inside for a few hours until it stopped. Then we wandered around the tiny town - no roads / cars; there is a single concrete strip as the main walkway and the rest are dirt paths. We had dinner at Fresh Food (8,000C) - Anna had a plantain basket filled with meat and salad; I had a crepe which looked nothing like a crepe as it was drowned in an amazing rich tomato sauce and cheese. Both delicious and we shared a huge, lovely smoothie. We walked back in the dark with our torches trying to light the way - Anna jumped when she nearly stepped on a tiny crab only to jump even more when she noticed a big crab with it's pincers pointed at her! She tried to shoo it away but ended up chasing it along the path we were trying to walk up.Lue lisää