Arriving via boat

After my rather disappointing stay in Monteverde, I decided to drive to the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica. Therefore I first had to return to San Jose where I stayed overnight for a short time and then took the bus to La Pavona early in the morning.

On the bus ride there we saw a grey Nissan lying in the ditch. Spanish tourists had maneuvered their car there. Our bus tried to help them and pull the car out again, but without success. We had to drive on and the Spanish had to wait for professional help.

We reached the boat landing stage and from there we continued by boat to Tortuguero, a small island where tourists come to watch turtles laying eggs.

We chugged to the island by boat and saw a huge crocodile lying on the shore, waiting for its next prey as if petrified.

Watching the turtle laying eggs

In the bus I met a Dutch woman and we both checked into the same hotel. We each had our own cabin. The next day we wanted to walk along a nature trail, but for that we didn't want to pay the entrance fee nor did we have boots with us to cross the mud there. We later walked along the beach which is very beautiful but it is forbidden to swim, as the whole island is a national park.

In the evening we joined the tourist group to watch a turtle laying eggs.

Unfortunately it was forbidden to take pictures or videos of it. In absolute darkness and silence we were informed by radio from the spotter that a turtle mom was just laying eggs. Once the mama begins, she doesn't stop anymore - even if a dozen tourists look at her. It was fascinating. One egg after the other came out of her and in the end she buried them all passionately. Only a few of them will actually make it into the big blue sea.

Already the next morning we were both living the island again and traveling further down south to Puerto Viejo, a chilled village on the Atlantic coast close to Panama.