Day 10 - Tortuguera - Day 1

 After all the confusion we were collected at 6.30am so could have had another half hours sleep.  There were 3 nationalities on the bus so the guide was saying everything 3 times, English, Spanish and Italian.  We also had a family with 3 very active children.  2 of the children were sitting behind us on the coach and kept kicking our seats and playing noisily.  We tried to tell the parents who did tell them to sit still but they didnt take any notice.  We managed to move further back after the breakfast break to what turned out to be better seats.

The bus climbed mountains for a while before descending down to the Rio Sucia  (Dirty River) where several rivers and streams meet and then on to our breakfast stop.  Just as we were finishing the guide came over to tell us there were 2 sloths outside.  We all thought it looked like a termite mound high in the tree but it was a 3 toed sloth. It eventually moved and had a good scratch.  There was another nearby and then we were told there was a 3rd on the other side of the restaurant.  We also saw Leaf Cutter Ants in the grounds.

 
River Sucia

 
Sloth

 
Sloth

 
Sloth

 
Leaf Cutter Ants

 

 
Sloth having a scratch

 
Leaf Cutter Ants at work

The bus stopped at a Del Monte Banana processing factory.  We didnt get off but were able to see the bananas  being transported to the factory on an overhead line and then the bunches were cut off and thrown into tanks of water according to their size.  From here they are shipped all over the world.

 
Inside the processing plant

 
Newly harvested bananas on their way to the processing plant

We continued to Limon where we were transferred to a boat for the transfer to Tortuguena.  The boat captain stopped a few times when he saw something of interest.  This included a couple of Crocodiles, a Turtle, a 2 toed sloth and some Aninga birds which are like Cormorants.  The name of our lodge is Aninga.

 
Boat Transfer at Limon

 
Crocodile on the river edge

 
Snowy Egret 

 
Aninga


On arrival we were given a short introduction to the site and then had lunch before going to our rooms to get ready for the afternoon walk.

On our 3km walk we were given information about trees, birds, insects and other wildlife.  We saw a few animals and birds including Spider and Howler monkeys, spiders, a land crab and a few birds.


 
White Collared Manakin

 
Golden Bellied Flycatcher

 
Land Crab

 
Toucan

 
Howler Monkey

 
Howler Monkeys

After the walk I went for a swim and then we had a cocktail before dinner.  We have another early start tomorrow with a boat trip at 5.30am.



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