The Torteguero region, as seen by Google Earth.  Tortugeuro is a long barrier island facing the Caribbean.  The town, where we stayed, is number 2 in the image above.  There is an airstrip (1), but otherwise all transport is by boat.  There are a number of lodges along the inland waterway, and a few of these have (illegally) bulldozed roads through the national park, but even most of the resorts are dependent on boats for transportation.  The national park is a large area of beachfront, lowland rainforest and wetlands.  The beach along 3, above, is protected by the national park.  The port of Limón and the beach city of Cahuita lie to the south of this image.  As best I can tell, the Field Station at La Suerte is indicated by the arrow next to the 4.

In 2007 we set off from the field station at La Suerte to head to Torteguero, on the coast.  The first part of the trip was by bus through agricultural areas, mostly banana plantations.  Above, our driver opens one of the cableways on which bananas are brought in from the field.  The banana bunches are placed on hooks attached to rollers which hang from a cable system that extends out into the field.  Workers push the bunches along the cableway to the processing plant (right).  Where the cableways cross a road the apparatus is hinged so it can be swung out of the way of vehicles.

More about banana cultivation in Costa Rica here.

As mentioned above, ultimately things have to get to Tortuguero by boat or plane.  The coastal rivers leading to the ocean near Tortuguero all seem to have little ports where entrepreneurs make a living hauling people and things to the barrier island and back.  The ports are connected to the rest of the country by busses and taxis.  Our port was on the River Suerte (Rio Suerte), downstream of where it passed through the field station.  These are custom-built boats of fiberglass, long and narrow.  The narrow part is to allow the boat to navigate the small river; the long part allows them to carry an astonishing amount of cargo, including our group of 14 and all of our gear. Note the construction material also being loaded into the boat at the left.

A short way down the river the narrow channel opened up a bit.  It turned out that all the rain we had seen at La Suerte had raised the river levels and the boat driver was able to put on a good bit of speed.  For many of the group, the transition from the shade of the rainforest to the sun was welcome.

Our headquarters in Tortuguero was Miss Junnie's Hotel, which is on the northern end of the village (2 in the picture to the right).  The hotel itself is pictured above.  An interesting structure, the open second floor is used for drying the towels and bedclothes from the hotel.  

In addition to being a great cook, Miss Junnie was one of the first Tortuguerans to work with Dr. Archie Carr  to protect the turtles nesting on the nearby beaches, starting in the 1950's.

Below:  There are no cars in Tortuguero, so there are no roads either - just walking paths.  The view below right shows the town "square"; we often ate at the restaurant in the background.  Below, the remains of an excavating machine rust in place - if it's hard to get things here it's even harder to get rid of them once they've lost their value.

For us, the main things of interest were not in the town, but rather in the national park, whose entrance is at the southern limits of the town and accessible over an elevated concrete walkway.  The buildings of the park headquarters are shown above; the European Union flag attests to the aid the EU has given Costa Rica to establish the park.  

Left - termites in an exposed gallery; these are mostly workers with a few soldiers (nasutes)  identified by their black, flask-shaped heads from which they exude defensive chemicals.

Below - a jumping spider and a lantern fly pose on the foliage of the park.

If you walk slowly on the loop trail striking out from the park headquarters you will encounter a number of fascinating organisms.  We saw a striped parrotsnake gliding through the vegetation (above left) and wasps who had built their nest on the underside of a plant which also had large thorns on the undersides of its leaves (above right).

To the right a tiny golden weevil explores a flower head.  Its tiny mandibles are at the end of its long snout.

Below, an Orange-bellied Littersnake crawling along the sand of the trail (these trails are on stabilized beach dunes, for the most part).  This was a tiny snake, though much larger than the blindsnake we saw at Santa Rosa in 2005.  Its prey includes the small invertebrates on the rainforest floor.

A new species of frog for us, and in the wild to boot!  We saw this pale frog (above) sitting on the surface of a leaf in broad daylight and immediately concluded it was one of our old friends the gaudy leaf frogs.  Then it began to move and we saw the bright red webbing (and the other differentiating characteristics) and realized we were looking at something new.  Some time with the field guides told us we had a Red-Webbed Frog - and a handsome one at that.  Like the gaudy leaf frog, these frogs prowl predominately at night.

Left:  A large cranefly hangs, its body seemingly disconnected from its legs.

Below:  This is a lowland rain forest (about as low as you can get, only feet above sea level).  Thus, one sees all the typical adaptations such as the buttress roots on the Provision Tree or the many stiltlike root "legs" of the walking palm (below).

We rented several canoes and split into two groups to explore the park; one group hit the trail in the morning while the other canoed, then we switched at lunchtime.  The "trails, aquatic" are an even better way to explore this park that is largely water and wetland in any event.  Despite what some of the students will tell you, we did NOT actually use the wooden dugout canoe pictured to the right.  Below right: Preparing for an afternoon on the water; below, into the park by canoe.

We saw a number of birds in the forests, including one of my favorites, the nocturnal boat-billed heron.  We also saw these birds at Caño Negro.

We saw 3 of Costa Rica's 4 species of monkeys while canoeing at Tortuguero; here a white-faced capuchin monkey extracts seeds from a pod.

I've seen a lot of white and even glossy ibises in Florida, but the Green Ibis was a life-list bird for me.  Too bad I couldn't get a better photo, but I didn't trust my expensive camera and lens to travel in the boat, and the lighting was difficult (not to mention trying to hold still in a moving boat!).

It was a good workout paddling through the miles of aquatic trails in the park.  That is, it was a good workout for everyone else; in my boat I "paid" the students to paddle so I could concentrate on photography and video.

There was wildlife everywhere in Tortuguero, even back at Miss Junnie's.  Particularly entertaining were the Green Basilisk lizards on the grounds of the hotel.  Also known as the "Jesu Christo Lizard", these lizards are very fast.  At full speed they run bipedally, on their hind legs, and the toes of the back legs are such that when a relatively small basilisk runs into the water at high speed it can actually run across the water.  We only saw that happen once in 2007, at the Arenal Cataracts, but I was so amazed I didn't get good video of it.

There was another species of basilisk at Miss Junnie's; the second was the striped basilisk.  This species seems to be more terrestrial than the green; we saw the latter most often on riverbanks.

Domestic animals were also big in Tortuguero.  The rooster was particularly obnoxious as it strolled the grounds of the hotel and woke us every morning.  We all ordered chicken whenever possible in hopes that its number would come up, but we had no luck.

There were also a number of dogs in the village; mostly a friendly lot including the pups at the place we rented the canoes.  They were sure giving their mother a hard time when they got hungry!

Cute Puppy Video

Everything at Tortuguero is centered on the river.  Transport is by boat; and much of it is local between the various tourist resorts on the other side of the inland waterway and the village itself.  Apparently a lot of the workers at those lodges live in the town, and of course the tourists come over from the resorts to shop.  Above, a group of students waits for the "school boat".  Below left, food for the local restaurants arrives by boat.  Below, a soccer game on the covered athletic field in the center of town - there is also a nice outdoor soccer field, but it is in full sun.

In the center of town there is a boat landing where the tourists are brought in.  The little park there is full of brightly - and realistically - painted tropical raniforest creatures; some, like the strawberry poison dart frog shown at right conceal the trash cans.  Below are additional views of the park.

We ate out a lot in Tortuguero - there are a number of good restaurants there, and everything, by definition, is within walking distance.  Above are two views of the dining room at Miss Junnie's; the upper left picture was taken after breakfast as the "Bank of Dave" opens to dispense lunch money.  

Below - wherever we went, we ate well!

There were a number of coconut trees in the area, and this is as good a place as any to discuss these trees.  Common in tropical areas, they tend to be found on islands and near the coast, in large because of their means of seed dispersal - gravity and ocean currents.

The embryo of the coconut is protected within a very large husk which is both waterproof and buoyant.  The white coconut "meat" that we eat, as well as the liquid "milk" are nutrition for the embryo, which will have to survive for months in the husk.  The heavy husk crashes through the growth below to land on the ground (not as easy as it sounds in dense tropical forests).

BTW, the oft-told story of more people being killed by falling coconuts than by (sharks, bears, crocodiles, killer bees, poodles) is probably not very accurate.  Investigation into the story shows that it probable source really said no such thing.

Once on the ground, the coconut is likely to be swept to sea by a storm.  There, it can drift for months before washing up on another shore (thus getting dispersal accomplished); ideally it will also come ashore during a storm and end up well inshore. Now the embryo can start to utilize all those nutrients and start growing out of the husk as can be seen in the image to the right.

The Caribbean Conservation Corporation was founded in Tortuguero to protect the turtles that nest there (the word tortuguero refers to the turtles).  It was founded by the biologist Archie Carr in 1959, and continues its efforts to this day.  At Tortuguero they have a small but excellent nature center and a gift shop, as well as facilities for the researchers and volunteers who travel up and down the beach every night to mark turtle nests and tag the adult turtles.  This research has led to much of what we know about the migratory patterns of these magnificent animals. 

The station has a number of posters displayed that try to get across the message that the turtles are endangered.  Turtles have long been hunted for their meat, and in addition people living near the nesting beaches gather large numbers of the eggs.  This pressure, as well as development of beach habitat, has led to the local extinction of many nesting populations of turtles throughout the world, and today all of the marine turtles are threatened. 

This poster says: "My eggs are not the solution - the problem is yours!" This alludes to the fact that apparently many men see the turtle eggs as a solution to impotence.   The Rasta-tortuga looks a bit ticked-off, and the viagra pill he is holding suggests a better solution to the "little problem".

This poster picks up on the same theme.  This loser is obviously clueless and the turtle eggs look gross.  The caption says "You swallowed the lie - the eggs of turtles are not aphrodisiacs".  There is a tip line to call at the bottom if you know someone trafficking in turtle eggs or other products (such as the shells of Hawksbill turtles, used to make jewelry).

This is a good one.  It goes back to the impotence theme; she is saying "My man doesn't need turtle eggs... because he knows they don't make him more potent."  As one of the students pointed out, if a man were married to this woman the turtle eggs probably would be superfluous.

This is the beach at Tortuguero that attracts all the turtles.  They come ashore and crawl up to the berm at the right where they dig their nests.  The turtles come ashore only at night.  This part of the beach is in the national park and the tracks are from a patrol by rangers, not casual off-road  riding.

To the right you can see where a turtle came ashore the previous night.  The flippers of the turtles make conspicuous tracks as they drag the heavy body across the sand.

Here we take a close up look at some turtle tracks; this turtle came ashore and turned around without nesting.  Perhaps it was disturbed, perhaps it didn't want to try to maneuver around the driftwood, perhaps it just changed its mind.  Such false starts are not uncommon.

Below:  We found the remains of a nest and several eggs where beach erosion uncovered a nest.  The eggs are a bit larger than a golf ball, a tiny beginning for an organism that will ultimately weigh hundreds of pounds.

To the left - here is what we saw on our turtle walk at night.  Seriously, despite a long walk on the beach, we did not see any turtles.  We were not there at the peak nesting period, and we were there on a very bright night that was not conducive for the turtles coming ashore.

I'll add more about turtles later, perhaps after we've actually seen some on our return in 2009, which is only about 506 days away from the time I write this (on January 1, 2008), not  that I'm counting....