Turtle Town

This week, we ventured forth to Tortuguero, or Turtle Town as Paul liked to call it.  It is a small island on the Caribbean coast that takes 3 hours by car and then 1 hour by boat to access.  Cars are not allowed here and the town is so small that the main "street" is no bigger than a sidewalk.  It is truly off the beaten path.  You won't find huge hotels, or really huge anything.

Boat ride

Except the turtles, which was the purpose of our trip.

It's nesting season in Costa Rica, which means thousands of turtles from April- November come to the coast to lay their eggs.  The last time we visited 2 years ago, we tried to see some turtles in December on the Pacific side and were disappointed.  This time, we had success!  Although we don't have any pictures of it, it was a beautiful event.  The turtle we saw had to be 4 feet long and laid so many eggs.  I suppose it was appropriate to see the birth of new life on Father's Day weekend (Happy belated Father's Day!).  What I thought was interesting is how the sex of the baby turtles will depend on temperatures during the 15 day incubation: if it's cold, they will all be males, if it's hot, they will be all females.  The more you know, the more you grow.

It was rainy during the entire morning

Somewhere along this beach, there are tons of turtle eggs, just waiting to hatch!

Although we came primarily for the turtles, we did get to see some wildlife.  We did a little hike in the forest and saw a new monkey: spider monkey.  And it had a baby!  Life is abundant everywhere!

They made us wear rubber boots.  I made sure I got the cute yellow pair

Leaf cutter ants' handiwork

Baby!

                                 

The next morning, we went on a canoe ride tour of the Tortuguero water canals.  Here, we saw much more wildlife.  At this point, I'm sure we post too many wildlife pictures.  But there's something thrilling about finding animals in the wild and catching them on camera.  So, you will get a whole lot more animals.

River otter!!!

These birds sun themselves all the time

"If I flap my wings enough, maybe the canoe people will go away"

Mid leap

Look closely...someone's looking at you

A caiman!  They are small, but fierce little guys

It was a quick weekend trip, but very much worthwhile.  

This week, I get to have my own adventure which I'm really excited about: going to get my teeth cleaned!  I haven't had my teeth cleaned in a hot minute, so I was interested to hear of "Destination Dentistry".  Apparently, a lot of people who need extensive dental work choose to make the trip to Costa Rica because it is so much more affordable here than in the States.  People will get their teeth done and then do a vacation.  So, if you need some dentures, consider Costa Rica!  

I'll let you know how it all pans out, but for now, hasta luego!

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