We arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica via a bitterly cold Miami yesterday (22/12/12). A cold front passing over Florida meant the hot weather of the previous few days had been replaced by cold breezy conditions and at 0700 am, when we left, the temperature in Fort Lauderdale was in the 40's. In San Jose temperatures were thankfully back into the 70s - so after settling into our hotel, the Fleur de Lys, we walked into the city and had a coffee and cake followed a while later by a Macdonald's soft serve ice-cream with caramel sauce - it was the best Macdonald's I have ever been to, it had an ice cream section, coffee bar and the more traditional service points! The rest of the Exodus tour were arriving at 9 pm ish on the Iberia flight from London/Madrid. In fact we learnt later that they didn't get to the hotel until gone 11pm.....by which time we were fast asleep!
Refreshed we were up at 5am and downstairs just after 6 for a coffee and our 6.30 departure to Tortuguero, on the Caribbean east coast. We met the rest of the group of 16 and joined others on a large coach taking us all to Tortuguero a drive and boat trip away. As we left San Jose we passed through cloud forest and rain forest - both are wet and only differ due to their elevation - cloud is in the clouds! We passed a confluence of a green and orange river - colours due to different sediments and arrived, in rain,at our breakfast stop - a restaurant set in gardens - for fruit, cereals and Costa Rican cooked - including rice and beans,fried plantain, and eggs. The guide also found a two and later a three toed sloth in the trees close by for us to ooh and aaah over. The difference beside the number of toes is the three toed has a dark line down its back and green on its coat due to its symbiotic relationship with a type of algae. Both were curled up and trying to keep dry - particularly the two toed as it had a baby. An hour or so after leaving our breakfast stop we arrived at the dock.....luggage on one boat us on another. It poured with rain again as it did intermittently for the rest of the day - and this is the dry season! Apparently this is unusual rain and due to a cold front - probably the one we left in Florida is now sweeping through the Caribbean.
Just before 12 we arrived at our lodge - and had a lovely welcome juice, listened while our room allocation was called out, 63 was our number to remember, and then made our way to lunch while the cleaners finished cleaning them. On the way/to from the room we saw another sloth, howler monkeys (todays picture is the male howler) and a toucan. We were free until 3pm; we then took a boat to the town of Tortuguero - first stop was the turtle conservation HQ - turtles are what made this area famous - we watched a video and learnt more about the transformation from turtle catchers and killers to conservationists. Afterwards we walked along the black sandy beach to the town and wandered down the street with its myriad of tourist and local shops including the one hotspot - a disco/nightclub.
Luckily it stopped raining for the walk - but the heavens opened again for the boat trip back.
On our return John and I decided to take advantage of the 2 for 1 massage offer - so he had one 5-6pm and I had one 6-7pm - this enabled me to use the hot tub for 20 minutes before my massage. I was a few minutes late for dinner but as it was a buffet - it was no problem. Back to the lodge for an early ish night - and another cloudburst ....to lull us to sleep ......what will tomorrow bring? We have a 5.45 boat trip but if its pouring at 5.15 we are to sleep on and be ready for an 0830 and hopefully better weather!