Happy New Year. Our welcome to 2008 was a wake up call for 5.00am for a 5.30am start. Why so early? Apparantly, this is the best time to view wildlife. We hopped into our uncovered boats with our excellent guide, Mario. We quietly moved down the canals with much of the wildlife apparently wanting to take the day off also being New Years Day. We finally spotted something though – small bats (I hate bats) and perched a little to close to their tree for my comfort!
We then stopped with our guide showing us some flowers when he casually handed out rain poncho’s the rain kicked in and it absolutely bucketed down.
We then stopped with our guide showing us some flowers when he casually handed out rain poncho’s the rain kicked in and it absolutely bucketed down.
Our top half stayed relatively dry but our pants got soaked.. oh well! The heavy rain finally stopped about thirty minutes later. But rain or no rain, we continued on down the canal. Tortuguero gets between 6 – 7 metres of rain a year and have two seasons, the wet season and the rainy season.
We saw monkeys, hawk eagles, toucans, many species of birds and a spectacled caiman (looks like a crocodile). Also, lots of trees and some bromeliads.
It was beautiful out on the water, so calm and quiet with the sounds of the jungle coming alive around us. We headed back to the hotel around 8.00am for breakfast.
Next up was a walk through the jungle behind the lodge. There was lots of mud on and off the track. Lucky, Dan had gum boots on. He also tried eating live termites from a nest perched on a tree. They tasted like pepper.
The crimson frog, commonly shown on guide books for Costa Rica, actually turns more crimson with warm air blown onto it and if it gets stirred up. This little creature is quite poisonous!
Other things on the walk, other than the rain (well, it is a rain forest!) were the buttress roots on this large tree and a chameleon. 
Just as we finished the jungle walk it decided to absolutely bucket down. We haven’t seen rain this hard for a very long time.
The afternoon was spent sheltered under a tree trying to grab glimpses of the sun in between intermittent showers. It was nice and relaxing and a good way to start the new year. The beach still had pounding surf and some pelicans flying along the coast in V formation.
These palm trees with an awesome fan of fronds are common as a decorative plant in all of Central America.
We saw monkeys, hawk eagles, toucans, many species of birds and a spectacled caiman (looks like a crocodile). Also, lots of trees and some bromeliads.
It was beautiful out on the water, so calm and quiet with the sounds of the jungle coming alive around us. We headed back to the hotel around 8.00am for breakfast.Next up was a walk through the jungle behind the lodge. There was lots of mud on and off the track. Lucky, Dan had gum boots on. He also tried eating live termites from a nest perched on a tree. They tasted like pepper.
The crimson frog, commonly shown on guide books for Costa Rica, actually turns more crimson with warm air blown onto it and if it gets stirred up. This little creature is quite poisonous!Other things on the walk, other than the rain (well, it is a rain forest!) were the buttress roots on this large tree and a chameleon. Just as we finished the jungle walk it decided to absolutely bucket down. We haven’t seen rain this hard for a very long time.The afternoon was spent sheltered under a tree trying to grab glimpses of the sun in between intermittent showers. It was nice and relaxing and a good way to start the new year. The beach still had pounding surf and some pelicans flying along the coast in V formation.
These palm trees with an awesome fan of fronds are common as a decorative plant in all of Central America.
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