So, that was kinda incredible!

This spring, a week or two after typing "summer spanish immersion" into google, I called one of the directors of Common Ground International to find out more about the extra travel around Costa Rica opportunities. It was kind of a "how much money am I really willing/able to spend this summer" phone call. The trip most difficult to plan out on my own would be the trip to Tortuguero. I had already written off since it was on the Atlantic side of the country. But as he described it, I realized, yeah, a bus to a boat to a peninsula with no cars and a chance to MAYBE see a sea turtle, ok, that sounds cool.

It was!

Travelling through the canals

The estuary had some INCREDIBLE views

We got to our hotel in time for Lunch at the Hotel. When I say it was hot, I mean it was GEVALD THIS IS HOT! And of course, me with my "NorthEast" brain, heard that we were going to do hiking, so what have I packed? Long pants and tops, my wool socks and my hiking shoes. I had packed my sandals in my backpack with my bathing suit, but my shorts were in my closet back in Santo Domingo. We got to our rooms after lunch, and I was in my bathing suit in record time!

There was a BEAUTIFUL pool right in front of our row of hotel rooms, but it was under renovation. No worries, I will walk across the whole complex to get to the shallow pool, I just needed COLD. The water, like the ocean at Isla Tortuga was NOT cold, but the water for the rinse before getting in was wonderfully cold. We had a blast in the pool creating different kinds of races. I am NOT good at "walking" races. ANY TIME the race involved using your feet on the bottom of the pool, I was less than successful. BUT, the see how far you can float race was my jam! Just push off the wall and let the current created by all the other pool users to push me the rest of the way across the pool. Stay still and hold my breath. Ok, I can do that.

Before heading back in to change and get ready for our night activity (!!!!!!!!!!) the "swim in the pool" crew saw the "took a walk on the beach" crew and found out that the beach was RIGHT behind our row of rooms. We were the last row before the opening to the beach. The beach was NOT for swimming (you know, sharks) but it was a beautiful place to sit and watch the waves. 

After dinner, we gathered at the reception area where other groups were getting ready for their night walks on the beach. It seems we are actually getting a guide NOT affiliated with the hotel, but with the beach sectors. The beach is split into sectors so that the beach isn't overrun with people as the guests of honor visit the beach. For the hotel tours, they can generally only visit section 2 which is next to the hotel. For OUR tour, if the special guests weren't visiting sector two after a while, our guide would be told which sector we could move to. So thanks CGI, for guaranteeing that we would see something really neat.

It just so happened that sector two was where it was at. We arrived and immediately learned there was a GREEN TURTLE setting up her nest. Meaning she had found a site and had begun digging with her back flippers the hole she will lay her eggs in. While we were waiting (the small groups wait far a away from her with ABSOLUTLY no light) she decided, nope, she didn't like that spot. So we waited a bit more and watched the moon (a day or two after full) and the stars from a TOTALLY free of human made light and the clouds coming in and out. After about a half hour, our guide tells us it's begun. We spilt into two groups so we could all fit in two rows, one kneeling, one standing behind, directly behind the turtle to see her lay her eggs. IT WAS AMAZING! We watched her lay about 1-4 eggs at a time for a minute, and then it was the next group's turn. Our group went back to the end of the line of groups (from the hotel and other sector guides) and gasped at each other and generally freaked out, silently, over how amazing the experience was. We were lined up for our second turn when the guide with the turtle who was shining the red light so we could all see what was happening, suddenly backed up and told us to wait and watch. The turtle started filling the hole with her back flippers. When we went to the back of the line so others could see what she was doing next, I thought about the fact that this turtle traveled through miles of open ocean to find THIS beach (Green Turtles don't nest anywhere else) that she was born on to lay her eggs. She hauled herself onto land, she dug a whole with her back flippers that she NEVER looked at to see how deep or wide it was (it was deep and narrow) she laid about a hundred eggs, and she immediately covered them up with those same back flippers. But it was the last round the blew me away. In the last round, she used her front flippers to fling sand behind her. This time, our whole group got to line up next to her, half on one side half on the other. I am VERY glad I stood to the house left... the group on the other side got a face full of sand as they leaned down to watch. But it was WHAT she was doing that is incredible. She wasn't flinging sand at our group for fun. She was slowly moving herself forward, all the while creating a mound behind her as she inched her way forward. When we got off the beach, our guide explained that she would move about a meter forward, so the imprint of her body would not be in the exact location of the eggs, making it harder for predators to find her eggs. ALL of this is done by instinct. The hatchlings will be born in a few months and she will be LONG gone. She actually will have about 6 batches of nests over the course of the nesting season, and then head back out to sea to build up energy over the next few years to do it all over again!

The beaches are closed to the public from 6 PM to 6 AM so the turtles can lay their eggs in regulated peace. I was waiting to head onto the beach at 5:50 AM so I could find the site she had laid her eggs the night before before it was trampled. She had laid her eggs VERY close to the tree line (which makes it likely the nest will be cooler and this batch will be male turtles) so I knew, find marker 13 as my beach entrance and walk along the tree line until I find it. In an bizzar twist for those who have read this blog for a while, this plan worked perfectly. I was able to easily find the imprint of where mama turtle had laid her eggs the night before.

The true nest, though her body imprint is about 3 ft in front of where
she was when she laid her eggs.

The nest she started when we first got on the beach, and then decided on a new location.

On the right is the aborted nest and my finger is pointing the finished one.

I walked back to the hotel along the beach this time and enjoyed the idea of sunrise (it was blocked by many clouds), the waves, and the way the forest comes into the beach the way I have never seen before. So much growth on sand, and I love it. There were vines with flowers, there were patches of grass, and of course, my of the Atlantic ocean waves.

Back on the canal/estuary side of the peninsula I set up for an early breakfast and a buddy came to eat with me. RIGHT after breakfast, we (the humans I came with) got into a boat for a canal tour. 

Share with me, share with me!
(sorry buddy, the gallapinto isn't as good as it is at home,
but it's still ALL MINE!)

Thank goodness for the boat captain and his green laser light.
I couldn't see most of the animals until he pointed them out.

A basilisk! A BASALISK! Seeing a few of these at the hotel
I have realized, yeah, dinosaurs DEFINITLY exist in our time.
Also SUPER fast.

What a neat bird.

WHAT'S GOING ON WIHT THAT NECK??

Yeah, I am close enough, thanks)

Yeah, I could watch this ALL day

I was hoping that someone who caught a picture of the DOLPHINS we saw in the estuary area at the start of our tour would have shared one to the shared album before I posted this, but seriously, it was SO SO COOL. Our guide kept taking about how lucky we were. Then, the dolphins went down and seemingly didn't come up, so the other boats moved on. Not our boat. Our captain is also an ocean fisherman who grew up on these canals. He takes us closer to the ocean, while our guide asks him if he's sure. We wait a bit, and sure enough, up pop the dolphins. It was magical.

Our boat dropped us off so we could take a walk through the town of Tortuguero. This town is fully built around tourism. It was neat to speak with the vendors about bracelet making, lace work, and the different seeds they use in their designs. Costa Rica really isn't much of a fiber arts culture country, so it was really nice to see some of it.

The nature didn't stop back when we got back to the hotel.

I LOVED this fuzzy flower each time I passed by one,
I wanted to touch it. One time, I found this one split to release it's seeds.
AFTER I took the photo I realized the other model of the photo shoot.

There was a covered hammock area where I was going to read "the boxcar children" in spanish.
Instead, I watched a fly dig it's nest(s) for about 3 hours until some running kids scared it off.

I caught a small part of the arc, but a buddy photographed the whole thing.
Yeah, Torguguero was special.

I had such an amazing time. On the morning of the 3rd day, we got back on to boat and back on the bus to head back to Santo Domingo. Well, one quick stop on the side of the road to check these guys out.

Yes, that's a baby on the back of the monkey on the far left.

In order to remember what I saw, I made a keep note was we went... It was pretty wild.

Road to Tortuguero-

Wild boars on the side of the road
Many cows and horses on farms
5 macaws- two couples and a baby
Finally sheep (yes, I was just as excited about the sheep as the macaws)
Oxen on the farm (no carritas)
Chickens on road from the farm
Fields of papaya trees
Miles of fields of banana trees!

In Tortuguero

Turtle laying eggs!!!
Iguanas "chickens of Tortuguero"
Basilisks (super fast dinosaur like)
Spiders HUGE
Sloths- Watch the baby scratch for EVERY
Cayman crocodiles small, but I am NOT getting in the water with them

Road from Tortuguero
Monkeys on the wire (sloths and monkeys prefer wire to trees...)

Thank you VERY much Rory, I would have been so sad to miss this trip.