Road up out of the central valley. (Yes, it's wet here. Rains every day and sometimes most of the day. But the temperature is perfect and it makes the rivers go, so you get used to it. This is really two pics taken out of the bus window that had nothing to do w/ each other, but the panorama maker seemed to glue them together well enough and it does give a good feel for what the road was like)

My only Pic of Puerto Limon. (The afternoon got kind of rough -- we hopped another bus out to Moin where you could catch a boat to Tortugero, but we were too late, and Moin (MO-EEN) is one of those non-towns. We didn't get off the bus in the right place, so ended up walking down a back-country lane and it was getting dark. We were rescued by, Harlan, a tour guide on his way home and taken back to Limon and grabbed a hotel there ($20 for two). Limon, as the Lonely Planet describes, *is* a bit rough around the edges. The restaurants had guards... We made an early night of it and were off early in the morning back to the docs at Moin. We took Harlan out to dinner -- At 15, he'd fled the "stupid, unnecessary war" in Nicuagua and risked his life to cross the border to Costa Rica, all thanks to Ronnie, Ollie, the CIA... Anyway, he did save our butts...

Banana Boat (Del Monte). (The Eastern flatlands are basically a huge Banana farm. Also Pineapples....

left: A Cayman (Crocodile) -- right: Count the Iguanas in the picture (6).

Canal The entire area is basically a big flat delta. Several canals were dug out, inland, but parallel to the beach front to connect the meandering streams so that commercial boat traffic could avoid the open ocean.

Boat trip to Tortugero The "gasolina" had water in it so we (Barbara, I, a couple from Shasta, CA and 4 (more) grumpy Germans) got dropped off at a tiny village while the boat went back for better gas...

left: $5000 plant in New Port Beach, CA right: same plant somewhere in the uncharted backwaters of the Costa Rican Atlantic Coast There were six of these plants in the back yard of Emily's McMansion for a total of $30K. Same plant (from what I can tell) in front of a shack. Would you pay $5K for this plant? Where's my shovel?

Leafcutter Ants These ants harvest various tropical plants, cutting out circular chunks to bring back to their nests. They chew up the leaves and feed them to underground farms of fungus which they in turn use for food. Bottom-right: The trail on the left was created by humans / animals. The trail on the right, by ants. Go figure.

Tortugero Village No roads, no cars, no luxury ....

Howler Monkeys Words can not describe the sounds that these things make. But I'll try: Close your throat on an inhalation so as to stop the air from going in. Now, make an ooooo shape w/ your mouth. Pull hard on your diaphram so as to inhale and open your throat slightly so you get very halloween sounding sound. It's like that but 100 times louder. Damn monkeys....

Canal at 6ish am

Swamp life There was another Cayman behind those bushes

....

TORTUGITAS!

TORTUGITAS!

A hatching nest of (soon to be) Giant Sea Turtles (right: Barbara, standing in the tracks of a Turtle that had laid eggs the night before) Tortugero Natl Park is on of the largest breading grounds for the endangered Giant Green Sea Turtle. The idea was to walk down the beach in hopes of seeing a nest hatch. The eggs are laid in a 18" deep hole and buried. After 60 days, they hatch and the squirming little turtles start making their way to the surface. Once they make it there, they all miraculously head towards the ocean and jump in. This all takes about 15 min, so it seemed like the chances of actually finding a hatching nest would be low. After about an hour of walking, we finally saw a few 3" long turtles flapping across the sand toward the waves. We followed where they'd come from and found this. After watching them squirm for a while, we couldn't help but to knock down the cornice on their nest so they could get out easier. And out they went, and all immediately figured out which way the ocean was and headef ro it (about 100 yards). Super cute!

Hike through Tortugero

We did a hike -- well, short walk -- through some of the trails of Tortugero Nat Park. Since the "trails" are really just swamp land where the plants have been cleared, most people rent thick rubber field boots to do this. Kayak booties (really my dive-booties) work nearly as well. It *was* beautiful and the "Howler Monkeys" incredibly spooky. And the mosquitos, despite loads of deet, still annoying.

Tortugero Village left: our hotel; center: no roads -- just trails between the houses & buildings; right: perrito

Well deserved beer & sunset after a hike through a muddy swamp.

2 pics above center: our ride out of here was on local transportation. A long skinny boat that sped through the swamps for over an hour to the nearest road.

The Caribbean

Bus Ride back up to Turrialba Looking down the North-Eastern slope towards the Caribbean side

More Pics from the Bus -- right: hanging bird nests

left: village in the mountains above Turrialba; right: Turrialba -- pop 70,000 / elev. 2000'

The next day, we had a great run on the Pejibaye. I took my camera along in a dry bag. The camera esta muerta ahora and I can attest that dry bags only function when you don't leave them open towards the sky when dark clouds are looming. Hopefully I can find another camera and the dave tracker will continue.