After a night of tumultuous rain it stopped around 5 so we got up, showered and went to the jetty to await the 0545 trip. Several others joined us but just before the witching hour the heavens opened again - clearly Juan Carlos, our guide, had inside information as he never showed obviously knowing it would be too wet to explore the canals of Tortuguero!. As we were up we all made our way back to the restaurant and sat and drank copious amounts of coffee until breakfast at 7, We watched the rain coming down like 'stair rods' and consoled ourselves with knowing at least we weren't in it! During a brief interlude I did get a photo of a female trogon and juvenile in the hotel grounds. However the rain started again and the new 0830 trip deadline passed and we were all giving up hope of there ever being a let up in the rain when at 0945ish Juan Carlos announced we were off.....keen by now to do anything we all jumped in the boat; and put on the green ponchos we were given, over our jackets, which kept out the light rain that was still falling and we headed off to the national park. The weather continued to improve and the ponchos came off - with only an occasional mad scrabble to put them on again for a passing shower!
The first sighting was an American coot, rare to see in Costa Rica, this was followed by little blue heron, jacana, anhinga, curassows (2 female and a male), great kiskadee, snowy egret, green ibis, bare fronted tiger heron on a nest , really well camouflaged green jesus lizards ( so called because they can walk on water, equally well camouflaged green iguanas and more conspicuous males in their orange mating season rig, howler monkeys, a spider monkey,a spectacled caiman and a very large boa constrictor.
We got back for lunch just before one and left to go the other way up the canals at 2pm. This afternoon brought new species - yellow crowned night heron, green backed night heron, broad winged hawk, roadside hawk, great egret, chestnut mandibled toucan (the largest), aracaris and a last highlight - a troop of white faced monkeys.
We returned at 4pm as most of us were joining the 1630 tour to hopefully see the turtles hatching. A quick drop off of superfluous kit and we were back at the dock. Enroute back to the lodge I did quickly take some photos of our resident sloth as the light was now better and some of the cloud had lifted. The turtle trip was led by the local guide, Oliver, who had brought us from San Jose. We went back across the river and walked to the beach - the boatman who had gone ahead was beckoning for us to move quickly to a nest sight. After a quick jog to where he was standing I saw that two little turtles had emerged from their nest and were making their way to the sea while one lay exhausted at the top of the hole. Oliver surmised that the excessive rain had made the sand too heavy and had created problems for the young turtles - meaning digging out was far harder and whole nests of young ones may consequently perish even before seeing the light of day. The two we watched went the whole way were great and both made it to the sea - the first one who the group nick named Trevor is today's picture. The third turtle despite encouragement from Oliver we left still exhausted, but alive, by the waters edge - who knows if during the night it finally recovered enough to swim off or whether it befell some other fate in the circle of life.
We returned to lodge feeling we had had a great days wildlife viewing and realising we had been very lucky to enjoy the first moments of our three young turtles lives. We will never know what happens to them but hopefully one will survive.
On our return we had a quick shower before joining others for an Xmas eve supper and an early ish night. Costa Ricans celebrate Xmas today - with youngsters saying awake until midnight to open their presents.
Rain again serenaded us; sometimes it was so loud it was hard to talk over it - there surely cannot be much rain left in the clouds !!