2015- Rainforest Revisit - Part Five Caribbean Rainforest

10 August 2015
The bus for the group tour to Tortuguero was to pick us up between 6:15 and 7:00. We were up at 5 and down at breakfast at 6.

omelet chef

breakfast

Bob checked us out after breakfast. We sat in the lobby to wait. While we waited, I walked around and took photos of the hotel gift shop.

jewelry laid out in rows

T shirts

First to leave was a whole group of 30 traveling with a guide. Then came a red and black bus - that wasn't our bus either. Then came a tour leader from another lodge. Finally the Mawamba bus came. When the bus came, we found out that they had not been informed that I used a scooter. This was one of the several problems with this trip - it turned out that Pat Hewitt had failed to say anything to the tour company about my use of the scooter and as a result they were totally unprepared. The tour leader Anna Maria put us in a front seat which was fine as it allowed better photography. She gave almost all the narrative in English and Spanish although there were French and also Italians on board. We had several more people to pick up,

and then we drove out of town

Dividing river between Heredia and San Jose

through the

Clouds in Braulio Carrillo

which was a toll road. Our guide passed around a branch of a coffee tree which grows in the mountains in this area.
We stopped for breakfast at Guápiles. This town is on Highway 32 which is the road that goes between San Jose and the jumping off point for Tortuguero.

Restaurant in the morning

Breakfast

The restaurant also gives a chance for a bathroom stop. The restaurant is a part of a group which includes two hotels - the Mawamba Lodge at Tortuguero being one of them. This was also a place where people would get on or off the bus tours to switch tours or to rent a car. Facilities include a bar, a family style restaurant (which basically means a buffet), which include typical Costa Rican and Caribbean foods and marked natural trails for tours. We were never told about the possibilities for nature trails.

fire hydrant on the way to La Pavona

old unused narrow guage railroad tracks

The place where people get boats to Tortuguero is La Pavona.

The bus goes down a long unpaved road,

Road in to La Pavona

and turns at a small parking lot which has a sign with the boat times on it.

Sign with times of public boats

At the end of this road is a larger parking lot, and a place where the charter buses disgorge their passengers. There is a restaurant there where you can use the rest room for a small fee. This is also where you buy your boat ticket if you are not on a charter.If you are on a charter, you carry your luggage (or pay a small fee for a man with a handcart to take it for you) to the luggage boat for your hotel, and then slide down the muddy bank to the boat for the guests at that lodge. There is no dock. At the boat landing, Bob had to take the two suitcases and the scooter to the luggage boat.

Transfer point - bus to boat

Boats down the mud bank

boats as we left La Pavona

River-canal side - muddy

supply boat

On the bus, Anna, the tour leader for our Mawamba group gave rapid fire instructions on how things were to go when we got to the lodge. I don't know why we could not have a printed schedule (such as when lunch would be) and a map of the place. I got completely lost coming back from dinner. Anna did not really spend much energy helping us until we were back in San Jose at which time she expected a tip.

Kayakers on the river

When we got to the lodge, they could not give me a room that I could scooter to.

Hotel manager assigning rooms

The manager was most upset when he found out but they were completely full so they do not have anywhere to move us to and the room they have given us has five steps. First a step up to and down from a kind of pagoda,

cabins from central pagoda

and then the five steps into the room. Each time Bob has to pick up the 55 pound scooter and lift it up the steps. This is really not satisfactory. The best they can do is to move us to another room tomorrow. I did have to walk from the pagoda to the room. At lunch Bob could not find anything that he wanted to eat. So then he was hungry and dinner is not for an hour and a half. It took us so long to get to the room that almost everyone was seated when we got there, and all the people at our table were talking only in French.

Pasta for lunch

Bob could not figure out how to work the ceiling fan - it is on a dial switch that we didn't see.

Cabin, one bed, shelf with blankets and window

shelves in hotel room

I was so exhausted from the walk to the boat that - after I tried and failed to get the wi-fi connection, I just fell asleep and slept until 4:30. I thought about swimming, but it would take too much effort to get my bathing suit on. I could not do the afternoon walk of the grounds anyway. Bob did it on his own and he said the path to town had big mud holes in it that the scooter couldn't do (although they ride bikes through there)

Lots of rain in the rainy season makes muddy walks

When I woke up I decided to take the computer to the internet place. But I had stripped down my suitcase so it wouldn't be heavy and I had nothing to carry it in. I had the bright idea of using a pillowcase. So we found a working plug and tried to log on.

Wi-fi hot spot

Wi-fi area near the office

Good signal but no internet. Bob went to reception and they said to bring it in. With difficulty I climbed the steps with my computer. But he couldn't do it either. He had to recycle the modems for it to work. I sat in the only A/C place on the property to do the internet.

Anna Maria told us just to sit at a different place at dinner and we did - it was easy to find a seat because half of the group was out on the night rainforest walk

Coconut and chocolate for dessert

I signed up for the early boat trip in the morning but Bob does not want to go. He still has to get me to the meeting place by 5:30 a.m

11 August 2015

All last night it was raining, thundering and lightening. And Bob had the ceiling fan on - he likes air blowing on him and I do not. I tried to cover up with a sheet, but eventually had to go get a blanket. At 5 we got up and Bob said there was no way we should be going out in a boat in lightning and thunder. Also the paths are mostly covered, but not the path from our room to the pagoda. There was standing water on the path. So Bob said I could not use the scooter (which I agreed with). .

Morning rain

I put on my raincoat and put my camera in a baggie and set off with my cane. I was soaked (the bottom half of me) by the time I got to the pagoda and it isn't that far. The path from here was covered, but I was already wet. I soldiered on and got to the meeting place. They decided to postpone the tour about 40 minutes.

Waiting for the rain to stop

I think the boat drivers didn't want to go with the lightening either. But at 6:15, the rain had let up some and it had more or less stopped thundering. So we got in the boats. I paid for our Tortuguero passes (I was told it was $10 each, but Anna Maria charged us $15.00 each and no explanation has ever been given to me. The park website still says $10). Some people had it included as part of their package - but we did not. I sat in the middle seat and an English couple sat on either side of me. My glasses got rain on them

Selfie with cell phone in the rain

and I had nothing dry to wipe them off with. I was afraid to get my camera out to take photos so I used my cell phone. We saw quite a few toucans (but I couldn't get photos with my cell phone because they were too far away), a caiman, a basilisk lizard, a lizard that was swimming like a snake, a gallinule and a couple of jacana.

Boat tour in the rain

There's a snake here?

Is that a snake

Anhinga

Lizard

Night heron

House with low pedestrian bridge

Low bridge - regular boats can't pass

No TV - this is jungle sign

Another boat in the rain

Also monkeys and some bats. Our guide was Owen and he was very good.

Bats on the boathouse

On the roof of the boathouse

The little boy behind me was most unhappy with the tour and wanted to go back to the hotel. It was really no tour for a child. When we got back, I was soaked through to my underwear on the bottom and not much dryer on the top. We were going to have to switch rooms and I didn't want to put the wet clothes in the suitcase, so I kept them on. We had breakfast

Breakfast omelet

and then Bob told me that I needed to do a better selfie (with my eyes open)

Anna Maria did not remember that we were switching rooms to one that I could get the scooter to at 10 and she scheduled the walk to the village then - that was one thing I really wanted to do which I thought I could definitely do. But it conflicted. Also she was going to walk both ways - I might have done it if we had gone in a boat, but she said there were no boats available. I do not think that there were no boats available. I think it was just easier for her to walk rather than hire a boat.

Necessities and Souvenirs shop near our new room

Anyway we moved, and then I removed my wet things and changed into dry ones and tested out the internet, which I can get at this cabin. I talked to a couple of people who did the turtle nesting walk and decided that the way they described it, I could not possibly do it. One of the ladies said she lost a shoe in the mud. So I have not signed up for it. That's the two things I wanted to do and I am not going to get to do them. The grounds of the Mawamba hotel were nicely landscaped with many flowering plants. While I was drying myself out, Bob walked around the grounds and took some photos of the butterflies for me - he said I couldn't get there because they have big round stepping stones on the trail and some of them were underwater.

non-scooter/wheelchair path

Pool during the day at Mawamba

Bluish iguana

Iguana on the grounds of Mawamba

Kayak storage

Flowering plants

Flowering plants

Ginger

Flowering plants

The lodge was breeding butterflies and he took photos in the butterfly enclosure

Butterfly chrysalis

Butterfly up by enclosure top

Butterfly feeding station

- particularly the blue morpho butterflies. These butterflies only show the brilliant blue back of their wings when they are flying. When they are sitting still, their wings are brown and look like bark

Blue morpho in the center

Blue morpho feeding on left

Blue morphos flying

Then we had lunch. The meals were buffet style and we ate at big tables. Each guide had their tables marked with their name so we would sit at the correct one.

Part of the salad bar

lunch plate

When we were getting ready to go on the afternoon tour, one of my sandals (which I bought for the trip in 1996) came apart. So after the tour, I put them in the trash as the soles were separating. I think it would be easier and probably more efficient to buy some new one rather than try to get a repair. I hoped the afternoon tour would be better. We stopped for the guides to pay for the park passes.

village from the river

On the way to get park passes from the boat

Guides lined up to pay

Our guide in the Spanish speaking boat after paying

Building the new park entrance

Trees above the river

and at least I was able to use my 300 mm lens to take some photos of animals in the trees, so I got some reasonable ones. I didn't think the guide was as good as Owen, but at least I wasn't all wet. We had three boats this afternoon and our boat was all people from California except us. We saw quite a few herons and anhingas - but no toucans. There was a basilisk lizard but it jumped into the water before we could get a photo and there was an olive keeled snake but I could not see it. We saw many more different kinds of birds when we were here in 1996.

Heron in flight

Tiger heron

Blue heron

Male anhinga

Female anhinga

Green heron

We also saw quite a few Howler monkeys - on trip in 1996 we saw all three kinds of monkeys, but on this trip, just the Howlers

Howler monkey

Monkey in a tree

Monkey sitting in a tree

Monkey

There was an amusing incident - one of the monkeys decided to hang upside down and eat fruit that was below him on another branch.

Monkey unzoomed

There were a couple of little girls sitting with me and they were pointing and giggling and one of them said the monkey had a pink vagina. The monkey was quite away off, and I couldn't see that well, so I zoomed in with my 300 mm lens and took a look. It was a male monkey, so he did not have a vagina

Monkey with 300 mm lens

Dinner was fish, rice, beans salad and spaghetti with a 'Costa Rican' dessert). The salad had hearts of palm. I didn't eat much - I just had trouble wanting to eat. They have taken away the palm that I park by - I guess I was too hard on it.

Salad with hearts of palm

pool at night

Mawamba bar after dark