Activities: Bird & Wildlife Watching

[22 Oct 2009 | One Comment | 641 views]
Day 3: Hiking Cerro Tortuguero

My alarm sounded at 4:45 — I don’t recommend Tortuguero as a destination for sleeping in — and I hopped out of bed, oddly alert for such an early hour. Sun rays were beginning to peek through the trees outside my room, and I could hear the roar of the surf and howler monkeys just past my window screen. Waking up in a tropical, Caribbean paradise — it’s a rough life, I tell you.
Cerro Tortuguero, or Mount Tortuguero, was closed to tourists just a few years ago; an influx of hikers had compromised the integrity …

Location: Northern Caribbean, Tortuguero »

Activities: , , »


[21 Oct 2009 | 2 Comments | 888 views]
Day 2: Wildlife Viewing and Green Sea Turtles

After yesterday’s power nap and a solid night’s sleep, I woke up at dawn and walked along the beach. Turtle Beach is one of few Tortuguero lodges with its own beachfront, and I wanted to take advantage of every minute in this perfect location. The sun was a soft yellow and the volcanic sand was already warm beneath my feet. I’m an early riser, but rarely do I get a chance to walk along a deserted beach just after sunrise — I decided that this was the ideal beginning to the day.
Fifteen minutes and a …

Location: Northern Caribbean, Tortuguero »

Activities: , , , »


[19 Oct 2009 | 4 Comments | 448 views]
Back to Nature in Tortuguero

Before visiting Tortuguero, I associated the area with turtles. Just turtles. All I wanted was to see a turtle, and so when, on my second night, I saw four nesting green sea turtles, I thought to myself, “Wow. I’ve seen the turtles, but I have four days left. Now what?”
I needn’t have worried. Though Tortuguero is known and even named for its nesting turtle populations, this northern Caribbean town has so much more to offer. I found myself enchanted by the area’s winding canals, especially the mysterious Cano Palma, where the water is so black …

Location: Northern Caribbean, Recent Trips, Tortuguero »

Activities: , , , , »