Tuesday 1 Jan 2008

Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge N 10° 37.3' W 083° 32.3' Elev 2m
We were up at 5.00am for a 5.30am boat trip. As the boat moved quietly down the canals the guide pointed out the wildlife. Tiny bats on the underside of a trunk, well until they were scared away by a boat load of intruders. Two varieties of herons, caymen, an eagle, egrets, iguanas. As the guide was pointing out a specimen he was interrupted by an approaching rain shower. Without pause he and the skipper handed out capes before resuming his talk. Something tells us he’d done this before.

After returning from the dawn boat trip we picked up our wellies in preparation for a jungle walk. It was muddy, well they get 6m of rain a year in this region, this was the not-so-wet season. After strict instructions not to grab for branches or trunks (in case of unseen poisonous residents) we were off. Pretty soon the guide spotted something. He had it in his hands and was giving it a good shake. It was a tiny red poison dart frog. The name reflects the generalization that all poison frogs are used to poison darts but out of the 175 different species only 3 are actually used, so that’s all right then. The shaking disorientates and subdues the frog so that it sat on his hand. We wondered if it was the same frog that got the same treatment every couple of days or so. In which case he must be getting a little ticked off. Other highlights included the edible termites; they taste peppery we were told, we resisted the urge to indulge. Paul thought he saw a tiny green tree snake but it was gone before he had a chance to point it out.

There were massive fig trees which start out life as a seed high in the branches of an existing tree before sending down thin shoots to the ground. These root and thicken, eventually they surround the host tree’s trunk. The host tree eventually dies and decays leaving a hollow.

We resisted the temptation to go swimming in the rain and merely admired the pool.




In the afternoon after the rain had stopped we wandered in the other direction down the beach. We came across more weird wood shapes, including this crashed alien spacecraft. The amount of timber that had fetched up on the beach is amazing. It gets washed down the canals and rivers before landing up on the beaches. Some of it has clearly been there for a while slowly getting smoothed by the combination of the sea and sand. In places the sea was turned brown by tree trunks being pummeled off the beach. Saw a couple of species of wading birds and a small flock of pelicans.