5th August, Evergreen Hotel, Tortuguero

After a reasonable night’s sleep amidst the sounds of the rain forest, we got up early, if not bright! , at 5.30 and set off for the six ‘o’ clock boat tour into Tortuguero National Park. 

After the initial confusion about which boat we should be travelling on, we were lucky to spot a sloth, a large iguana and several birds within the first few minutes of entering the park. Grandma’s binoculars came in very useful for creature spotting and we also saw toucan, white faced monkeys and a snake bird, spotted by Sam, who had a long twisty neck like its namesake and, although generally avoiding people, was still drying its feathers in the sun before being able to fly off so we were treated to an excellent view of it.

Iguana, warming up in the morning sun

Yellow ... Heron?

Yellow Heron Chick (of the above Heron)

Collared Aracari (Toucan)

White Faced Monkey

Snake Bird (Anhinga) as spotted by Sam

We then came back to the lodges and the others had a much needed kip. Dave and Ben then decided to do the Evergreen Lodge zip wire canopy ride, and right on cue, the heavens opened as they set off!

Dave: not a lot of English was being spoken so Ben had to interpret. As you can imagine not a lot of words came forth. The 1st zip wire , while getting very wet, was pretty gentle, but then you had to climb up about 20m up a big ladder. Probably my least favourite part. You got a great view of the jungle floor, so quite a different perspective than when you are In a boat. After that it was great fun, apart from the Tarzan swing which I wimped out of much to Ben's disdain.

Sue: Sam and I, meanwhile, had lunch and played Slam! Then at three we all headed off for our free kayak hire from the hotel. This was fantastic. We started in our own little channel, paddling through lush vegetation, until we could not get any further and the boys had to extract themselves from a narrow inlet via somebody’s garden. 

We then went across the main river to the other side and a bird landed on a branch right above us as we rowed into an inlet.

We rounded off the day with a swim, viewing toucan and monkeys by the pool – then cocktails by the pool bar ....

and, after dinner, a torchlit hike up the jungle trail and along a hanging rickety bridge, until the nibbling mosquitoes got the better of us and we played card games in the little bar before turning in for a good night’s sleep.

New Experience: Zip wiring