an idea of travel: tortuguero, costa rica

A faulty clock at the bus terminal.

Getting to Tortuguero, Land of Turtles, is a bit of a hassle. Another long day of transfers, waiting, and heat.

A taxi and two buses later, I then got into this boat. Along the way to the village of Tortuguero I saw a toucan! No pic to prove it.

Not the nicest of accomodations. And it wasn´t cheap, either. I probably should have kept looking, but I was tired and hot so I just agreed upon the first one I saw.

The mosquito screens had huge holes, and

there was this substantial hole in the wall. What´s that for!

Tortuguero is small and only accessible by boat. Loads of tourists come to see turtles drag themselves onto the beach to lay eggs, and I just happened to be here during peak season. Too bad, though, I heard that this year numbers of turtles were low.

I still booked my night turtle-spying tour anyway.

At night we waited in our tour groups for a Turtle Spotter to notify us of a turtle sighting on the beach. This program has been in place since 2004 to avoid having lots of people walking around on the beach looking for, i.e. disturbing, the nesting turtles who can feel the vibrations all around them.

I can´t remember how long we waited, but it was long enough for the yawns to break out. The Turtle Spotter eventually found a single turtle on the beach, and all of our groups had to ´share´ the turtle. We walked onward to the beach, then each group took turns standing behind the turtle. By that time she had actually finished laying, and she was in the process of covering up her nest with sand.

No cameras were allowed since the constant flashes would prove to be a distraction.

The turtle would flick sand several times to cover her nest, then rest for several seconds before repeating.

Tortuguero sees several varieties of turtle, but we saw a Green Turtle. The females lay about 100-120 eggs in a nest, though only 1-3 hatchlings will survive and make it to the sea. The temperature of the nest determines the gender of the babies, with a warmer temperature producing females, and a cooler one males. Somehow, the female turtle knows to return to the same beach where she hatched when she lays her own eggs.

Even though we didn´t get to see the turtle laying eggs, it was also really special to see her covering and camouflaging her nest, and in complete exhaustion, make her way back to the night sea.