I skipped the blog yesterday because I didn’t think another day of describing crazy traffic to Cancun airport, followed by a detailed description of transitting through airports as expected made for edifying reading. Needless to say we navigated Cancun to San Jose with a minimum of fuss that included a 30 minute stopover in San Salvador.
With a scheduled 6:15 pickup this morning that actually turned out to be a 7:00 one, we had an early night. Traffic in San Jose seems to be a challenge most of the time and our tour bus was no exception . After we were picked up there was one more hotel stop and then the bus was pretty full. San Jose sits at about 1100 metres above sea level and we had to cross the central divide (1700m) for our journey to the east coast. We were headed to the Tortuguero National Park for a couple of days, staying at the Pachira Lodge. After about 2 hours on the road we had a breakfast stop at a property that seemed exclusively for the tour buses. There was a nice garden of rainforest plants next to the carpark to whet the appetite.
The lodges in the National Park are not accessible by road, so all the people on the buses have to get transferred to boats. It is quite miraculous how this all works, as you collect your bag from the bus and then put it on a boat. You then get on a different boat, but somehow it all ends up in the right place. There was lots of water flowing down the river from recent rain and the boats are quite old. The bigger ones have twin 115 HP outboards on the back, which they would need all of that power for the return trip. It is about 16 km down river to the lodge and there are are many boats on the water. I do have to say that they do seem to have worked out the logistics pretty well.
The National Parks in Costa Rica were created in the 1970s and 1980s in a visionary move by the government of the day. At the time, Central America was racked by poverty and dictatorships. Now tourism is one of Costa Rica’s big income earners.
In the afternoon we went of a boat trip through some of the back canals to spot local wildlife. The rainforest here is truly abundant and while I didn’t get to photograph everything we saw, it was fun trying. We saw monkeys, crocodiles, sloths (2 and 3 toed), Iguanas and lots of birds. After dinner, we stumbled upon an Armadillo as well.
Overall, while the accomodation is a touch basic, the food has been good, even though it is buffet style… not my favourite. It does feel a little bit like been on school camp except there is a bar next to the pool. The do have an interesting twist on the creamy cocktail by adding evaporated milk to everything. I had not previously had a Pina Colada with Evaporated Milk as an ingredient. Additionally, the wifi access here is not all that good so I have limited the number of photos uploaded.
In closing, if you want to see the real rainforest with an extensive array of plants and animals (including lots of birds I have never seen before) then this is the place to come. We have another day here tomorrow, so will see what that brings.
Until tomorrow!
Rob's "Beats Working" Blog 