Tuesday 8th November - Day of the Reptiles

About an hour after we turned in last night the bedside phone rouses us. The missing bag has arrived. D nips down to reception to sign for the bag. Once back in the room he spots that one of the locks is missing and the main compartment is fastened with a very chunky cable tie. The only equipment we have brought that might help hear is toenail shears and they are inside said bag.  Another PJ clad visit to reception is made where they produce some very big scissors that do the job. We open the bag to find a card from KLM telling us very politely that our bag had to be opened for examination. A quick check suggests that nothing is missing apart from the cheap padlock and we have a spare one. Back to bed.

This time D makes it through to 4 a.m. so quite a good night's sleep. R soon stirs and we decide we may as well get up as it is moving on day so repacking is needed. At this point we discover that D must have had a finger wobble setting the combination on the room safe. We are due to depart at 06.30 and the safe contains our passports as well as most of our cash. We quickly shower and dress and D heads down to reception. The override is held by the manager who will be summoned but he lives off site.

While we wait there is time to pack, enjoy a brighter morning and get in some bird watching. The Crimson Fronted Parakeets were around yesterday but they look much better in some brighter light. At 06.15 the manager arrives, tugs the bottom of the safe door and it swings open. All D can say in his own defencd is that every other time the correct code has provoked a ping and the door has swung open. D apologises again for having to call him in but he is very nice about it and doesn't even invoke the $50 out of hours charge. Downstairs we check out and help ourselves to the coffee, bananas and buns offered to those who need to leave before breakfast.

A minibus arrives to collect us but we are only on it for 20 minutes before we pull over on the outskirts of San Jose. In a few minutes a full size coach pulls up, our luggage is transferred and we board a coach that already holds twenty or so people, all customers of the Mawamba Lodge which is our destination and home for the next three nights. There is a guide on board, a chap called Umberto, who stands at the front of the bus and talks into a microphone. He says a sentence in English and then repeats it in Spanish. Most of the people on board seem to be French or German and ignore him. We try to listen but every time the driver puts his foot down to overtake or climb a hill Umberto is drowned out.

The road we are on is the main link between San Jose, the capital city, and Limon which is the main port on the Caribbean coast. It heads roughly north east and climbs over a mountain range on the way. The road has passing lanes on the climbs and apparently replaced a more dangerous route a few years ago. Umberto tells us that he is a big fan of forests such as the ones in Costa Rica and he is therefore a big fan of rain which supports the forest. He  confides with relish that we are heading for the wettest part of Costa Rica, Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast, not too far from the border with Nicaragua. The forecast of sun for the next two days must be like a knife to the heart for him. The route degenerates into a road under construction and progress slows to a crawl. To our surprise a stop for breakfast, included in the package, is announced. 

We stop at a place in a cleared area, surrounded by forest, with attractive gardens and tables on a large verandah. A simple breakfast of rice, beans, plantain and fried egg with excellent coffee is efficiently served allowing time for us to look at the gardens. Back on the road we soon turn off onto back roads heading north. There is no road access to Tortuguero so we must transfer to a boat for the last hour of the trip. When we arrive at at Rancho la Pavona, the transfer point, the external temperature display in the coach reads 33°C. Our luggage is loaded onto one boat which sets off while we are invited to purchase refresments at the bar/cafe adjacent to the landing. We look for shade and find that we are sharing it with a lengthy column of leafcutter ants, marching in usion carrying their share of a leaf.

At 11.00 our boat is pronounced ready and we embark. Umberto has been replaced by Denis who is a bit more down to earth. He explains that water levels are very low in the river and the driver will be going very slowly on some stretches. In practice we proceed at water skiing speed most of the time, with occasional slow bits in between. The large notices imposing a 15kph speed limit to prevent bank erosion appear not to apply to us. We flash past a few herons of different types on the bank until about 20 minutes in we meet a boat coming the other way with a tale of woe. Sometime in the last hour or so a large tree has fallen across the river, making it impasable. We round a corner to find several boats parked up and their occupants staring glumly at the tree. We also park up next to the boat carrying our luggage. 

After twenty minutes Denis announces a cunning plan. There is a small boat belonging to Mawamba Lodge on the far side. The ladies will walk along the bank and board this to continue the journey while the rest us us will return to the start where there is a phone and more help can be summoned. R departs and it is only later that D wonders if this is some convoluted white slaving plot. R actually gets the best of this deal as she is able to get good photos of both a crocodile basking on a log and an Emerald Basilisk, a weird looking lizard.

She also gets an early lunch. The long suffering men have to kill time again in the bar until Denis tells us it is time to go again. Another boat has been sent up from Tortuguero to meet us. This time we round the corner to see an empty boat gingerly making its way through a passage that has been cleared to test the water. It gets through and our momentum puts us next in line. We all breath in and make it through the gap.

The rest of the trip is pretty much a flat out race. We meet the empty boat coming to collect us which turns round and speeds off ahead. Our guy chases hard but is handicapped by having a load to carry. At Mawamba Lodge we are reunited with our loved ones who have not been sold down the river. D gets a belated lunch and we settle in to our bijou cabin. 

The only activity we have today is an introduction to Tortuguero township. Once again Denis is our guide and he leads us down to the jetty for the short boat trip into town. The jetty is already occupied by a Green Iguana which gives us a look and stomps off theatrically

Once in town Denis explains that there is basically one street, running north to south with a few side alleys. On the west side is the lagoon at the mouth of the river travelled this morning, whilst not very far to the east is the beach and the sea.  Denis recommends walking back along the beach as this is turtle hatching time and there is a good chance of seeing newly hatched turtles dragging themselves down to the sea. And he is absolutely right.

Tomorrow we have an early start for a boat ride through the National Park. We will leave you with this thought - mañana es otro dia.