Sunday, October 31, 2004
happy halloween!
So here I go again, yesterday I had typed for about 15 minutes and the dial up that we had lost the connection, so I will try with fingers crossed!
We left off in La Fortuna and were there for four days, we left and journeyed by private car to Cariari where we cought a bus to the River Tortuguero. The town was dirty and hot so I was glad to get on the bus, we traveled through a few huge banana plantations and wow I will never eat another banana that is not organic. The amount of pesticides that they spray on the fruit here is frightening. So we cought a long boat up the canal for about 1.20 hours, we were a bit confused as the boat was dropping off locals as well and we had no idea where to get off. We guessed and were right! We were famished and got some almuerzas and found a place to stay for the night, dropped our stuff off and arranged for a tour of the beach and turtles that night. We then passed out for a few hours, man traveling takes it out of me!
We woke and had a Coca cola moment and then went to the beach. We lucked out and had a full moon and the beach was very bright and all was visible, making things very easy to see. We first saw a large green turtle and she decided after a few minutes that this was not the place for her and turned back to the sea. After meandering for about 30 more minutes we saw a female beginning to dig, we sat and waited. After about 30 more minutes had passed we were able to approach her and watch her laying her clutch. To see this huge animal not moving except for the contraction and drop of the eggs was very moving. She shed tears as she laid her eggs to rid her body of excess salt. We could only watch for so long to give her privacy, but she soon finished and we watched her cover the eggs and we made our way off of the beach, satisfied as having seen that. Then Klaus noticed some movement on the beach and we saw another huge turtle moving up the beach for some more laying time, we continued walking and then saw tiny turtles moving in the night for the water. These things were miniature compared to what we had seen before, we all laughed at them clambering over our feet and hands, giving them words of encouragement. I lifted up one and it kept flipping its flippers and was so amazing. We watched them until the park rangers came and acted like we had to go, so we did. After all those guys have guns.
the next few days were spent exploring Tortuguero National Park and watching some amazing wildlife} Birds, monkeys, snakes, skinks and lots and lots of spiders. We went to the Carribean Conservation Corps and learned a ton about the life and history of turtles, very neat and spent the afternoons watching soccer games. We decided that it was time to move on and got a boat to Limon, our captain was really great at pionting out wildlife and we saw so much more that day! Sloths (3 toed), howler and spider monkeys, thousands of birds (migration) and crocs and Caymans. I kept shouting "crikey" whenever I saw either. Only Klaus laughed, and I thought I was funny. We arrived in the port town of LImon after traveling on the boat for about 4 hours and I do not recommend staying in Limon to anyone, unless you have large, bulging muscles and a bodyguard named "hulk" or something. We took a bus to Cauhita a funky Carribean town where we met Jimmy Cliff, and I thought he was dead! This Jimmy Cliff was a loon, he showed us his collection of beachcombers delight and gave us some fresh coconut water to drink. I had a bit of a cold at this point and this seemed to make me feel better. That or the really spicy food that we ate, more on that later. Jimmy's collection was amazing, he even had Human Teeth, I asked if the shark had gotten the rest of the man and he laughed and laughed. He said " I don't know mon!" So we said out bye and Klaus gave him a key for the collection " a key to the heavens!" and we walked and then ate a huge spicy carribean dinner at Miss Ediths, I professed my love to miss Edith right after dinner, it was amazing. She said she would take me as one of her own children. But I love my family too much so I declined.
the next day after some bugs had made quite a meal of my elbow in the night ( I have around 25 bites in a very small area) we walked to the national park in search of some more animal sights, we got them! Many types of monkeys were everywhere and we walked to a point about 2.5 miles out and saw a large gang of about 10 capuchin, you know the cute white faced ones? Well they were really friendly at first and posed for pics and came really close to us, all I kept thinking was "these are wild animals" and I guess they learned that whatever is in a bag is food. Klaus got some great pics, then changed lenses and had me hold his bag, I looked over my shoulder and saw 2 staring at me, really really colse to me. Then one bared his teeth and kind of snarled at me, it was really primevil, I saw scared out of my mind. adrenaline started to pump and I said" we need to leave right now" Klaus said there was so much fear and emotion in my voice that he was freaked out. When he turned and saw those monkeys he knew too. We ran out of there double time.
After recovering we had a good night of no more monkeys and then came here to Puerto Viejo which is where we are, in a great place with a pool and hot tub, and there is no one else here! whooo0hoo Have a great Halloween everyone!
Oh yeah, congratulations to Ben and Will, they won first and Second prizes in a costume contest! Love you boys!
We left off in La Fortuna and were there for four days, we left and journeyed by private car to Cariari where we cought a bus to the River Tortuguero. The town was dirty and hot so I was glad to get on the bus, we traveled through a few huge banana plantations and wow I will never eat another banana that is not organic. The amount of pesticides that they spray on the fruit here is frightening. So we cought a long boat up the canal for about 1.20 hours, we were a bit confused as the boat was dropping off locals as well and we had no idea where to get off. We guessed and were right! We were famished and got some almuerzas and found a place to stay for the night, dropped our stuff off and arranged for a tour of the beach and turtles that night. We then passed out for a few hours, man traveling takes it out of me!
We woke and had a Coca cola moment and then went to the beach. We lucked out and had a full moon and the beach was very bright and all was visible, making things very easy to see. We first saw a large green turtle and she decided after a few minutes that this was not the place for her and turned back to the sea. After meandering for about 30 more minutes we saw a female beginning to dig, we sat and waited. After about 30 more minutes had passed we were able to approach her and watch her laying her clutch. To see this huge animal not moving except for the contraction and drop of the eggs was very moving. She shed tears as she laid her eggs to rid her body of excess salt. We could only watch for so long to give her privacy, but she soon finished and we watched her cover the eggs and we made our way off of the beach, satisfied as having seen that. Then Klaus noticed some movement on the beach and we saw another huge turtle moving up the beach for some more laying time, we continued walking and then saw tiny turtles moving in the night for the water. These things were miniature compared to what we had seen before, we all laughed at them clambering over our feet and hands, giving them words of encouragement. I lifted up one and it kept flipping its flippers and was so amazing. We watched them until the park rangers came and acted like we had to go, so we did. After all those guys have guns.
the next few days were spent exploring Tortuguero National Park and watching some amazing wildlife} Birds, monkeys, snakes, skinks and lots and lots of spiders. We went to the Carribean Conservation Corps and learned a ton about the life and history of turtles, very neat and spent the afternoons watching soccer games. We decided that it was time to move on and got a boat to Limon, our captain was really great at pionting out wildlife and we saw so much more that day! Sloths (3 toed), howler and spider monkeys, thousands of birds (migration) and crocs and Caymans. I kept shouting "crikey" whenever I saw either. Only Klaus laughed, and I thought I was funny. We arrived in the port town of LImon after traveling on the boat for about 4 hours and I do not recommend staying in Limon to anyone, unless you have large, bulging muscles and a bodyguard named "hulk" or something. We took a bus to Cauhita a funky Carribean town where we met Jimmy Cliff, and I thought he was dead! This Jimmy Cliff was a loon, he showed us his collection of beachcombers delight and gave us some fresh coconut water to drink. I had a bit of a cold at this point and this seemed to make me feel better. That or the really spicy food that we ate, more on that later. Jimmy's collection was amazing, he even had Human Teeth, I asked if the shark had gotten the rest of the man and he laughed and laughed. He said " I don't know mon!" So we said out bye and Klaus gave him a key for the collection " a key to the heavens!" and we walked and then ate a huge spicy carribean dinner at Miss Ediths, I professed my love to miss Edith right after dinner, it was amazing. She said she would take me as one of her own children. But I love my family too much so I declined.
the next day after some bugs had made quite a meal of my elbow in the night ( I have around 25 bites in a very small area) we walked to the national park in search of some more animal sights, we got them! Many types of monkeys were everywhere and we walked to a point about 2.5 miles out and saw a large gang of about 10 capuchin, you know the cute white faced ones? Well they were really friendly at first and posed for pics and came really close to us, all I kept thinking was "these are wild animals" and I guess they learned that whatever is in a bag is food. Klaus got some great pics, then changed lenses and had me hold his bag, I looked over my shoulder and saw 2 staring at me, really really colse to me. Then one bared his teeth and kind of snarled at me, it was really primevil, I saw scared out of my mind. adrenaline started to pump and I said" we need to leave right now" Klaus said there was so much fear and emotion in my voice that he was freaked out. When he turned and saw those monkeys he knew too. We ran out of there double time.
After recovering we had a good night of no more monkeys and then came here to Puerto Viejo which is where we are, in a great place with a pool and hot tub, and there is no one else here! whooo0hoo Have a great Halloween everyone!
Oh yeah, congratulations to Ben and Will, they won first and Second prizes in a costume contest! Love you boys!
