We have been lucky enough to spend two magical days on the island of Tortuguero. An island only accessible by boat or air and there are no cars on the island. Nothing but a small town which you can walk the whole of and from the river one side to the Pacific Ocean the other.
Our shuttle, courtesy of Exploradores Outdoors, picked us up at 630am on Wednesday morning, from our hostel in San José. There were only two other people on the shuttle and then we picked up one of the company guides before heading on our way. We passed through the Carro Barillo Forest, and the guide was telling us that Costa Rica is home to 112 volcanoes, about 700 species of animals and about 1600 species of bird. He also informed us that pineapples, bananas and tourism are the three most important things in Costa Rica. The scenery we were passing through was beautiful, especially early in the morning as there was still a haze falling over the forest as the sun wakes up.
We only stopped once more to pick two more people up before arriving at the Exploradores Outdoors base camp. From here you can get shuttles to Tortuguero, Arenal, the Caribbean and back to San José. They even provided breakfast.
It wasn't long and then we were boarding another minibus to Tortuguero. 33km of a dirt track, bumpy as hell, passing through miles and miles of banana plantations awaited us.
After about an hour, we reached the boat dock. This was to be my favourite part of the journey to and from the island. We boarded a smallish boat, luggage was put at the back and set off. The boat took us along the river….Passing through the forest and then Tortuguero National Park. It was breathtaking.
We pulled up at the dock and disembarked. The island is small so our hostel was about 50m away. We were taken to 'Roots' a tour company and told about the turtle tour for that evening, to go back at 530pm to see what time our tour would be, either 8-10pm or 10pm-12am. We were checked into our hostel, Cabinas Tortuguero, by Tom and Holly, the English managers, and shown to our room.
We walked about a kilometre along a path between the beach and the houses. Then, the houses suddenly stopped and we, along with the other guides and groups, congregated at the meeting point. How the tours work, is that there are spotters and trackers on the beach. They then radio into the guides when a turtle is at the point we can go and see her laying her eggs. We were group 2. Rafael was so passionate and knowledgable it was incredible. He actually began the guided turtle nesting tours back in 1990, as a way to educate and help preserve this important nesting ground for the green sea turtle as well as other species of turtle. You can only enter the beach after 6pm with a certified guide. Back decades ago, turtle meat was being sold so intensely that the population of turtles was decreasing. The locals didn't understand the importance of these beautiful creatures. To them, they were food and money. When the tours were introduced, they educated the locals as to how tourism can bring in more money than what they would get for turtle meat, but only if they looked after the turtles. This is where the Caribbean Conservation Corporation was founded, headed up by Dr Archie Carr, who's aim was to see what these turtles were doing, tagging them, watching their movements and locations etc. And it all worked. These turtles entice thousands of tourists each year to hopefully catch a glimpse of them laying eggs.
So, as mentioned, the spotters radio the guides when a turtle is at the stage we can see her. What does this mean? We can't see a turtle as it is coming out of the sea, as they will get disturbed and head back into the sea, without nesting. We were lucky enough to see one coming out of the water but we then moved to another location to allow her the privacy needed to begin. Next? She finds somewhere to nest. She begins clearing the sand away with all four of her flippers and then once she is happy, she will begin digging a chamber with just her back flippers. This can sometimes be a metre below the surface. Finally, when she's happy with what she's made, she will begin to lay about 120 white ping-pong ball sized eggs into the chamber. After about the first 6 or 7, the spotters will then allow us to observe. The turtle enters a trance like state as she is laying her eggs which is then why we are allowed to observe, only from behind.
It was the most magical experience to be able to share this turtles nesting moment with her. Rafael used a red light to show us the eggs and we could see them just popping out of her. It was mesmerising. They say turtles cry during the egg laying process. Not necessarily because she's sad, but because they only spend about 1% of their life outside the sea, so crying slows them to dispel the salt from their bodies. That and the fact that the turtle never sees what she's doing. Everything is using her back flippers from digging the chamber, to covering the eggs and then making them camouflage. Once this is done, she heads back to the sea, to leave her baby turtlings to hatch after sixty days. The sad fact is that only about 1 in 1000 actually survive to maturity. The rest? Eaten by predators more than likely. After all, there are jaguars in the national park about 5km away.
As well as seeing a turtle emerging from the sea, witnessing one lay her eggs, we were also incredibly lucky enough to see two huge green sea turtles heading back into the sea. We followed them from behind, with just the guides red light to guide us. To top off a beautiful evening, there were even shooting stars in the night sky. The whole experience was just so incredible. On a high, we headed back to our hostel at midnight.
Thursday morning, we got up to go and find the turtle trails.
We arrived back at about 6pm and we're staying in Hostel 1110 again before heading out Friday morning. Hoping they had a burger, as per the menu, we ordered food, only to be disappointed again. Time to hit the sack ready for an early start Friday…
Until next time…