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.