Introduction
As we continue our family adventures through Costa Rica, we realize how fortunate we are to meet and get to know the friendly people who call this beautiful country home. Along the way we have had incredible hosts at our guest houses, guides that went out of their way to make our day trips memorable and local entertainment at festivals to provide us with a better understanding of their culture.
Sarapiqui Eco Lodge
It has been ten days of vacation and we feel rested and relaxed from the other world we left behind over a week and a half ago. Today was a lazy morning of seeing hummingbirds darting around as we walked the streams and trails along the property. After breakfast it was time to depart on a local bus for Sarapiqui, Eco Lodge.
Grandpa, from our accomodations at the Eco Guest house, picked us up and took us shopping before checking in to our 2 story, 2 bedroom lodge with mosquito nets over the beds. Our guest house was open to the sounds of nature, as we had only screens and no windows. We awoke to birds, roosters, dogs, frogs, locusts, plus some low level traffic noise. Dinner from grandma included fish, rice beans & more vegetables than on the rest of the trip.
Rafting The Sarapiqui River
In preparation for our water adventure, passports & valuables were double ziplocked in two moneybelts for our morning rafting trip. Our rafting trip cost $248 plus tip, down the Sarapiqui river. The Sarapiqui River is considered the top rated Costa Rican river for rafting. Adrienne, our 23 year old guide, grew up on the river and loved it. David was support crew accompanying us in a kayak in the event a rescue was needed.
Adrienne said, “We have four commands, row forward or backward, stop, lean in (and down for stability) when going through rough rapids.” The rapids were exhilerating. We stayed with a modest 1-2 or 3 class rapid. The bigger splashes felt like a warm rain on our skin. Half way through, Adrienne and David served us watermelon, pineapple, oranges & mangos, with some cookies.
After rafting we went hiking about 1.5 km to a gorgeous waterfall and swimming hole nearby. Nancy & the girls went swimming, but I was too wiped out from rafting.
After another delicious dinner from the grandma at the lodge, we discussed tomorrow’s trip with the girls. Tortuguero is a place where there are no cars just boats. It takes 5.5 hours by bus and then .5 hour by high-speed boat to get to the Tortuguero Turtle Sanctuary.
Kayaking Tortuguero Turtle Sanctuary
Up at 5:30 am for a long day of travel to Tortuguero Turtle Sanctuary. We caught the 7:15 bus to Galpalus. And a quick transfer to Catairi. It was then a long wait, as it was standing room only for the 11:30 bus to the Tortuguero boat.
The boat to Tortuguero was about 30 min, a fast one in beautiful tropical canals. We got a hostel with 9 beds, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen all to ourselves. The hostel gardens were full of crabs that would run into their holes as we walked passed. Our open air reception had five hammocks where the rest of the family spent most of their time on the WiFi to catch up on news from back home. Still trying to figure out how to get my teens more interested in the trip. Everything competes with the internet, even family vacation!
We shopped and cooked up chicken curry for dinner. I boiled water for drinking, since in this area, the water is more suspect. Tomorrow was a morning kayak trip.
At 5am, roosters and howler monkeys helped us out of bed. Alfonso was our guide in a single kayak and Nancy & I had a double kayak. I felt lucky to be in a small group. There were three of us in small kayaks enabling us to get into the small inlets and close to nature. We saw a heron, (boat-billed, cocadaris type) right beside us. We also spotted canon crocodiles, river otter, sloths, termites balls on trees, lizards, parrots, macows, and many more birds. This is a birder’s paradise.
In the afternoon, we hiked a couple miles along the beach and a couple miles in the forest of the national park ($15 each entrance fee). Spider monkeys were in trees all around us,. A group of four were eating dates in one tree. As we continued our hike, I came upon a rotted turtle that was probably over 100 years old.
Night Eco Hike To Nesting Turtles
Tonight we were scheduled for a night tour of nesting turtles on the beach at Tortuguero. We met Alfonso, our guide, and four other travelers from Germany and Spain. We paid $25 per person direct from our guide, instead of $40 each from the hostel.
The sky was full of stars with some far away lightning and thunder. The lottery for night turtle watching put us in beach sector 3, from 10pm until midnight. A ranger checked the guide’s pass and guided us through the evening.
They use a red light that doesn’t frighten the turtles, no cameras or flashlights are allowed. The first turtle had already dug her hole and dropped about 50 of her 100 eggs when we arrived. It was amazing to see her drop one egg after another. It was as if we were honored to be at the birth of her little ones. She was probably 100 years old and 200 lbs. The second and third turtles had already laid their eggs and were covering them up. The third one was over 300 lbs, maybe 180 years old and hitting us with sand as she covered her eggs. Exhausted from laying a hundred eggs, the turtles’ began their long dredge back to the sea. It was exhilarating as they disappeared into the darkness of the Caribbean Sea.