Tortoguero day 1

Today. Shantis birthday, was massive. A 5 am start and driving west through the central mountain spine of Costa Rica. We were on the main east west highway and it was clogged with vehicles mostly trucks, in both directions. What a drive 5 plus hours at a crawl or even stopped in lines of traffic. The driving antics such as overtaking were a sight. We stopped midmorning at some touriosto food place, complete with an armed guard to watch for bandits. Eventually we turned north towards Toroguero, and followed an unsealed and a bad road that deteriorated until not much more than a boulder field. But as we got deeper into the rainforest area it was exciting to know it was getting very remote and the birdlife was getting increasingly exotic. I felt a bit sorry for Shanti as for her birthday she had little sleep and now was being pummelled by the road and the heat, a very shabby story. And the skies had opened and water ran in streams both sides of the road. Parts of the final journey were through banana growing villages, large scale enterprises in this wet fertile area. Evenually the back road crawl finished where the road reached a river

Totoguero is a village on the coast in an area of unspoiled rainforest, where rivers from the mountains make many channels to the sea. We then boated for an hour and a half into our lodge, in an open boat (4 couples) with a canopy over us. The river was narrow in places winding through tall forest and very wide in others. Trees collapse into the river in flood so its a mess of tree trunks each side. Turtles were sunning on some of these and we distuirbed a crocodile and then a snake swam across our bow and climbed into greenery on the side. Beautiful birds like herons and kingfishers were visible and electric coloured butterflies flopped about. We were all fizzing at the excitment of it.
The lodge is where the fiver finishes, on a thin island maybe 200m wide, with the caribean on one side (surf and sharks)and the estuary on the other. The lodge is excellent with decks pushing out onto the estuary and comfy cabins. Extremely hot and humid we are losing moisture almost faster than i think i can drink it.

The local population is small and they are fishing villages on the estuary. We visited the main one (Tortoguero) this pm (and bought iris a toucan puzzle made locally). The wildlife astonishes us. We stepped out of our cabin and disturbed a 1.8m lizard - an iguana. It powered across the lawn and up a tree climbing right into the canopy. Other large green lizards run away from you on hind legs. We spent some time watching toucans - there are three species around us not to mention a wealth of other beautiful birds. Their calls drive us nuts we hear a burst of song and wonder what the hell is that? My camera is a great asset we are getting some good shots.

Tonight we sat on the waters edge, drank fruit cocktails and smoked the Trinidasd cigar from the factory we had seen them being rolled. Then dinner. I gave Shanti a field guide on local birds which she is thrilled with. The skies above were starry but lightening was flickering on the . Geckos are yapping around us, other night calls and we can hear the sound of the surf. Shanti has now conked out and headed to bed (its 8 pm) but we agreed it has been an unforgetable experince. I am it the keyboard sweat pourting of me, so will sign off and talk again later.
sx