CAHUITA

It’s easy to cross over from Bocas del Toro in Panama to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. As we needed a boat, a bus, a border crossing and then another bus, we used a very efficient and highly recommended company called Caribe Shuttle to organise our transport.

We decided to stay in the small town of Cauhita as an alternative to the nearby surf town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca which is way more touristy and chaotic. Cahuita boasts a national park and a sizable Rastafarian community, as well as excellent restaurants and bars specialising in Caribbean cuisine. Be sure to try the casados and the ever-present patacones (fried plantain)!

Whilst in Cahuita we visited the black volcanic sand beach, but because we were off-season it was quite windy and too dangerous to swim due to the waves and rip tides.

The highlight of our stay was undoubtedly the small Cahuita National Park, whose deafening howler monkeys we could hear each morning from the early hours. Happily this park operates on donations only (unlike the rest of extortionate Costa Rica!), and we would urge you to be generous as it really is something special.

The park covers a stretch of coastal rainforest, mangroves and reef, although snorkelling must be done with a guide. Swimming is possible, but attention must be paid to the flags as there are rip tides. We walked part of the park’s 8km trail and saw such an abundance of wildlife that we were constantly surprised.

We saw a sloth, land crabs, hermit crabs, leaf cutter ants, a bright yellow eye lash viper, iguanas and lizards including Jesus Christ lizards, orb spiders, a raccoon and white-faced spider monkeys. Beware of the latter because they are filthy sandwich stealers! Jess got bombarded by a couple of the naughty little things and lost her lunch and gained a monkey scratch on the leg (signs of rabies have not appeared yet, only the usual outbursts of rage, animal-like behaviour and mood-swings, but that’s the norm)!

TORTUGUERO

Feeling up for a destination off the beaten track, we continued our Caribbean tour of Costa Rica in Tortuguero. This town is notable because you can observe several species of turtles using its beaches to lay their eggs, and their baby turtles trying their luck to reach the ocean, in a never ending struggle for survival. That said, we were out of season for the turtles (aka we didn’t see any flippin’ turtles!), but we did enjoy everything else in this amazing area!

Just getting to Tortuguero is both an adventure and a nature watching tour. We again used Caribe Shuttle to travel from Cahuita and it turned out to be a private transfer as no one else had booked onto it. We first had a minivan transfer to the port of Moin near the town of Limon. At this port you can watch massive container ships being loaded with the most precious product of the area: bananas. It’s fair to say that this is banana capital of the world, or at least one of them. From the port we boarded a motorised canoe that took us 4 hours north through the intricacies of the river and its canals, occasionally riding close to the ocean, all the way to the remote town of Tortuguero.

The trip was also a fruitful animal spotting tour with our driver letting us know whenever he saw something interesting. We observed howler monkeys dangling from the trees and making a lot of noise, white-faced capuchin monkeys, 2 HUGE 2m crocodiles wallowing on the muddy banks, a caiman, turtles sunning themselves, and many river birds like herons. Our driver became very excited when we came across a pair of king vultures, as apparently they very rarely sit so low in a tree. We thought it was a superb experience of uncontaminated jungle, seen from the privileged position of a boat passing by. We saw very few human settlements and there was certainly not much traffic on the waterways.

Tortuguero is a bit more rough and ready than other towns, but it has a wonderful laid back and local charm. The beaches are not safe for swimming but you can wade in and enjoy the waves. All the shops and restaurants seem to be local and independent and the people are friendly. We were greeted at the dock by a guide who magically knew our names and escorted us to our B&B by the beach. We ended up signing up with him for 2 tours and enjoyed both very much. Be sure to watch out in the town though as endangered green macaws hang out near the beach to eat from the almond trees.

Our first tour was a night walk, something we had never done before. It involved following the guide for 2 hours shortly after sunset in search of nocturnal animals. Our group was quite useless crashing through the undergrowth and shining our torches everywhere, but our guide and others out with their groups managed to spot quite few animals for us. We saw crickets, spiders, an opossum, large moths and the famous red-eyed tree frog. We did walk back along the beach in search of any straggler turtles of the season, but our luck was not in.

Very early the next morning we met our guide and he took us out into the waterways of the Tortuguero National Park in a canoe. The canoe did not have a motor, so we slid along very quietly in the mist of the dawn. This tour was also very good, we managed to see bare throated tiger herons, anhingas (like a cormorant), other water birds, iguanas, Jesus Christ lizards, caimans, fish, a sloth, toucans, and even the elusive spider monkeys who had some babies. It was however the beautiful green scenery of the canals, also reflected in the water which was most captivating. On the way back he even made us row, a more cynical person would say he couldn’t be bothered to do it himself anymore!

That same day we also entered the national park on foot to do a short trail parallel to the beach and then strolled back along the sand to our B&B. On this trail we did not see a great deal, just some monkeys and lizards, but we did find an empty turtle egg on the beach – a triumph, it was the closest we’d get to seeing a turtle!

We were in Tortuguero off-season as the turtles were not about. That said, there were still quite a few tourists, so perhaps it can get quite busy at other times of the year, despite its relative remoteness. As we were just at the beginning of the rainy season we did experience some downpours, but they were not significant enough to have replenished the very low water levels. We were told that it would take at least 4 hours to get a boat out towards San Jose, when it really should take only 1 hour and a half. Not liking that possibility very much, we decided to take a little flight, and what an awesome decision that was.

We bought the plane ticket at the house of a random dude and we were mis-sold what was to be a direct 25 minute flight to San Jose for a flight to San Jose with a stop in the nearby town of Limon. Although initially upset about the quid pro quo it turned out to be an excellent way to see the area from another perspective.

The airport in Tortuguero certainly deserves its own mention. A run down and unused structure with no human or machine staff (other than the bathroom scales used to weigh us and our stuff), it is basically a grotty bus stop where you sit waiting for the plane. And we aren’t exactly talking about a Boeing 747 here. Instead a tiny mono engine 12 seater arrived and picked us up right on time.

The flight itself was delightful with gorgeous views of the jungle and the rivers (think the Eastenders intro but the jungle), way better than a 7 hour boat and bus hell journey if you ask us. Before anyone questions our decision-making, the small plane company was actually owned by Avianca, one of the biggest and most reliable in the continent.

Between Cahuita and Tortuguero, we got a real serving of the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. This area of Costa Rica is just so unbelievably luscious and green and the abundance and accessibility of flora and fauna make it exciting just to pop out for a stroll. As we saw in Tortuguero, even when the main attraction (turtles) is off-season, there are still ample opportunities to get to know the wildlife. The climate is hot and lazy and there is a relaxed feel to everything, although the locals are clearly passionate about their homeland and caring for it appropriately. Pura vida indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!