This little Caribbean town left us in love. It is isolated from civilization and has tremendous wildlife right there where you sleep. Go and enjoy one of the most important national parks in Costa Rica.
The thing is that we got up early to go to Tortuguero on a Saturday, then we prepared our junk and we headed not by Route 32, but by General Cañas to Juan Santamaría! Here we took a fleeting flight of Nature Air and in only 35 minutes we were in Tortuguero, the best thing is that it lasts basically nothing and the landscape is amazing, as you can see all the channels from above...crazy cool.
Then, we were met by the Laguna Lodge staff who took us to the hotel by boat. This is the main transport of this place, and the roads are the turtle canals (the name Tortuguero refers to turtle).
When we disembarked at the hotel we were greeted with a delicious tropical smoothie right at the reception desk, the place is cool because the architecture is influenced by Guadiana, with so much distraction of the building we were given the keys to the room and explained the hours of the meals.
After the rice & beans lunch we went to get to know the town of Tortuguero with a guide of the lodge who explained to us the origin of the town, and the impact that the place has done and been recognized for, its sustenance based on turtle meat to conserve and take care of them as a National Park.
After going around the town we went back to the Laguna Lodge for dinner and then returned to the National Park because a park ranger was waiting for us to see the green turtle nesting. Here they gave us the corresponding explanations that basically was to not make noise or turn on lights of any color that was not red and on the beach definitely no lights. The wait was not long and we managed to see several turtles in action simultaneously in the different stages. The night was super awesome, with a slightly clear sky and no rain. Remember to take a picture on the official park sign, it's new.
The next day we got up early to be at 6 am riding the boat to go to the National Park and sail in the Tortuguero lagoon watching animals. I can not explain the number of birds we saw, from toucans to giant iguanas, all there mixed into an amazing landscape.
We returned for breakfast as God intended, and then Victor picked us up, a super nice park ranger who took us on a boat all pimped up by Laguna Penitencia to the access port of Cerro Tortuguero. Here we got off and started walking along a new path that was high on the ground and very slippery. Víctor explained that the hill, which is more than 100 meters high, is made of volcanic rock, covered with dense tropical jungle. He put us to sweat with a tremendous slope that thank goodness had stairs. The hill is incredible, the view from the viewpoint above is like being on a drone, where you can see the entire National Park with its channels and monstrous lagoons. The best thing is that the reopening of the hill is September 15.
After going down and back to the lodge, we got in the pool for a bit and then had lunch. Once eaten, the lodge manager took us to see the whole facilities, where we discovered that there were more swimming pools, gardens and forest regeneration spaces that demonstrate their commitment to the environment through tourism.
After a tremendous agenda of activities, we felt exhausted, we only got up for dinner and the next day to fly on Nature Air arriving at 7:30 am to San Jose. The idea of doing these local flights is that you save 7 hours of travel by car, which translates into hours of enjoyment in more activities without losing time behind the wheel.
DATE OF THE WALK - August 2016