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Sloths in the garden and at night in the jungle - Tortugero National Park

Publicatu: 25.12.2023

On the second day we were picked up from our hotel early, although it wasn't quite as early as originally planned: the bus broke down and a replacement vehicle had to be found, which delayed our departure by about an hour.


On the way to Tortugero

Luckily our hotel had breakfast early so we were able to wait full. On the way there was a stop for a second breakfast, where we tried the traditional dish “rice with beans”. It tasted better than expected for breakfast...
Stopping for second breakfast


We then continued for about 90 minutes by bus towards the Caribbean coast.


Stopping for second breakfast

To get to our lodge at Tortugero National Park, we then got on a boat.
Boat ride to the lodge

On the way we saw a crocodile lying on the bank.


crocodile
After a boat ride of just over an hour, we reached Mawamba Lodge.


Boat ride to the lodge

It is located directly on a section of the beach where sea turtles lay their eggs - but unfortunately not at this time of year.


Tortugero Beach

We still took a quick look at the beach later. We didn't see any turtles, but we did see several birds that were obviously finding something to eat in the sand that had just been hit by a sea wave. As soon as the water receded, they quickly ran there and pecked at the sand, then hastily retreated as soon as the sea returned.


Birds on Tortugero Beach


In the afternoon there was a guided tour of the lodge's garden.


Montezuma forehead bird


The guide explained to us that the main thing we should do to see animals in Costa Rica is to look up.


Lodge garden


He also showed us an unusual example of this in a tree: two porcupines were sleeping there. However, they were barely visible between the leaves.


Garden of Mawamba Lodge


During the tour we also saw three sloths (actually 2.5 because one could only be guessed at).


sloth


One of the animals even moved up the tree at a slow pace, which is not something you see very often.


sloth


There was a small boa sitting in a tree, which we would probably never have discovered without expert guidance.


Baby boa

We were also able to spot a very pretty iguana on one of the trees.


iguana


Since the sun sets early, we started the “night tour” shortly afterwards, which started at 5:30 p.m.


Evening walk


Nevertheless, it quickly became dark after we took the boat to a short circular hiking trail.


grasshopper


We set out to discover smaller nocturnal animals.


crab


For example, we saw grasshoppers, crabs, a poisonous snake and grasshoppers.


viper


We also encountered several cane toads that traveled from South America to other parts of the world and caused great damage there.


Aga toad


The very small (approx. 2 cm) frogs, which have almost transparent skin, were particularly difficult to discover.


Little frog


At the end of the path we saw a bullfrog that had sat on our path.


Bullfrog


After so many impressions of the first day in Costa Rica and the somewhat short nights, we went to bed early in order to be fit again for the early boat tour before breakfast.

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