Costa Rica: Days 3 & 4
Day 3 – Moving from San Jose to Tortuguero
San Jose is definitely the Kingstonish city of Costa Rica. I saw lots of the same style businesses and homes. The hustle and bustle you would get in a city like that. It’s more of a place for people to start their trips into Costa Rica (similar to us). Not exactly a place you would stay for more than a day or 2.
We departed our hotel in San Jose at 7 am this morning and made our way to Tortuguero. Turns out Tortuguero is only accessible by boat.😬
Our first stop was at this in-between lodge which serves breakfast but also included a surprise view of Sloths. Yesssss! We managed to see a momma and 2 baby sloths. Literally so cute and so slow. Well… slow moving but fast itchers.
The in-between lodge also had the most beautiful trees, howler monkeys and poisonous frogs. So that’s cool 👀.
We got to our boat location around midday. Some things to know about Tortuguero is its also partly a national park in itself so a lot of the wildlife is protected.
After settling into our Jungle Lodge which was beautiful, natural and so chill. Like so chill there was no AC. But with no windows and a fan, it wasn’t too bad. There was a bit of a walk to the rooms but it was filled with exotic flowers, sloths and monkeys.
The Lodge was called Pachira Lodge and I recommend everyone going there. Next up was lunch and relaxing by the giant turtle shaped pool.
Later we took a mini-boat ride to Tortuguera Village which is super small and also a turtle reserve. We learned more about what kind of turtles nest here and during the two seasons (Dry & Wet).
How perfect did it look? Especially compared to rainy San Jose.
With our free time between the local tour and the group dinner, we decided to hit the bar because… vacation!
On the way there we were gifted the view of monkeys. Took us a minute to figure out if they were howler monkeys or spider monkeys. We were told the spider monkey makes a noise like a bird so it helps to dis. They also have so brown. We then had a nice dinner (7/10) and later headed back to the bar.
Day 4 – Nature Day in Tortuguero (like all the nature)
You know how people wake up to the natural Costa Rican sunlight? On this particular morning, we were woken up by the vocal sounds of howler monkeys. They were potentially fighting the spider monkeys and potentially sitting outside of our window (if we had a real window).
After breakfast, we had a Nature boat tour of the mangroves. We saw monkeys, Caiman Crocs, a range of birds and iguanas (specifically ‘Jesus Christo’ iguana).
Our tour leader Gustavo is actually the best and so passionate about his home country which has made the trip like 50x more interesting. In his personal life he is a Nature Photographer… how cool? VERY cool.
Next, a few of us took him up on an offer for a nature walk. After started said walk I realized it was not the walk for someone who is not interested in being touched by insects.😭 Nevertheless, I persisted and we saw so many Toucans… SCORE! Along with a few spiders and bullet ants.
This afternoon we took a private afternoon not cruise on a pontoon boat so we could have snacks and cocktails while enjoying the almost dusk.
We got lucky with a group of people interested in mixing and learning about each other.
After dinner, a few people opted to go see turtles nesting on a nearby beach we saw earlier in the day.
Samantha and I played cards by the pool while slowly racking up our bar tab.🙌🏾😂
Today was a good ass day!
More fun tomorrow and white water rafting very soon.
– Tobi
P.S. Making all of these blog posts and updates on my iPhone with iffy wifi spots. Will make better updates when I get back home 😁