Wolfram is not having a great day today (and we didn’t see any new birds anyway) so I am taking over the blog again. It was an intense day!
We woke up at dawn and went for a sunrise goodbye swim in the Caribbean Sea.
We said goodbye to Tortuguero and its footpaths with locals cruising by on bikes (no cars), lines of laundry fluttering everywhere, kids, cats, colorful murals, the sound of pounding Atlantic surf competing with reggae wafting on the breeze. Tortuguero is only accessible by water, so we got into a narrow boat headed through the swamp, maneuvering slowly upstream on a fast-flowing, muddy, shallow river passing caimans, iguanas, and huge mangrove root systems covered with moss.
As we got out an hour later at the landing in A la Pavona, which was really just a beach in the jungle, Wolfram was helping the captain unload the suitcases, and bumped his head quite badly on the roof of the boat. His injury is not for the faint of heart, so I will spare you the details, but he seems to be okay.
At this point we were grateful for having decided to splurge on hiring a car and driver to take us back to San José and not having to figure out the local buses! Our driver turned out to be chatty and funny, despite a serious language barrier. He stopped to ask some random coconut harvesters for some freebies and got us each a freshly cut coconut to drink (did we mention that everybody carries a machete?) and a trunkload more. When we got stuck in standstill traffic in the mountains he proceded to pull out his phone and show us pictures of his family and home and some wonderful mom-and-baby sloth videos.
And then after 4 hours, finally… Nikolaus was waiting for us at the hotel! It’s been over 7 months since I saw my baby, so I felt a lot like those sloth mamas who just want to hold on tight.
P.S. from Wolfram: Today the birthday wishes go to Florian who not only is a reliable birder friend, but also the most prolific commentator on this blog. 😀
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