Tortuguero

After a weekend at home we were looking for a different type of adventure, other than the white sand beaches that we had been spending most of our weekends at (not that I'm complaining). We decided on the little village of Tortuguero which is located in the far northeast corner of the country along the Caribbean Sea. It is a tiny village located on a narrow strip of land in between the famous Tortuguero water canals, and on the other side, running parallel to the canals, is the Caribbean Sea. It is a very small, cute and narrow little village (no more then a few hundred yards between the ocean and the canal), and I am not lying when I say that it is one of the most remote places in Costa Rica. For us to get there we had to take two separate buses for 4 hours, and then on to a small motorized boat for another 2 hours ( the boat was tiny, and in many parts of the river the water was very shallow since it is the dry season, and our boat would get stuck on sand banks and a couple of the men working on the boat would have to jump out and push us, even though the rivers were full of caymans, crocodiles and other shady animals). It was an awesome little boat ride, but after 2 hours, I just wanted to hurry up and get there. When we did, it was one of the cutest little villages I have ever seen, there are no cars, and the only transportation is by bus or by walking. There is one main dirt path down the center of the village, with a bunch of little hostels, sodas (small restaurants), and souvenir shops, there is no bank, no atm machine, no anything really, but it was definitely part of the experience. On our first night we explored the village, took pictures, and checked out the beach (which was beautiful, but unfortunately you can't swim there because the waves are too big and it is known as a shark hang out). We were exhausted and ended up going to bed around 8 o'clock that night.

At around 5 in the morning we were woken up but loud winds and rain, and after watching it downpour for a minute, I went back to bed. However don't let the rain fool you cause later in the morning when we got up, it was bright, sunny, and ridiculously humid and muggy. We went on a canoe tour that day with an awesome guide named Rafa (who is actually pretty famous for the area, and you can find his name in many Costa Rica travel books) and he is bilingual which was very helpful. For the tour we went in to the national park and spent over 4 hours floating down the mazes of canals, it was one of the most unique experiences of my life, I felt like I was in the Amazon Rainforest. We saw two different species of monkeys, a bunch of different kinds of exotic birds, poison dart frogs, and a couple caymans (one of them had no tail, it had been bit off by another animal). It was completely silent floating down some of the canals, and all you could hear were the sounds of monkeys and birds, it was the coolest feeling in the world, totally one of a kind. That night we played at the beach for a while and then ate dinner at an outdoor diner type thing (the food wasn't that good, and there were lizards crawling on the walls, let's just say I wasn't a huge fan of the place lol). We went to bed early again that night and were up bright and early to take the 6 am boat ride back, except that morning we ended up having to take 3 buses after our boat ride, and all in all giving us a 7 hour, hot and uncomfortable trek back to San Jose, however worth every minute of it. I would love to to return to Tortuguero in the future, the best months to visit are August to November because this spot is famous for the laying and hatching of the Giant Green Sea and Leatherback turtles. It is one of only two places in the world they come to lay their eggs, and during those months you can take special night tours to the beach to watch the turtles come out of the water and lay the eggs in the sand. It is the main attraction that makes Tortuguero (actually meaning turtle) so popular, and because of these turtles the beach and National Park are highly protected.

Relaxing weekend at home & Family Fiesta

After weeks of non stop traveling, we finally decided to spend a weekend at home in San Pedro and go with Nuri to a family party. The party was all day Saturday in a town about a 30 minute drive out of San Jose. It was at a beautiful property up in the hills, with a huge under cover eating area, large lawn, and a nice refreshing swimming pool, perfect for the 90 degree weather. We spent all day lounging by the pool and playing with Nuri's two grandchildren, Camilla and Eduardo, they are two of the cutest and smartest little kids I have ever met, they are currently learning English, Portuguese, and French on top of learning their home language Spanish. As much as I normally hate children, they are so fun to play with and too adorable to resist, I think I'm getting good practice since I'm going to be an aunt in a couple of months! Anyways, we got to meet a bunch of Jorge's family (Nuri's husband) and eat a delicious dinner of soups, salads, and lots of meat. It was definitely a relaxing weekend after 5 straight weekends of traveling and nice to meet more family members who we could practice our Spanish with. On Sunday we explored downtown a little more, checked out Parque Sabana and the surrounding area, and came home to a yummy dinner of Chop Suey from Nuri(which was great because I have craving Asian food like no other since I have been down here). A nice relaxing weekend at home was just what we needed, but we were ready to take another adventure, we can't let these weekends go to waste, they are going so fast!