After a long drive back to Guapiles
(via a town called Liverpool) we meet up with our travelling companions and
head off by coach through the banana plantations before boarding a launch
taking us down the Rio Tortuguera and into the canal networks which will lead
us into the National Park of Tortuguero.
The trip along the muddy brown river is
peaceful and on the way we pass smallish caymans and a large crocodile basking
on the banks. We quickly decide that
we’ll keep our hands in the boat!
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| Little cayman |
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| Biggish crocodile |
We move up to nondescript tree trunk
jutting out of the water – we cannot immediately see what we are looking for as
the camouflage of these creatures is fantastic – see if you can spot anything…
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| What are we looking at? |
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| 5 little bats! |
On arrival at the Mawamba Lodge we grab a
quick lunch before heading off by boat to the small village of Tortuguena. About 1,000 indigenous people live here, most
relying on tourism, which peaks in the season of the turtle hatching when
hundreds of people flock daily to witness the green turtles hatching and making
the treacherous route to the Caribbean Sea.
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| Not a tourist trap! |
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Sitting on a turtle's head!
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The village lies on the banks between the
river and the Caribbean. Neither is safe
for swimming – the river has crocs and the sea has some of the most dangerous rip
currents. Locals say that the quickest
way to get to Africa is to go for a swim.
We walk back via the beach and prepare for
a twilight rain forest walk. The
humidity is unbelievable and the mosquitoes are out in force. Equipped with our torches our group of 10 people
set off in single file with a guide at the front as the darkness draws in. Our guide knows where to look and we see a
wide array of jungle critters, mostly of the creepy and/or crawly variety
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| Bug hunting |
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| Poisonous Frog |
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| Strawberry Poisonous Arrow Frog and friend |
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| Red Eyed Green Tree Frog |
When we turn our torches off, the darkness
wraps around us and the sounds of the rain forest surround us – crickets
chirrup and frogs croak – somewhere up front a small animal, possibly a wild
pig breaks cover and we jump! Wow what
an adventure
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Spider
|
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Bigger Spider and his little pal
|
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| Bloody Huge Fire Spider |
Now this is just a small sample of the wildlife we've seen here so we'll have a follow on post with more pictures tomorrow.
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