Costa Rica and Tortuguero wildlife

The Tortuguero rivers and canals

 

 

Standing by the river bank at the 'Evergreen Lodge' was a spiritual experience in the early morning. The mighty river is about 300m wide at this point. It flows laconically at around two or three miles an hour; a river of chocolate coloured water with small eddies and back currents. Sodden rounded coconuts bob by as do assorted sizes of wood flotsam. Some are mere small branches. Others full sized tree trunks. Across on the far bank is an impenetrable green barrier rising to 60m in height. It's a mixture of giant palm trees which bend low towards the river like huge green slides; and tall emergents, boughs bending under the load of orchids and epiphytes. Vines and lianas form tangled webs. In a few places extensive beds of lush green river grasses form carpets interspersed with fallen branches, the perfect perches for river birds and turtles to bask in the sun. As I study the wonderful vista on the far bank I have the sense that a thousand eyes are watching me back just as intently!

 

 The river cruise

 

Take one small boat that has an outboard on the back (115hp for the nautically minded), 15 plastic seats in rows of three; one extremely talented river boat captain and an equally talented guide and throw in narrow twisting rainforest wetland river channels and you have the perfect recipe for wildlife enthusiasts.

Caimen, snappy turtles, spider monkeys, brilliant bottle green and silver kingfishers, herons, egrets, iguanas, Jesus lizards and crocodiles....all were on the list and seen.

 

The boat creeps along at a speed that just overcomes the current. Tracking close to the forest edge but not underneath the overhanging branches....to avoid the wayward snake, spider or creepy crawly dropping in on your hair!

We stare into the dank gloom between the tangled web of buttress roots, lianas and ground layer shrubs. The forest floor beyond that river edge wall is a dark place of erie silence where little sunlight penetrates and the glistening streams run a deep 'tannin laden' brown. Don't get me wrong. The water is clear to the bottom but just stained a translucent brown.

Occasionally lurking behind a tree root, a heron, a scuttling crab or a caiman sitting brooding lay or even ominously on a pile of washed up twigs. It's face an exquisite portrayal of 'menace'. It made my son's day coming face to face with a wild caiman six feet away from where he sat. The gunnel of that boat felt sooooo low! In fact it was a mere 6" above the water!