The Man Turtle of Tortuguero

On our first full day in Costa Rica, we were driven from San Jose over to the Caribbean side of the country and the transferred by boat to Tortuguero.

The relaxing boat ride through Tortuguero National Park took around 40 minutes and we were suddenly given a taste of the indigenous flora and fauna that make this land so magical. With exotic bird calls and the occasional splash of a turtle or crocodile, we sailed peacefully along to the pier of Lapa Verde, our home for the night.

Greeted with a refreshing cocktail, I was shown to my room which, to my childish delight, was the Sloth Room, simply decorated with all things sloth!

Food is very fresh in Costa Rica and very tasty and an al-fresco lunch did not disappoint  before we headed back up stream to the town for a walk around the few shops and bars and our first sight of iguanas and spider monkeys.

That evening, we had dinner at the Laguna Lodge and the headed off to meet Cloyd, our guide for our night tour along the beach. You are not allowed on the beach here after 6pm without a guide as the main attraction in the area is turtles. Leatherback, Hawksbill and Green Sea Turtles nest here and are now protected. Their numbers became very low due to meat, egg and shell hunting which is now illegal. Apart from man, turtles have many natural predators and survival rates are slim for the newly-hatched babies so there are many conservation projects.

Thankful for a right moon, Cloyd led us along the dark beach looking all the time for turtles. Naively, I didn’t realise that Leatherbacks can be over 2 meters in length and weigh up 700kgs so are easily spotted when you are lucky enough to do so. They can lay around 100 eggs at a time,  which are around the size of a ping pong ball, and they bury these in the sand before returning to the sea. We saw some nests which are discreetly marked for protection purposes.

Sadly, we were not allowed to film on the beach as one of the funniest moments I’ve experienced then happened.

Seeing our disappointment at not actually seeing a turtle after around 90 minutes walking, Cloyd decided to become one! In order to show us exactly what happens, he threw himself onto the sand at the water’s edge and paddled up the sand. Gentle using his hands and feet as flippers, he proceeded to dig a nest, “lay” several eggs, cover them with sand an then retreat to the sea. It was actually an amazing, if somewhat surreal, portrayal and one he took very seriously. I almost wish that I hadn’t enjoyed a pina colada or 2 prior to our walk so I hadn’t had to stifle my giggles and it was almost worth not seeing the real thing.

On a serious note, it is good that so many are passionate about protecting this beautiful world that we can too easily take for granted.

Next time, off to a volcano….

 

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About Me

Hi, I'm Alison. My passion for travel really started after training as an interpreter in Spanish, Italian and French. After living in Italy for a year, I started working in the Travel Industry as a reservations consultant for a large Tour Operator nearly 30 years ago and have been addicted…

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