Tortuguerro Part Five: Waterfalls

Once we got back from our tour of the Tortuguerro nature preserve, we had another day of perfect weather and enjoyed the little town quite a lot. As it turns out, we were in Costa Rica at the very end of the rainy season, actually during the transition from rainy season to dry season. The upshot of this is that we were incredibly fortunate to have two perfect days in a row at Tortuguerro, given that there had been no sunny days for months previous.

Our last night in Tortuguerro saw the clouds roll in and the skies open up again. We got on the early water ferry back to our car and watched boatloads of miserably wet touristas going on their early morning nature tours....breathing a quiet prayer of thanks for our good fortune.

The renewed vigor of the rains made for wildly running rivers and waterfalls. Here is a series of pictures of waterfalls. The first picture is the first waterfall we saw, then the last several are all different aspects of the same waterfall.


Driving down a twisty turny Costa Rican road and came around a bend to see this dead ahead:


Quite a sight actually. It was really loud, running very fast....it was pouring rain when we took these pictures. Costa Rican civil engineers must operate on a different set of values than what we're accustomed to here in the states. I don't know if you can make it out, but the bridge in this photo was constructed right over the previous bridge that washed out.


Here's a shot from behind the waterfall:


And another, from the other side, almost directly behind it:


I think there are a few more Costa Rica picture posts to go....stay tuned....

Tortuguerro Part Four: Conclusion of our Nature Tour

On our way back out of the canal system, we heard them before we saw them....three Macaws on the wing. I was barely able to get my camera on them in time. Darryl said that it is very rare to see that many Macaws, not to mention that they were together. It is interesting that they were flying in a group of three...I'm not sure what to make of that since they pair mate for life.


Again, heard him before we saw him...here is a little kingfisher. It was so odd to hear his call, because the last time I had heard one of these birds was at my parents' home in Mendham NJ. You can imagine the cognitive dissonance, until I realized that they migrate south during the winter.


This picture is out of sequence, but I thought to throw it in now anyway. The moon was still up while we were on our way out into the canal system:


Upon our return to Casa Marbella, we saw a Tico giving us the "stranger" look:


If you walk out the back of Casa Marbella (which is on the canal side of the tiny island that is the town of Tortuguerro), turn left onto "Main Street" (an overstatement of grandeur if ever there was one) and walk past the little "soda" (small food stand) and then make a right onto the dirt path that you find there, you come to the Carribean beach after about 200 meters:


We saw this green iguana sunbathing while we were enjoying a cold Imperial beer on Darryl's deck. She was "only" four feet long. Apparently the males get quite a bit larger.

Tortuguerro Part Three: Monkeys!

On our way into another section of the preserve now. Here is a shot of Johnny and Tracy paddling ahead of us into the canal:


And here are the guys who were our most cooperative subjects to date. We heard some crashing about in the underbrush, and saw some trees shaking, and then here comes a little primate friend to say hi:


These are Spider Monkeys, specifically Ateles geoffroyi. As I mentioned, we saw all three indigenous species of monkey whilst we were on this morning tour. The three or so of the spider monkeys you see here were not even remotely bothered to have sweaty tourists goggling at them. Acted just like we weren't there. Here's one swinging from branch to branch, making great use of that prehensile tail:


Making sure his personal hygiene is properly administered:


Peeking! Now if that's not cute, I dunno what is.


We were fortunate indeed on that day. Picture perfect weather, not too much gawker traffic, and lots of friendly photo subjects.

Tortuguerro Part Two

After we saw the caiman, we turned around from that small canal and headed deeper into the Tortuguerro preserve. There is an unbelievable variety of birds to see there. We were priveleged to see a number of really rare things: a trio of Macaws on the wing, another bird that looked like a lump on a tree to me (Darryl said that any bird watcher would be green with envy to have seen it, but the name is escaping me), and all three indigenous species of monkeys (Howler, Spider and White Faced). It was a very good day.

We saw this little blue heron along the way - he was one of twenty or so that we saw as we went. You can tell by the fact that he's got his beak open that even this early in the day (probably 7am), he's HOT.


Looks like we spooked him:


They are so beautiful as they fly:


Here is a little cluster of birds that we were unable to identify. Some kind of plover I think, but I'm no ornithologist.


Slightly closer view of the same crew. Anyone know what they are?

More installments to come.........

Tortuguerro Part One

After getting lost in the banana plantation, we finally made the 1:30 boat to Tortuguerro. What you see here is the basic idea:


This was the launch to Tortuguerro that most Ticos take. ("Tico" is Costa Ricans' nickname for themselves.) It cost us $10USD to take the 90 minute boat ride, plus $20 to "watch" our car for three days. Same trip charge for a Tico? Less than $2. Ah well. There is a place where the Touristas can catch a 3 hour boat ride that costs them $50 a head. I guess I can't complain.

Here is Casa Marbella, the place that we stayed in the town of Tortuguerro:


The owner, a guy named Darryl (Asian Canadian, married to a Tico, ran a Canadian ranger station down in CR for many years before "retiring" to run his BnB) was absolutely great. Laid back, knowledgeable and fun. Casa Marbella (named after Darryl's too cute for words little girl) is clean and your room charge includes a great home cooked Tico meal for breakfast.

For $10 each, Darryl took us on a tour of the nature preserve. It was easily the best thing we did while there. We got up at 5:30 am, which is easier than it sounds, since the sun is already up by that time down there, and were in the boat and on our way by 6. After we paid our admission to the park:


...we saw another boat full of touristas staring and pointing. Turns out that's a great way to find the activity of the wildlife...look where others are looking (is that a life lesson? ;-) )

The subject of the staring and pointing were several howler monkeys shaking the trees:


I know, I know, it's a crappy, backlit photo. There are better photo ops later.

We saw this guy fishing on our way up the canal:


Our first cool sighting was this little guy. He is a Caiman, which is an alligator relative. We're not sure how big he was, but what you see here was maybe 18" long. So maybe he was three or four feet long total. Hard to tell. Anyways, good eye Darryl!

More (lots more) Tortuguerro nature preserve pictures to come....stay tuned.