Tortuguero...went sour...

Alfonso (apparently his name) apparently came looking for me at the hostel. Offering to sell me weed. Right.

He then appeared at the turtle tour operator I booked with asking why I was avoiding him. Err...

I'm not gonna lie. I've walked around Medellin and La Paz at 3 o'clock in the morning and felt perfectly safe, but here in this Costa Rican tourist town full of European families I've felt the most unsafe I've ever felt in all of Latin America. So, considering the other attractions of Tortuguero are renowned as 'second rate' I'm leaving a day early for the Southern Caribbean, given it really isn't worth the feeling of being on edge.

But now that's out the way... the turtles!

I have mixed feelings about the turtles. But lets get the obvious out of the way first. Seeing a turtle lay its eggs in the ground, the eggs plopping out of her placenta before she covers them, flinging mud and sand at the surrounding tourists in attempt to smother her eggs - was a fantastic experience.

But I've got to be honest. It was like being on the London Underground.

There's so many tourists! And so many kids! I didn't see 1 foreign family in Bolivia. I've seen millions here in Costa Rica. The park here is superb at protecting the wildlife. The numbers are up substantially, they work pretty well with a challenging, poor and isolated community to reduce the impact of poaching. With the Nicaragua situation, the police patrols are intense to ensure there's no casualties/no disaster for Costa Rican publicity. Whatsmore, the town is well set back from the beach to minimise the disturbance to the turtles, and the guides are extremely well regulated to ensure no misbehaviour that hurts the turtles.

Yet, with the numbers of tourists on the beach, we scared away at least two turtles. Thankfully, there was one in the egg laying process of course, that we took turns to crowd round and gawp at, albeit from behind so it couldn't see us.

Costa Rica is beautiful, but if you come here - you have to share it.

But really, I'm being quite negative - the turtles were extraordinary! As is in fact, the storm that has rolled off the Caribbean right now. Absolutely hurricane level. Biblical. Utterly biblical, battering the corrugated iron roofs of this tiny Caribbean village. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a rainstorm quite like this one.

Gonna be a fun night!

Pura Vida!