By good luck, as the guide book suggested this was expensive to do solo and the low season too, the Posada man arranged a motor lancha trip from Puerto Viejo upriver to the Nicaraguan Border, along the Rio San Juan through the Barra del Colorado Refuge to Tortuguero. The trip took about 5 hours and surprisingly I was the only person on the boat except for a local who got off at a village just before the Border and a family of 3 who got on when we exited Nicaragua. The price was bit less too, rather than 25 dollars to tootle along the Nicaraguan section of the river they dropped this to 9 dollars so total cost 54.
The rivers were dirty brown, moving quite fast as others joined the flow, with small bats hanging in a vertical line down tree stumps in the water, lizards, iguanas, monkeys and 15 or so crocodiles basking on the sandy silty spits or banks. There was a bloated dead cow wrapped around one tree mid river with a kingfisher on top. I was reminded of England with the squally rain showers in low grey skies, greens from the forested banks and brown water! The boatman knew the river well as there were no markers for sand banks etc as he crossed back and forth or slowed down for submerged threats to the propeller.
I had to have passport checked stamped and duty paid at the lonely Border Office where in spanish I asked to use the loo which was a wooden seat over a drop hole in a locked shed and found out the officer was Marvin, had been married twice with 4 kids and a new office was being built as evidenced by the labourers on site. There were 2 armed officers in fatigues. He was welcoming and happy to have his photo taken looking officious behind his desk!
At Tortuguero village the boats were met by a plethora of guides who in good english on the advice of the boatman took me to Cabinas Miss Miriam 2. The village lodgings are cheaper and less luxurious than the eco lodges with the Guide book suggesting the former allow a ‘better’ atmosphere. The hostel was Ok as I just needed a clean and safe place to sleep and took the lower rate at 15 dollars for a 3 bed ensuite room. If one looked sideways on the balcony there was a sea view but I never found the supposed hot water from the shower.
All very Carribean culture and laid back, shabby chic style with just 1400 locals. It seems the community was all blacks til about 10 years or so ago when whites started arriving to cache in on the money from 125000 tourists a year and turtles! The village lies on a thin spit of land at NE end of the Park near the estuary about 150m wide from the Tortuguero Canal to beach. The main street is a semi concrete and dirt path with dirt tracks radiating off around shops, faded pastel washed wooden houses with zinc roofs often on stilts and clothes hanging over fences or balconies and loud reggae music blaring out, a cute church and other places for evangelicals, 7th day adventists and the Roman Catholics, semi abandoned plots and sports pitches.
I stayed for 3 days and was woken by one bunch or the other of riotous happy clappy singing and sermons along with yapping from the friendly packs of dogs which leave the houses as and when to have social get togethers. They are fine unless they eat the free range chickens and then get beaten to death. Some long haired folk offered me crack and god knows what else, all laid back with the police seemingly oblivious, but as I later found out through my guide, they tended to avoid the bar with the knife and gun fights. In another bar we just got blasted by loud karaoke which was awful!
The Park is one of the most important in the world for green sea turtle and also protects the beaches, forest, canals and waterways. The area gets 6000mm of rain a year and with river flooding much of the the forest is different to that seen elsewhere as it is periodically inundated. I was very lucky as it was the start of the green sea turtle breeding season so the chances for 15 dollars of seeing one are 50:50. After a brisk beach walk, we saw one having an initial attempt at nest digging at about 11.30pm. She had done one semi circle but then returned to the sea as it seems if the sand or something else is not quite right they will abandon and try again later. I was awestruck at the size, the effort in moving across the sand with the flippers and just everything about this event which has been going on since primeval times. This recollection is still vivid and special 8 years on.
I hunted out a local recommended guide but he was busy so he suggested another who was good on botany and would do more than the usual monkey and crocodile tours. The Canadian F rents a half built house with a dog and is a gay dyslexic former goldsmith, traded betal across the Pakistan India border, got nursed back from near death with malaria, estranged from his family and now part time tour guide and orchid epiphyte fanatic who by his own admission has a diet of sugar cane rum and cigarettes with deep thoughts about life and the universe.
I found him very friendly, thoughtful, interesting conversations and a superb guide. During the 2 days, we dived into botany, insects, tropical forest ecology and discussed ecological interactions, Darwins theory, creationists, literature and music from Litzt to Madonna over beer & cigarettes. We discussed imitation in animals, some ants are sightless whilst the large vicious bullet ants have good eyesight and deliver a .243 loaded pain bite and plant defences to being eaten. I ate various plants, albeit warily, as so many provide hallucination trips or are toxic such as nutmeg, mace and morning glory growing in the village and forest. I was shown the vine as a safe drinking water source as surprisingly few places to find clean water as one should not drink from tree cavities etc as these have bugs etc in.
Back on my own, I took a motor lancha south along the canals and waterways past forest, cleared land with flat bottomed canoes where solo or family fisherman sat whilst we slowed down as the wake from a fast launch could cause a capsize. I was told a 13 year old boy was eaten by a crocodile last year. We continued past river estuaries and tree debris in the rivers to Moin. Then a tourist bus going further south dropped me off in Limon for bus back to SJ and hassle in finding a hotel in Heredia but fine in the end.
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