Flora y Fauna: Tortuguero

Interesting plants and fungi I captured in and around Tortuguero:

 

Excursion #8: Day 2 Toruguero

Trip date: March 7 and 8. Reported March 29.

NOTE: There a two accompanying and amusing short story posts for this excursion which I felt deserved individual entries. Here and here.

We started our second day in Tortuguero with a hike on the Jaguar Trail. The trailhead was very near our motel, between the back edge of town and the beach. It is in the protected nature reserve which we were told we needed tickets for, but who would actually check because there isn't an office where the trail starts. Actually, the trail resembled the dirt paths through town except it was amongst the tropical trees. We bought tickets anyways just in case. We were hoping to spot monkeys and/or sloths. We could hear howler monkeys but no such luck spotting them or sloths.

Mural at the trail head

This is a large ant trail.

Leaf cutter ants.

A large prehistoric looking bird crossing the trail.

? What was I seeing here? I think the ocean. There were these occassional breaks in the trees down to the beach. The wind would come through and feel SO good in the heat. Even though it was 7 a.m. we were sweating.

The trail is beautiful, peaceful, and well maintained. Our ticket money at work. 

A baby lizard Craig picked up.

On our return, we saw this lone monkey with a squirrel companion. I think we made the monkey very nervous because he worked hard to move away from us. The squirrel? Not so much. Zoom in to get a closer look.

Some interesting fruit and a seed from our walk.

Looking down from our balcony onto the roof below...a cat being a cat...loving to explore high places. I've always thought if I chose to be an animal, I would choose a cat. But I didn't consider this part...I'm not a huge fan of heights. Of course, most cats don't appreciate getting TOO high. 

How the sky and ocean were looking that day.

A couple more pictures of interesting art as we headed back to the dock to depart.

Our boat is almost ready.

A sign resembling a street sign but for the canals and rivers here.

A passing boat headed towards Toruguero, loaded with the contents of someone's house. We also saw barges with supplies while we were in town. Similar to our trip to Tortuguero town, our trip back was filled with animal sightings. This time, our boat got a little stuck. A local man on the boat with an excellent spotting eye (maybe he was a guide in the past?) took the initiative to get another local rider to get out and help the captain's assistant push the boat. I thought that was a lovely and extremely thoughtful gesture. It kept us spoiled tourists dry. 

Once we returned to the dock restaurant, I wanted a picture of this creative way to provide shade.

 

When Two Big Trucks Collide

 On our way home from Tortuguero, as we were traversing Highway 32 through Braulio Carillo, we came onto this traffic jam. This wasn't the first collision we had come upon on this part of highway. We were aware of one on another trip but by the time we had arrived the police had already cleared the road. 

Up ahead, we saw these two rigs stopped without making progress. Next came a typically-Tican uncanny event. The rule here is this: if you can't drive in your own lane because it's not moving or blocked, make your way around. Clark chose to follow traffic and do the same, but it didn't go according to plan.

Clark "drove with the flow of traffic."

This depicts our car following other cars in the ONCOMING lane and motorcycles not having that, so they are passing between two head on lines of traffic. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to us, the traffic is piling up and at a dead lock.

At this point, the lady from the car in front of us and a guy from way up ahead had partnered up to take charge of the traffic jam. They went down the line of cars telling everyone to move to the right and left as much as possible without going in the steep water-trench ditch (the kind that if you catch your tire on, your car will end up sideways off the road...we had previously observed an F-150 in such a predicament). Everyone moving over allowed the oncoming traffic to follow the motorcycles right up the middle up the road. Could this really be the solution? Of course not! It's not sustainable to move everyone. So...

This is us getting back into the right lane. Why are the cars angled that way? There's the lady in the green telling everyone to move over by using the right lane to "park". All the cars blocking the left lane can fit into the right lane freeing the oncoming traffic to flow again in the left lane. The guy who took charge is up ahead directing the traffic, letting so many cars through and then letting the lanes take turns. Notice the rigs are still stuck there.

Once we got up to the rigs it was easy to see the problem. You might make sense of the picture or not. One had rear-ended the other. Here in Costa Rica, when you get in a wreck, you don't move your vehicle even if it still runs. It remains in the way until the police arrive, which takes a bit of time. 

Some police and the ambulance passed us very soon once we were on the other side. Of course, by then, at least 30 minutes had gone by. Regretfully, I didn't get a picture to document what we estimate to be 3 miles of traffic backed up in the oncoming lane and I'm sure the right lane behind us was at least as bad. Those people were going to be there a while. We were fortunate to arrive soon after the wreck, albeit avoiding being IN the wreck, so our half hour wait was significantly shorter than the cars coming after us.

A beautiful view on the other side!! 

Clark and His Coconut

Towards the end of our walk on Jaguar trail in Tortuguero, Clark decided to view the beach just to see and cool off, so we followed a little path through the bushes and trees. It was fortunate because this is where we startled a singular monkey and an unbothered squirrel. Here he decided to achieve a goal set early in our travel to Costa Rica: drink from a coconut HE found and broke open himself. I guess to make the coconut easier to carry back with us, he chose this moment to "peel" it, except he didn't really have any tools to do that. Is this proof that brute strength can accomplish a task if you're determined enough? No telling, but needless to say, we all were laughing by the end after the exertion.

He used whatever he could find on the beach...a sharp stump sticking out of the ground. We looked for a stone of some sort but none large enough were to be found. This is about half-way peeled.

At one point he said, "how do those guys make it look so easy?" We had seen a guy the night before on our walk to town breaking some open using a short wood post. Rosabel commented that most the guys we saw peeling coconuts used small machetes. I've always admired Clark's physical strength. 

Finally!

Yes. There is water inside!

Another goal ticked off the to-do list and looking very pleased about that!

The next day, Clark harvesting the water even though he doesn't really care for it and enjoyed some of the meat of his bounty.

EL FIN