Tour program in Tortuguero

As the name suggests, most tourists come to the island of Tortuguero to experience turtles, specifically the endangered green sea turtle, in their natural habitat. They come to the island in large numbers during the rainy season to lay their eggs. But apart from the turtles, Tortuguero has a lot of other animals to offer, including snakes, pumas, jaguars, various monkey species, lizards of all sizes, and of course sloths. We had read on some blogs beforehand that the turtles are treated very considerately. The beach is officially closed and guarded from 6pm to 6am, and only guided tours are allowed. During the tours, participants are asked to wear long dark clothing, and phones, cameras, and anything else that could disturb the turtles while they lay their eggs are forbidden, so no photos can be taken. We find the treatment of the animals here very commendable and wanted to take part in a tour with a clear conscience :)

Our host Nicholas had organized for us to participate in a total of 4 different tours and only pay a fraction of the actual price. In Tortuguero (like the rest of Costa Rica), everything is extremely expensive. For a turtle tour, for example, 25 to 30 dollars per person is charged. We paid around 5 dollars, which makes us Swabians happy :) We did all 4 tours within 24 hours (real leisure stress) and got incredibly great impressions!

First, we walked through the village and the surrounding wilderness after sunset, where we saw a snake for the first time, among other things. There were also several giant spiders to see, including one whose web consisted of such thick threads that we could easily "pluck" them (a bit like dental floss). Janina, however, was a bit pushed to her limits when our guide Christian showed us a highly poisonous spider on a leaf and then pushed the leaf aside to beckon us all into the thicket. Looking for (among other things, poisonous) spiders and snakes, that's what you love ;) on the other hand, they hopefully wouldn't let the tourists in if it was really that dangerous. The knowledge and especially the eye for animals and plants of our tour guide was very impressive, without a guide we probably would have walked past everything :)

After this tour, the highlight came - finally turtles! Funny enough, our guide had discovered a turtle right in front of our hostel that was in the process of laying eggs in a hole. We were both amazed at how big the animal was (definitely over a meter), because we somehow expected turtles to be no bigger than half a meter. Equally impressive was the amount of eggs the size of ping pong balls that the turtle laid in the pit. The green sea turtle lays a total of 150 to 200 eggs, of which on average only 30 eggs survive. After laying the eggs, the turtle "covers" the hole to camouflage it from one side, creating another hole next to the eggs. During the whole process, we were allowed to stand very close to the animal, but our guide did not light up its face. Afterwards, we were allowed to watch from a distance as the turtle returned to the sea. A very impressive and memorable experience for us :)

The next morning, we went on the water to look for animals in the national park. Despite the potentially annoying group + tour guide, we really enjoyed the tour, just listening to the animals from the water was great. We often heard howler monkeys (definitely impossible to overlook) and we even saw them. The monkeys were definitely a highlight, but the caiman and the many iguanas and lizards were definitely worth the tour too! 

A ticket for the national park was required for the tour, which we used in the afternoon for our fourth tour to explore the national park on foot (fortunately again with guide Christian, whom we really liked). Here we got the best view of a sloth so far, a few monkeys posed especially for us (see photo), Christian treated us to a round of coconut water straight from the palm tree, and all in all we had another incredibly interesting tour through nature with many great impressions. Not quite as nice was the shell of a dead turtle lying on the beach, which most likely fell victim to a jaguar, but that's also part of it.

Phew, that was long, now come the photos :)