Costa Rica - The slow pace of the Caribbean Coast

 August 1-4

Hello everyone!

Like most Central American countries, Costa Rica has two coastlines: one on the Pacific and one on the Caribbean. My final stops on my Tico adventure were on the eastern side, where everything moves a bit…slower…

If this were true, I'd still be in Costa Rica...

This is a breadfruit. It does not contain bread.

From the rainforest our group headed to Tortuguero, a village situated within an eponymous national park. The village itself is inaccessible by road, meaning you need to take other transport. Specifically, you cram all of your bags and people into a low motor boat, which carefully navigates narrow, shallow waterways. Many of these were created by humans.

It was about 4 hours in total from Sarapiqui

The journey on the boat takes just under an hour 

At times there can be a lot of traffic

This is because the Caribbean side was initially more important for trading purposes. Moving masses of coffee and particularly bananas required access to the coast, though most of this was done by the railroad which connected the central valley with the port of Limon further south. These canals were used to transport wood up until the 1970s. Their existence makes it possible to get to Tortuguero and see something truly magical.

You can do boat safaris to find animals like caimans and sloths

This is a fruit caled agua de dulce: sweet water. It is not magical.

This is a painting of a green turtle. It is magical.

The beaches of Tortuguero are renowned for being one of the most important nesting and hatching locations for the green turtle. Incredibly, these heroes in a half-shell return to the same beach where they were hatched to lay eggs for the next generation. This means that its protection is paramount. Since the 1950s, Tortuguero’s beaches have been under protection and construction has been limited.

The beach gets zoned by the authorities - a limited
number of permits are given for each zone per day

The migration routes of the green turtles - some have been
found near Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela!

The numbers involved here are staggering. One turtle will lay up to 120 eggs in one sitting. Female turtles will do this many times in a mating season. 1% of turtles coming from all of these eggs successfully survive their first day. This is a natural percentage, owing to predators in the air, the sea and on land. Add in human factors such as poaching and pollution and that percentage probably decreases even further. It’s probably true that without the protections introduced in the 1950s, turtles would be extinct in this area.

The beaches have many dips like these - you'll see why shortly

A cracked turtle shell on the beach

Nesting season for the green turtle takes place between June and September. We were lucky with our timing and were allowed to get permits to watch the nesting. It happens under darkness, with no lights, phones or cameras allowed. The pictures below are thus internet captures to help visualise what we saw. This National Geographic video gives you a good idea of what we saw.

(Internet) Red light is used as it is less distressing for the turtles

We arrived under an almost full moon onto a sandy beach which contained many dips. These had been created by turtles. Most would have eggs underneath, though some would be false holes designed to dupe predators and protect the eggs. Once given permission, we were allowed in small groups to silently head across to see a turtle nesting.

Turtles were used by pre-Columbian indigenous populations for meat

I hadn’t done a lot of research on this so was astounded to find an enormous turtle plopped in a cavernous dip in the sand. It was over one metre long. This is normal. It’s also normal for them to be tirelessly digging away with their flippers, which they use like scoops to manoeuvre both the sand and themselves.

(Internet) Their average weight is between 70 and
150 kilograms - they're all heavier than me!

Once a hole has been made, the turtle then starts laying. And laying. Dozens of what seemed to be perfect spheres, looking like fresh boiled eggs, were dropping into the dip. 

(Internet) More than one are often dropped at a time

The next stage is to cover them. The flippers come to the fore once more, dragging sand from the edges of the dip and scooping it expertly to start covering the eggs. Expertly most of the time - sometimes it hit us in the legs.

(Internet) As you can see, sand gets sprayed everywhere!

The turtle paused from time to time. It may be a combination of being exhausted and getting slightly unnerved with the people staring in wonder at this process. Nonetheless, our mama turtle had almost finished her protection about 25 minutes later. We left her at this point as it was starting to rain and lightning was getting ever closer. Our guide explained that turtles don’t like the flashes of light (hence the lack of phones and cameras) and it can disrupt the nesting process.

(Internet) This is also an opportunity for volunteers to tag and measure the turtles

Whilst leaving, we saw another turtle darting towards the warm Caribbean water. Darting may not be the right verb here, actually. It was moving faster than I expected, almost propelling itself along the beach and dragging its hulking frame toward the sea. We saw it submerge in the water just before leaving. Magical.

(Internet) Green turtles can swim at almost 60 km/h. They cannot do that on land.

The verb choice was definitely wrong. Turtles are relatively slow in our animal kingdom, a fact that nicely cooperates with the overall vibe of Tortuguero. It’s not like the other places in Costa Rica, where earlier wake-ups and scores of activities were on the agenda. It’s a place to relax and reflect. 

Enjoying a piña colada on a hotel boardwalk

After hiking up to a 119-metre-high platform for this view, of course!

This is also true of our final destination: Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. The vibe here is slow and a bit different to the rest of the country, owing to its large Afro-Caribbean influence. Like the other countries in the western hemisphere, this has a connection to slavery and cheap labour. 

A horrible, often fatal journey

A lot of English is spoken here, though that also may the
influence of older North Americans who move here for retirement

Much of Costa Rica’s influx came from Jamaica in the nineteenth century to help construct the aforementioned railroad. This population lacked rights such as citizenship, voting or freedom of travel until 1949, with no one of Afro-Caribbean descent being allowed to leave the province. The result of this is a strong culture independent of the rest of the nation.

The journey from Tortuguero was over 5 hours

I never got round to trying the jerk chicken

I do feel that the stereotype of it being the Caribbean and therefore laid-back and lazy is in itself…well, lazy. A lot of hard work and energy is present in Puerto Viejo. It is, however, a place to slow down, have lots of fun and appreciate the natural wonders of the southeastern part of Costa Rica.

A Caribbean sunset - impressive considering
we were on the eastern side of the country

Coconut water - necessary fuel for cycling and hiking

One way to do this is to rent a bike. It gives you the ability to move with relative ease (it was very hot and humid) to nearby beaches with pristine sands and glistening waters. Some places are good for surfing, others for swimming.

It was just over 13 km from Puerto Viejo to the refuge shown in later pictures

Playa Uva, where I got sunburnt by standing in the water for 20 minutes

At the end of the road heading towards Panama is the entrance to a refuge which protects the rest of the southern Caribbean coastline. Here you can hike and, if lucky, spot some more wildlife.

Can you spot the sloth?

Apparently manatees and dolphins
sometimes pass by. Not this time, unfortunately.

There’s been a different vibe in each place which I have visited in Costa Rica. The Caribbean coast of this rich, diverse country has been a pleasure to experience. From magical turtles to strong cocktails, it’s certainly been a great way to end my first trip to this incredible place. It truly is a land that lives up to its slogan of ‘pura vida’.

Sweltering by the sea

Happy hour: never missed

Adios, Costa Rica!

Love you all,

Matt

Costa Rica - Ribbit in the rainforest

July 30-31

Hello everyone!

Costa Rica sits within the tropics, just under ten degrees north of the equator. This can result in some rather sticky weather, which is perfect for little critters like these…

Red eyed tree frog: fun!

Strawberry poison frog: dangerous!

The red eyed tree frog seen above lives in rainforests across Costa Rica, with this one residing in an area of moisture-laden, vivid vegetation called Sarapiquí. It is home to many species of flora and fauna, resulting in a sensory riot when you sit still. Until the howler monkey roars, which slightly spoils the moment. Be lucky I didn’t get that cacophony on video.

Pink banana, it can't be eaten by humans
due to the number of seeds inside 

Many things grow in the rainforest. One thing that certainly doesn’t is coffee. Don’t fret, there are plenty of other places in the country that help to produce your morning brew! We visited one such cooperative, called Mi Cafecito, on our journey from the volcano to the rainforest.

Coffee was Costa Rica's key export in the nineteenth century

The tour shows their processing methods

We were given an interesting tour of this place, which groups together over a hundred coffee-making families and helps them to sell their beans. Coffee here is classed and separated by machinery into three ‘qualities’. The top is sold as ‘high quality’ and the ‘second quality’ is dispatched to international companies such as Nestle and Nescafe, who otherwise wouldn’t have enough coffee to sell worldwide.

Coffee trees will produce quality beans for up to 30 years

Our guide was 20 years old - her grandfather
has a coffee farm with the cooperative

One concern they will need to address is the fact that their youngest coffee farmer is 68 years old. Young people don’t see it as their game. Maybe if they switch the focus to selling the coffee liqueur we tasted, they might bring in more youthful help…

Tasting just like Tia Maria, this is made
using the goo that surround the coffee seed

This is a medium roast coffee - 50% caffeine, 50% flavour.
I didn't know until this tour that light roasted coffee has the most caffeine.

Soon after this we descended into the rainforest. Not jungle - apparently they’re slightly different. Sarapiquí is an example of an ecosystem which is teeming with wildlife. Over half of the earth’s known living things are found in tropical rainforests across the world. They are colourful, dense…and heavy.

Sarapiqui's protected reserve is about 700 acres 

There was often cloud cover to increase the mugginess

Humidity can’t go above 100%, though I feel that Sarapiquí could have put that to the test. Humidity is the amount of water vapour in the air. At 100%, no more water can be absorbed by the air. It meant that paper and playing cards became flimsy, and probably explains why the clothes I used for white water rafting seemed just as wet 24 hours later. 

The river is a tributary of the San Juan river,
which flows into the Caribbean Sea in Nicaragua

White water rafting is the reason that Sarapiquí isn’t quite as off-the-beaten-track as it could be. Once again, money came into the decision-making process - I chose to spend $68 to raft on class 2 and 3 rapids, rather than blow over $100 on adding a class 4 rapid. To ask for almost half of that again - $30 - for photos seemed insane. The rapids were fun, generally gentle enough to enjoy but with a few spins, drops and dips to satisfy an adrenaline need.

We were regularly soaked by our guide and also spent
time floating down the river next to the raft

The river is filled regularly by intense rain. Rainforests often receive over five metres of rain each year. It is this wetness that allows some weird and wonderful animals to call this area their home.

Northern cat-eyed snake

A moth which landed on our trip leader's face

A long-legged spider, not sure on the species

The pair of frogs in the second photo below were very interesting. Camouflaged on a leaf, there was actually a bit of discussion as to exactly which species they were as they looked similar to so many. Eventually it was decreed by our guide the following morning, after perusing his book, that it was in fact a pair of reticulated glass frogs. Whatever it is, the fact that you can see the eggs through the translucent skin is absolutely fascinating. Imagine if that happened with mammals!

Ghost glass frog

The yellow spots aren't the eggs - they're hidden from view here

One of Costa Rica’s icons is the red eyed tree frog. It has many other colours as well, as you’ll see from the pictures. The first one we saw on a night walk decided to show off a bit…

It has blue legs!

Another Costa Rican celebrity is the toucan. After spotting these on a run near Arenal volcano, our group was regularly visited by a variety of toucans. These funky-looking birds, which are in reality cold-blooded assassins who sometimes eat the eggs of other toucans, were often perched proudly on branches higher up in the canopy.

The keel-billed toucan, also known as 'Froot
Loop' as it was the basis for the cereal's mascot

Waaaay over there is an aracari, a different-styled toucan

An internet picture of the collared aracari

There are other symbols of Costa Rica found outside the dense rainforest. Next time I’ll tell you about what I found at the beach. For now, whilst it’s a shame to leave behind such beautiful frogs and birds, I’ll be glad when my clothes finally dry!

Bull frog

Very inappropriately dressed for a night walk!

Hasta luego, my colourful froggy friend

Love you all,

Matt