adventures in costa rica: tortuguero---the land of the turtles

this weekend katie, chris, kristy, deanna and i did a girls weekend in tortuguero, which is actually an island that is off the northern caribbean coast. the word "tortuga" is actually spanish for turtle and this is one of the major places for turtle sightings but turtle season doesn't start until late march so it was a bummer that we missed out on the turtles! but from the start i had a feeling we'd have a fun trip together-- when the 5 of us took over the back row of both buses we went on and couldn't stop chatting and laughing (and probably annoying most of the people around us) the entire ride. the trip took about 5 hours, including 2 buses (in the pouring rain and through flooded dirt roads) and a "shuttle boat" down the rivers of the rainforest to bring us to the actual island. just the sight of the boat and our hour ride to tortuguero made me realize that we were basically leaving true civilization for 48 hours and traveling to a different world....quite adventurous for 5 girls, right?!

we finally arrived at our hotel, casa marbella, and were greeted by the receptionist and shown to our room, which worked out perfectly--we only had a reservation for 3 people but the room had a double bed, a twin bed, and a trundle bed so all 5 of us could stay together. once we ditched our bags, we wondered through the little town which is literally a few restaurants, a few hotels and a handful of shops. there are no cars on tortuguero so the "roads" are just dirt walking paths. there seemed to be a good number of houses on the island, which amazed me because how do people survive? you are so stranded in the middle of nowhere here, with few resources and ways to make a living. it's a fun little place to visit but i don't know how people could live there full time! dinner brought us to a little caribbean-cuisine restaurant then we checked out the two local bars in the village--returning back to our slumber party shortly after, disappointed and creeped out by some of the local men.

saturday morning came early, with a 5:30am wake up call for our boat tour of the national park with the nature expert (and our hotel's owner), daryl loth. as tired as we were, it was definately worth the early wakeup! we saw all kinds of animals--lots of different birds, 3 different types of monkeys and some beautiful scenery. unfortunately the majority of our tour was spent under the protection of our lovely army green ponchos because it was pouring rain! :( but after our 3 hour tour through the little canals of the rainforest, the boat brought us back to the hotel where a delicious pancake breakfast was served. and once our our bellies were full, we escaped back into room #5 and all enjoyed a lovely 3-hour siesta :)

once we all felt completely rested, we set out for our next adventure---exploring the park on foot. now this is no "normal" walk, as tortuguero is an island completley surrounded by water and in the past week they got an unusually large amount of rain so the entire place is flooded. with this being said and with the "safety" rules of the park, you are required to wear rubber rain boots to enter the park. let me tell you---they are extremely attractive and thoroughly enhanced the bystanders' comments and whistling we got while walking through the village to the park entrance! the trails were beautiful with lots of cool trees and plants. we didn't see much wildlife, only a handful of spider monkeys. the mosquitos weren't too bad but unfortunately they were all attacking poor deanna, to the point that she wanted to jump in the water. so what do we do? we find the closest path to the beach, all toss off our boots and sweaty t-shirts and jump into the ocean like little kids! the beach is incredible here...dark, dark sand that was almost black, mucky brown water, and huge waves. for this reason, they recommend not swimming in it because it can be really dangerous but sometimes you have to break the "rules" just a little bit :)

our weekend wound down with a delicious dinner at the buddha cafe---this hip little italian restaurant right on the water. you would think we were feeding an army with all the food we ordered but somehow the 5 of us managed to eat most of it, even polishing off a brownie sundae for dessert! sunday was another 5:30am wakeup and we had a lovely morning adventure back to san jose. the 5 of us had a great time on our little island getaway, lots of fun memories and way too many laughs :)