America is everywhere here. They run a dual currency system with the $. Most things are translated into American, as opposed to English, 'Gated condo living - condo living is freedom'. Gated and freedom? There are also the young American tourists, primarily female, just so many Americans here, both tourists and residents - it's sometimes hard to spot the Germans who are also quite numerous! We are clearly American looking - Paul would love to have a summer suit and tie in his luggage pannier to go with his Panama hat to try and be more English as opposed to American!
In trying to respect a budget our choices re accommodation have become slightly constrained. Our first stopover was Cahuita on the Caribbean coast and it gave us the opportunity for a swim in the sea. Costa Rica isn't that big and doubtless we will also have a dip on the Pacific side too. We are now more hostel orientated as far as the accommodation is concerned. This means, amongst other things, that we have to look after ourselves for breakfast. Supermercado the night before or Cafe in the morning; that is the question!
Cahuita was also a National Park but we decided to skip a visit as we had our eyes set on a little adventure in the Tortuguero National Park further up the Caribbean coast. Tortuguero is one of those places where turtles come ashore in order to lay their eggs. It is a valid question to ask as to whether the turtles started coming to Tortuguero because of its turtle sounding name, or whether it was the town that was named after the turtles? We always knew that we would be out of season for the turtles, but there would be other things to see there.
Getting to Tortuguero is a bit of a mission. It is a long sandpit sort of island that you fly onto with a small plane or you catch a boat. There are no vehicles other than bicycles on Tortuguero. So we had to leave the motorbike behind at the embarkation point which is on a tiny river in the middle of nowhere. It took us a few sweaty hours to get to the embarkation point but then everything got rather exciting.
For once something was reasonably priced here. 8$US a head for the boat ride to Tortuguero which was due to take about an hour and a quarter. Packing had been difficult - we didn't need tools or motorcycle gear on a sandspit with no roads. But we couldn't leave things unsecured on the bike in the parking even though it was guarded. The luggage we carried on to the boat was not the most stylish!
The river had loads of meanders. There were also tree trunk and rock obstacles in the river. Water level was a bit low so the captain had to lift the outboard in certain areas to avoid it hitting the riverbed. What he didn't do was slow down - he was clearly training for F1. The trip on the boat through the jungle was great - iguanas were sunning themselves on the sandbanks at the shallow side of the river meanders. We arrived in less than an hour and found Tortuguero to be quite densely forested - especially for a sandspit.
We had booked a number of tours for our extra day in Tortuguero. Jonathan our guide met us at the boat landing and took us through the labyrinth of pathways to our hostel. On the way to the accommodation we saw two Green Macaws flying overhead, a spider monkey in a tree and some yellow tailed birds with the strangest hanging nests
Our hostel was very basic. Our room contained a double bed stuck against the wall with a bottom and top sheet, a small bedside table, an electric fan, a sheet on a broken curtain pole across a window frame with a torn bug mesh and two coat hooks on the wall. We also had two towels that didn't fulfill their primary function of drying and also, didn't dry once used. In fact nothing dries. We had a small shared bathroom with a tiny sink, a toilet you could only sit sideways on and a shower. Only cold water available, we are getting used to this. We told ourselves that we were living like locals...
It was very hot. And very humid. One of the things about cold water to wash both with and in, is that it doesn't seem to be very good at dealing with sweat from humidity. And nothing dries. Everything feels clammy. Serious washing will be required when we leave Tortuguero... Nonetheless, as we sat sipping our beer at a waterside bar, we felt very lucky indeed. Luck however failed us in the evening after it had gone dark as we ended up walking round in squares unable to find our hostel. As one would in London, we asked a group of policemen for directions. Their SIM card didn't work either.
There are no vehicles on Tortuguero so the police don't have any traffic duties. There are only 1,300 inhabitants in Tortuguero with a further 800 in the 'suburb' of San Francisco which is just across the river and from which people 'boat in'. Everybody knows everybody and there is nowhere to run to - going on our room, there is not much to steal anyway. So what do these policemen do? Is it so dangerous that they have to walk around in threes? If all they do is walk around the paths of a small village how come they didn't know where our hostel was, considering they must walk past it 50 times a day whilst doing their rounds? Is there a hidden side to Tortuguero where there is a murder a week like in 'Death in Paradise'? We think that the answer is that they sit in cafes talking to the lady owners all day. Very Caribbean.
In the end the lady from the beans and rice restaurant where we ate walked us back to our hostel as we had by then passed in front of her restaurant twice after having left it.
Our morning tour was in a canoe along the river delving into small tributaries and ducking, diving and swerving through the trees. It was super. Just to say that Jonathan and his younger brother Bertie were not only very good at their jobs as guides, but were probably the coolest guides if not the coolest guys on the island. So we saw a wide variety of bird life, howler monkeys, lizards and iguanas and a cayman.
In the afternoon we went for a walk which first involved a very refreshing speedboat ride. We saw a crocodile, tiny red frogs and more bird life. In fact Costa Rica is all about birds.
And the theme continued in the evening with a toucan and a sloth being disturbed by our flashlights. We were sad to leave Tortuguero, but enjoyed the boat ride back with the same F1 wannabee captain and we could look forward to being able to wash and change our clammy clothes!
No cakes though on the island.
