Costa Rica - San Jose and Tortugero National Park

I had been looking forward to Costa Rica but in the end didn´t spend as much time as i had planned here. It was a good time to catch up with myself and rest and then take in the city of San Jose.

San Jose central was full of office tower blocks, malls and lots of fried chicken chains. I did take some time to visit a few museams and churches but it was not as impressive as Nicaragua or Guatemala.

I took a tour to the Tortugero National Park which is in the rainforest on the Northern Caribbean coast. ´Misty green coastal park sits on a broad flood plain parted by a jigsaw of canals. Referredto as the ´mini Amazon´the intense biodiversity includes over 400 birds species, 60 known species of frog, 30 species of freshwater fish, three monkey species as well as the threatened West indian Manatee. Caimans and crocodiles can be seen lounging n river banks while freshwater turltes bask on logs.´

On the way out to the park we stopped at a Banana plantation. The man from Del Monte........

This really was interesting, even more so because i had just started to read the book Bananas by Peter Chapman. It is about how United Fruit Company shaped the world, a very interesting read.

This plantation is about 1,000 hectares. There is one man employed per hectare and they are responsible for the drainage, monitoring and picking the bananas.

The trees have three harvest per year. Their life span in seven years and then they are cut down for compost. The blue bag is to evenly distibute the heat so that they grow and ripen at the same pace. Without the bag the sun would rise and ripen one side more than the other. The bananas are picked whilst they are still green and shipped in temperature controlled containers. They slowley rippen on during their long journey and are nice and yellow by the time we buy them at the store.

The ´mother´tree is under ground. The two trees above are and older one and a younger one. They have different growth cycles that produce the three bunches a year. You can see the trenches at the side, it rains about 12 meters of water a year. The trenches control the water as to much will kill the banana trees.

The factory where the man from delmonte he say ´YES´.

There are many bugs and spiders living in the bananas. This is a Megason Beetle. This species can be up to 12 cm long. Adult males have a horn with which they fight for females. Each male deffends a small territory where it lures a female and keeps other males away. This one is chomping on some sugare cane.

To get to tortugero you need to take a boat through the canals. We had a good group and i met up with a few girls that we met in the Corn Islands.

The water was muddy but the air was fresh and the sounds of the animals had you on the edge of your seat just waiting to see something.

The photos are all on full zoom so not that great, however, if you look closely enough you will see some little eyes here and there!.

Caimen hanging out in the reefs.

The flora and fauna was amazing. There were some really beautiful flowers and trees.

Pink flamingos chilling in the trees.

Another Caimen lurking inthe bushes.

We saw all three species of monkey. Spider monkey, white face and howler. Above are the howler monkies.
The beach, which is protected by the national park. this is where turtles travelled thousands of miles to come and lay their eggs. There are three main visitors. Green back sea turtles, leather backs and loggerheads.

Here are the tracks of a turtle, the morning after the night before. They come come up the beach at night to minimise predators. They spend about 40 minutes digging a holes to lay the eggs and then they go into a transe. They lay about 100 eggs and they will come to the beach about three times. The survival rate for the babies is low, about 1 in 1000. The effort for one turtle to lay about 300 eggs and none of her babies will become adults.

There main threat is jaguars. They hide in the bushes and attack the turtle whilst it in a trance laying the eggs. They go for the behind the neck, the most exposed part of the turtles.

A turtle nest. Once she has laid the eggs, she covers the hole, which is quite deep, turns around and never looks back. The mother does not look after the eggs or the babies.

I went on a night tour to see the turtels nesting. Because it is a national park there were no cameras or flash lights. We did see a few turtles coming up the beach and we were very lucky to see a leatherback turtle lay her eggs. We also watched as an exhauseted mother return to the sea to swim hundreds of miles in search of food.

Sunset on the canal

There is a two toed sloth in the trees, promise!

More beautiful plants

Spider Monkey
Croc basking in the sun
A blue herron. We also saw a green back and a tiger herron.
Baby caiman

Mum was close by keeping and eye out.

Spider Monkey, totally out of focus but the closest shot that i had.
This is a gingery plant and if you were to get lost in the rainforest you can eat this. When it rains it holds lots of water to you can hydrate from it as well.

The sun shines down through the treess and light up the plants

It really was peacful here i felt like i was in a David Attenbrough documentary. I could here is voice as we floated through the canals. ´deep inside the rainforest you can hear the sound of the red frog´ etc etc.......

That was all i mananged in Costa Rica. I was planning to Climb the highest peak, Cerro Chirripo but it was a lot of planning to do it on my own and it was 700USD to go on a three day organised tour. I will save my legs and money for climbing in South America.

Being on my own has not been to bad. I have been able to get done what i wanted to do and the next move is to Panama City, 18 hours on a bus, hurrahhhhh!!!

bye for now

xx