Day 10 and we were up with the sparrows, armed with a boxed breakfast, ready for the long journey over to the Caribbean coast, with Tortuguero the destination. It’s always interesting seeing how the country changes from one coast to the next, whilst driving up and over the central spine of mountains. In Costa Rica, all the different altitudes and slopes creates lots of different habitats and micro-climates, meaning there are different pockets of wildlife to be seen, with each area bringing their own speciality species, adding to the biodiversity.

We finally arrived at La Pavona, the last bit of civilisation before reaching the river highways of Tortuguero. Entering Tortuguero is impressive! There are no roads, so rivers are the only way around, and the taxi boats ferry people through primary tropical rainforest, eventually terminating at a small coastal village called Tortuguero. Built right next to the beach, this is where to see various species of turtle lay their eggs at different times of the year, but we were out of season for nest building turtles unfortunately. We arrived at Mawamba lodge to a lovely reception of a cold towel and and an ice-cold welcome drink. This lodge is perfectly positioned on a spit of land, with one side on the beach and the other side on the lagoon of Tortuguero. The welcome party was also interesting with this guy chilling on my lawn and a whole host of great birds to be seen flying around the lush gardens of the lodge.

It was getting late and starting to go dark so I thought it might be a good time to check for turtles hatching, as they prefer the cooler time of dawn and dusk. We saw a bit of human activity further down the beach so we went for a nosey. There was one baby turtle slowly struggling its way to the beach, but it didn’t look too well really, it was far too slow. Some volunteer conservationists hypothesised that someone might have dug it up prematurely before it was ready. I wasn’t so sure really, that didn’t seem very plausible but they are the experts, and proceeded to pick it up and bury it back in the nest. Not something I would have done, either way, I can’t see that turtle surviving.

Day 11 and the next morning we decided to go on a really early morning walk to try to see turtles hatching. After quite a long walk we found a few just entering the ocean. Then a few French tourists started picking them up and putting them in the ocean. I was flabbergasted! I had to tell them to stop. They said they were protecting them against the Black Hawk and Turkey Vultures which were all around. I said that these animals need to register where they have come from, as they might come back here to lay eggs themselves when mature. They didn’t take it too well but stopped handling these baby turtles. They meant well, but you really shouldn’t interfere with nature to this level without advice from the local conservationists. That aside, we got to witness this magnificent wildlife event, baby turtles hatching and rapidly making their way to the ocean. Beautiful.

Back to the lodge for breakfast, and to get prepared for a boat trip to investigate the rivers and canals of Tortuguero. As mentioned, the area is a huge wetland with various natural and man made canals, meaning there are all sorts of nooks and crannies for looking for wildlife. We had a great start as we saw this American crocodile posing perfectly in front of a property for sale, not the best advert for a house I’ve ever seen.

The sightings just kept coming, with Emerald Basilisk, Black Caiman, endless giant Iguanas and a really cute baby porcupine that was dangling dangerously close to the water! Hopefully its mother will teach him not to do that or he will soon be crocodile bait. Then almost immediately, Daz spotted a Neotropical Otter crossing the river at the front of the boat. An amazing, and very elusive animal to see, and it was interesting watching him go underwater with a long stream of bubbles giving his location away.

After the boat trip we went to the town to do some shopping, have drinks and soak up village life. As the sun was setting, we walked back home via the beach and came across even more hatching turtles. This is the place to be if turtles are on your bucket list of things to see!

It was our last full day at Mawamba and we had some really bad weather. Non-stop heavy rain so we were hotel bound. During a break in the rain we had a little walk on the beach to see what we could see, as, in general, wildlife will do the same, becoming more active as they look for food or dry themselves off. As soon as we got to the beach, I very nearly stepped on a baby turtle on its own, which was quite bizarre for the middle of the day. Then, all of a sudden a hole opened up and hundreds of hatchlings came out. It was an unbelievable thing to see. Streams of them heading to sea, with the odd one going the complete wrong way. Survival of the fittest I suppose!

All good things come to an end and our stay at Tortuguero was over. Stay tuned for the fifth and final photo blog about the abundance of wildlife we saw at Braulio Carrillo National Park.

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