Flying out of Tortuguero

There are no roads to Tortuguero. We arrived by boat, and we left by plane. Although the domestic airlines do provide service to the small landing strip at Tortuguero, we took a small chartered flight. This is my wife getting on board.

I took the aerial photos that I showed at the beginning of this series several weeks ago from this plane as we left. It was raining, which is not unusual for an area that gets 200 inches of rain per year.

In the future days I will show the airport in Tamarindo, as we return to the Pacific Coast. I will also tell you something about a Costa Rican airline that is unique in the world.

Tortuguero jungle

This is a typical scene of the jungle in the rivers, canals and waterways that surround Tortuguero like a maze. You can get an idea of the lush plant life and biodiversity for which Costa Rica is famous. There are 10,000 species of plants in tiny Costa Rica (which is the size of Switzerland or West Virginia).

I have been showing photos of Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast for the last few weeks. I post this photo as a way to summarize the area before saying goodbye. Tomorrow I will show you how we left, then I will return to showing photos of our sunny Pacific coast area around Tamarindo.

Caiman head

We will transition from the photos of a poison reptile during the last two days to another reptile. This is a close up of the head of a caiman. I apologize that the photo is not sharper, but he was lurking in a shadowy area of a river in a dark area of the jungle. You can see the vertical slit of his eyes.

He was very still, lurking below the water's surface, waiting for a bird or other prey to come near.

Eyelash pit viper

This is another view of the eyelash pit viper we encountered in the tropical jungle. We stayed a safe distance, so I did not try to get a closer photo of his head.

Eyelash pit vipers sound especially scary because they are found in exotic tropical jungles. Actually, pit vipers are the type of snakes to which most of the poisonous snakes of the Western Hemisphere belong. They are found from Canada to Argentina. Rattlesnakes, copperheads and water moccasins of the USA and Canada are types of pit vipers.

They get their name of pit vipers because they have a pit that is sensitive to heat between their eyes and nostrils. While most snakes lay eggs, pit vipers give birth to up to 20 live snakes, about .3 meters (1 foot) long, complete with fangs and venom.

Eyelash pit viper

This is a deadly poisonous eyelash pit viper. Usually when visiting Tortuguero, visitors see wildlife from the safety of boats that cruise the waterways. If you venture on foot into the tropical jungle, you may see scenes such as this eyelash pit viper.

My Traveler's Wildlife Guide book on Costa Rica says "Few short term visitors to Costa Rica encounter a poisonous snake because most are well camouflaged, secretive in their habits, or nocturnal and, therefore, they are really outside the scope of this book." Well, I was in Tortuguero for only a few days, and this is what we encountered.

These snakes have hollow fangs that inject venom in their prey. The venom attacks the nervous system, causing paralysis, then respiratory failure. The most dangerous and feared pit viper is the Fer-de-lance. They are more aggressive than other snakes and are more likely to strike and attack rather than retreat when approached. There is a story of a railroad worker in Honduras who was bitten by a Fer-de-lance at work and was carried home. His wife tended to his wound. He died within two hours and she died the next day because she had a cut on her hand from cooking and the little bit of venom from touching his wound that entered her cut was lethal.

Sorry, I did not get in closer for a tighter shot. I did maneuver around the snake draped across this branch, and tomorrow I will show a photo of this snake from another angle and will give more information about pit vipers. I know that I am in dangerous territory when I write about snakes. I risk that my son, Stuart, who knows a lot about snakes and other reptiles (and has a snake in his Scottsdale condo), will probably leave a comment correcting the details of whatever information I try to share on this website.

Man and dog, river and Cerro Tortuguero

I showed this dog yesterday, so I thought I would show this photo of the dog and his master today. This is the main boat dock in the town of Tortuguero. Looking down the river, you can see in the distance the most prominent landmark in the area. It is called Cerro Tortuguero. It is a mound 110 meters (360 ft.) high in an area that is otherwise flat and very close to sea level.

Tomorrow, I am posting another photo of a poisonous animal, with a story that will share a little humor at the expense of my wife.

Toucan tire planters

This is another photo of the little park in downtown Tortuguero, which is the same location as the giant toucan statues I showed a few days ago. These are hanging planters with ferns growing in them. The planters are made out of used tires, and they are shaped into toucans. How environmentally sensitive to recycle tires into planters. How creative to slice up the tires into the shape of toucans, complete with tail feathers.

I know there are readers of this site who enjoy dog photos, so I am also posting a second photo to show a closer view the dog. The dog will also make an appearance in tomorrow's photo, with a very different background.

I take photos such as these for my mother-in-law, who is a fanatical, obsessive dog lover. When I travel, I try to take some photos of dogs for her, usually with a close up of the dog and a second shot that shows the dog in its environment so that it can be identified as being in a particular country. My mother-in-law has several photo albums on her coffee table of dogs around the world.

I began taking dog photos for her when she joined my wife and me for 10 days in the middle of our 3-week honeymoon in France. (I know, that is strange.) I started noticing that no matter where we were, my mother-in-law would not be taking photos of the major sights, but would be taking photos of dogs. She is probably the only tourist who neglected to take a photo of the Eiffel tower and barely looked at it because there were dogs to be photographed in the area. It was painful to watch her take photos of dogs at long distances, without a telephoto, that I had to take up the challenge to take some good dog photos for her.

Park ranger's dog

On March 16, near the beginning of the series of photos on Tortuguero, I showed a photo of the park ranger's boat dock entrance station. One of the readers, Brattcat (who publishes the Brattleboro, Vermont Daily Photo), left a comment about a dog that was visible on the boat dock in the background of the photo. I therefore decided to add this photo to the pictures I intended to post so that readers could get a better look at the dog who greets visitors on boats entering the waterways of Tortuguero National Park and who keeps the park ranger company.

For the next two days, I will show other photos with a dog, followed by several days of poisonous animals.

Egret

This is another typical Tortuguero scene, with water, a dense jungle, and an egret. Egrets like to stalk their prey at the water's edge. Egrets and herons make up the heron family. There are 58 species of herons, 15 of which live in Costa Rica.

Most birds in the heron family will live in monogomous pairs, with the male bringing sticks to the female, and the female building the nest. Both will sit on the eggs, which are laid with 3 to 7 at a time. The eggs take between 16 and 30 days to hatch, and both parents feed the chicks for 35 to 50 days until they can leave the nest and take care of themselves.

Yellow-crowned night heron and little blue heron

I am not positive, but I believe that the bird on the lower left is a yellow-crowned night heron. I make that identification based on the pattern of the black and white plumage on its head, plus its gray color, size and habitat. The yellow-crowned night heron is more often seen during the day than the black-crowned and other night herons, although they are nevertheless still primarily nocturnal.

The bird in the top right of the photo is a little blue heron ("Little" is part of its name, not an adjective added by me.) They winter in Costa Rica, although some non-breeding pairs remain all year.

Both types of herons shown in this photo live in aquatic areas of both coasts of Costa Rica, particularly in mangroves. We have mangroves in the Tamarindo and Langosta estuaries that border Tamarindo on the north and south, although I took this photo in Tortuguero. The presence of two types of birds so close together in one photo illustrates how easy it is to spot birds in Tortuguero National Park.

Both of these herons are typically 61 cm. (24 in.) in length. The scientific name for yellow-crowned night heron nyctanassa violacea, and for the little blue heron is egretta caerulea.

Downtown Tortuguero

This is downtown Tortuguero. The main boat landing is just to the left, and this park with giant, colorful bird statues greets visitors. There are a few tourist shops, restaurants and places to stay, although most people come to Tortuguero to see the wildlife, not the town.

This festive atmosphere is a very different greeting than people would have received in the early days of Tortuguero. Tortuguero was originally a hangout for pirates working the Caribbean. It was a good location for two reasons. First, it is very isolated, accessible only by water, with very few people in the area.

Second, Tortuguero was a supply point for pirates because the local population would sell the giant sea turtles to the pirates for food on their sea voyages. Tortuguero even gets its name from that historic role, as Tortuguero means "turtle seller."

Turtles are still the foundation of the economy in Tortuguero, only today it is tourism by people coming to the area for wildlife, particularly the giant sea turtles, that supports the livelihood of the people.

The conservation of the area was spearheaded by Archie Carr, a Costa Rican conservation activist in the 1950's who brought attention to the fact that sea turtles were nearly extinct. His efforts led to the establishment of Tortuguero National Park and the Caribbean Conservation Corps.

The Caribbean Conservation Corps has a visitor center on the north end of Tortuguero town, and it continues to carry out conservation work to protect the sea turtles and other wildlife. And tomorrow, we will return to wildlife, with a post about a poisonous animal with an amazing life cycle.

Tortuguero church

This is a church in the very small town of Tortuguero. This captures the Caribbean culture of the area, with tall palms and the distinctive architectural touches on this small church.

The Caribbean coast has a Jamaican-influenced culture, as many of the residents are decendents of people who came from Jamaica to build the railroad to the Caribbean coast in the late 1800's. You can see the influences of that culture in the roofline of this church.

Caribbean beach sand

During the past two days I showed views of the Caribbean beach, which had a grayish hue as the sand merged with the waves and spray of the ocean. Here is a closer view of the sand. I like both the color and pattern of the sand and, of course, the sound of the waves that bring the sand and create the patterns.

In Tamarindo on the Pacific coast our sand is a light tan, as I have shown in the past.

Next, I will show a few photos of the town of Tortuguero, followed by some photos of poisonous animals in the jungle.

Caribbean beach 2

Yesterday I showed a view up the Caribbean beach shoreline. One reader, Brattcatt, who frequently notices and leaves insightful comments about the details in my photos, left a comment yesterday asking about the debris that she could see on the beach. I therefore decided to post this picture. The beach debris consists of logs, branches sticks, palm fronds, and whatever else washes up from the ocean.

Tortuguero is an area of dense vegetation. Therefore there is a lot of vegetation that drops off trees, or trees that fall into the water and are carried out to sea and then wash up on the shore.

There is not much litter on the beach because very few people live in the northeastern corner of Costa Rica. Much of the coastline is protected as a national park. The area can be reached only by boat or small plane. There are no roads leading into or out of Tortuguero because it would be simply too expensive and impractical to build bridges over the honeycomb maze of rivers and canals.

Although there are few people to generate trash, there are also few people to pick up trash. Whatever might be floating in the ocean and washes up on shore will tend to stay there.

This raises the subject of litter, so I will address that now. Although Costa Rica has an amazing environmental ethic and has set aside more of its land for national parks and nature preserves than any other country -- 25% -- it does have a problem with roadside trash. The popular culture of preserving land for wildlife has not extended enough into keeping towns, villages, and roadsides clear of litter. There are efforts to improve that, however, and some communities, including Tamarindo, have had community clean-up and recycling days to remove litter.

In Tamarindo and Playa Langosta where we have our condos on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, our beaches are clean and we do not have aproblem with litter or debris washing up on the beach. In fact, Playa Langosta has maintained the coveted Blue Flag certification for passing the highest international standards for cleanliness of the beach and water.

Caribbean beach

This is a view of the Caribbean coast at Tortuguero. As I mentioned previously, the coastline is protected as part of the national park in order to provide a nesting site for sea turtles.

My guidebook states that visitation to the Tortuguero area did not really begin until the 1970's, when construction of a canal allowed passage to the area in small boats on inland waterways. Prior the inland water route, it was difficult to reach the area by boat because the sea in this area is rather rough and there is a lack of a natural harbor along the beach, as you can see in this photo.

This photo also illustrates the high humidity of the area. You can see that the mist from the ocean spray lingers in the air. This is a contrast to our coast on the Pacific side of Costa Rica, which has less humidity.

Opening a coconut

Tortuguero is on the Caribbean coast, and Costa Rica is tropical, of course, so that means that there are lots of coconut palm trees. This gentleman used a machete to slice open a coconut for us.

This occurred on the grounds of a research and conservation center for sea turtles that is on the narrow strip of land just along the beach. Costa Rica attracts environmentalists and students from around the world who come to study the plant and animal life and the potential effects of global climate change and other environmental subjects.

On our first trip to Costa Rica, when we toured around to various parts of the country, we repeatedly encountered young people from the USA and Europe who were in Costa Rica to study environmental topics or to work at various conservation projects. My wife made the comment that Costa Rica today is a magnet for young environmentalists in a manner similar to Paris of the early 20th century having been a magnet for artists and writers from around the world.

One of the young environmentalists attracted to Costa Rica is my niece. She spent one summer in college in Costa Rica, which was a perfect location because she was a biology major with a Spanish minor. The went to the sea turtle conservation center in Tortuguero for three days. She later obtained a Watson Fellowship, established by the former Chairman of IBM, which funds a very select group of college graduates to spend one year studying an environmental topic in parts of the world they had never been to previously.

She developed a program to study sea turtles and the effects of conservation and ecotourism on the people and communities near sea turtle populations. She wanted to go back to Tortuguero as one of the sites for her research but could not do so because she had been already been there for three days. So, she made the arrangements and set up a program for herself to work and do research for 3 months on Cayman, then 3 months in South Africa, 3 months in Australia, and 3 months in Panama. A nice gig, don't you think?

My niece has followed up her sea turtle studies during her fellowship by pursuing a Ph.D. in Marine Biology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. We are obviously very proud of her (and I neglected to mention that she was a star on her Bowdoin College varsity ice hockey team, but I imagine it is hard to keep up her ice hockey skills while studying tropical marine biology).

Room at the Tortuga Lodge

This was our room at the Tortuga Lodge. I took this photo to show the proximity of the room to the outdoors, as you can see the river outside.

The most remarkable feature of the room is that it did not have any windows! The walls on three sides were screens without any glass. There were shades for privacy, and the fourth wall was and interior wall for the bathroom.

There was a large overhanging roof so that the rain did not come in the windows. We had a second floor unit.

With only screens separating the unit from the outdoors, you can imagine that part of the experience is the exposure to the sounds of the jungle at night. Besides the birds, every morning we heard a pack of howler monkeys move through the area. It was amazing. They emit a low guttural sound that is incredibly loud.

A single howler monkey makes a howl that has been measured at 89 decibels. A train whistle at 500 feet (152 m.) is 90 decibels. You can imagine the tremendous sound of a whole pack of howlers.

During the next few days I will take you to the Caribbean beach at Tortuguero, then I will show some photos of poisonous animals that we saw.

Tortuga Lodge pool

This is the pool and a lounge at the Tortuga Lodge. The pool provides a nice place for a dip in the water too cool off if visitors have been out in the jungle on a warm, humid day. You would not expect to see resort amenities like this in a location as remote as Tortuguero.

There was little travel to Tortuguero until the 1970s. In the late 1960s a canal was dug to connect Tortuguero and other coastal areas with the town of Moin, just outside the largest town in the area, Puerto Limon. The canal is 113 km. (70 miles) that links various rivers, lagoons and waterways in the coastal areas. Before the canal, travel to the area was difficult because the maze of rivers and lagoons prevented the construction of roads into the area. The Caribbean coast in the region lacks natural harbors and has strong surf, so there was not convenient access by boat.

With the canal, visitors to the area are brought in by boats operated by the various lodges. The Tortuga Lodge is a leading place to stay for visitors who want to enjoy the wildlife in the area or who want to go sports fishing in the Caribbean. The Lodge has a very good restaurant and comfortable amenities that you would not expect to find in the jungle.

Tomorrow, I will show you what the rooms look like, and explain why the howler monkeys who roamed through the area a daybreak would provide nature's alarm clock.

Howler monkeys in trees

The top photo today is a howler monkey frolicking in the trees in Tortuguero. As we floated on the waterways, we were able to observe several groups of howler monkeys eating, or swinging from tree to tree.

The top photo is a typical vantage point for watching howlers. They present a challenge to photograph because usually they are seen when you are pointing the camera upward into a light sky background, and the monkeys, of course, are very dark. That produces a result like the first photo above.

To give you a better appreciation of howlers, I am posting the second photo of a howler up close. My wife took this photo while on a raft, although this was not taken in Tortuguero.

Howlers are appropriately named because they make an amazing noise. They travel in groups of about 6 in number, and the deep hoots or howls of a group can be heard a mile (1.6 km) away.

We had an unforgettable experience with howler monkeys in Tortoguero. Our room at the Tortuga Inn had screens for walls, as I will show in a few days. Each morning we had a group of howlers come by close to the room. It sounded as loud as a freight train coming through.

Turtle

Tortuguero is best known as the most important nesting site for sea turtles in all of the Caribbean. We did not see any sea turtles, as they are typically viewed either in the ocean or at night while waiting on the beach for turtles to come ashore to lay eggs, or waiting for the eggs to hatch and the hatchlings to make it down the beach to the water.

Although I could not show a photo of a sea turtle, I am showing a photo of one of the freshwater turtles that we saw during our tour of the backwaters of the rivers and canals of Tortuguero Naitonal Park. This is a black river turtle, also called a black wood turtle. They are 32 cm. (12 in.) in length. They are locally called tortuga del rio negra, and their scientific name is rhinoclemmys funerea.

Costa Rica has sea turtles and fresh water tutles, but not any land turtles. The fresh water turtles such as this one change their diet during their lives. When young, they eat insects and fish. As they get older, they prefer plants. They will walk on land when foraging for food, and of course lay their eggs on land. The turtles are protected from predators by their shell, except from crocodiles, who will eat them whole.

Although Tortuguero is located on the far side of Costa Rica from Tamarindo, it shares with Tamarindo the status of being an important nesting site for sea turtles. Playa Grande, located next to Tamarindo, is the most important nesting site in the Pacific for leatherback turtles. Their nesting site is preserved as part of Las Baulas National Marine Park, and the government and conservationists try to prevent nearby landowners from developing their property because lights visible from the beach can interfere with baby turtle hatchlings finding the ocean because they may mistake the lights for the moon and lose their bearings.

The park rangers in both Tamarindo and Tortuguero lead groups of visitors on night walks and stake-outs on the beach to try to see turtles laying their eggs while keeping the visitors at a safe distance where they can see the turtles, but not interfere with them.