Before the recap of this weekend, I forgot to mention that this past week we went to San Jose for the afternoon and were able to explore the markets and city for a bit! I bought a neat new purse (sadly the color rubs off on my clothes every time I use it). It was neat to see the city but that's not really my thing. I love nature, and the city just made me feel on edge the whole time worrying about whether someone was going to mug me or not...It was still fun though!
The Hippie Market!
National Museum
Down Town San Jose
Recap of this weekend in Toruguero:
First of all I need to say a special thank you to Greta for organizing the trip this past weekend to Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge. Included in the trip was the following: Lodging, Transportation by bus and boat from UNA to Tortuguero, Stop at Tortuguero to explore town, morning boat tour of canals, afternoon Jungle walk, and food. Drinks along with the night tour I chose to go on with a few other people were the only things not included in this amazing trip. Anyways continuing with a day by day outline...
Friday: After waking up at 4:30 in order to be to UNA to catch the bus to Toruguero by 5:40 we were all pretty exhausted and slept the first part of the drive until breakfast. We stopped in San Jose to pick up some other "travelers" who ended up being three local women from San Jose on a family/girls weekend, so much fun! I wish there were places in the U.S that were as wonderful as where we went this weekend to go on a girls trip (and as cheap!). After picking up our new friends we were off!
The drive was beautiful (of course)
After taking a bunch of pictures we were off again. We drove for about another 2 hours and then we had to get out and load everything on a boat to get to the lodge. I love boat rides, so I was really excited for the hour ride to the lodge. The ride was beautiful and full of birds, horses, cows, and turtles. After a bit we stopped at the village of Tortuguero to stop and pick up anything we needed for the weekend because we were headed to the lodge which was about 200 miles for the nearest road, aka, completely isolated for the crazy modern world we live in. After a long day of traveling we finally arrived to the lodge around 12:30 pm. All of us were in agreement that after eating lunch, we needed a drink and some time in the pool. The rest of Friday was spent exploring the lodge, pool, hammocks, and beach, and eating (of course). One of the best parts about the culture here is that coffee is something that you drink all day every day and readily available every where you go. I love it! We all head to get up oober early for our morning boat ride the next day so being the party animals we are...not. we were all in bed by 9!
We saw this guy on the way to the lodge! So cool!
Me and Carley ready for the pool/beach!
I had to take a footprint picture at some point!
Most eventful thing of Friday: I saw my first cockroach. Which was terrifying. I ended up running into the guys room and demanding that Austin kill it for me....I really don't like cockroaches...
Saturday: Saturday came bright and early and full of thunderstorms. Which would have been even more wonderful if we didn't have plans to go on an early morning boat ride to see animals and explore the canals. I went to take a shower at 4:30 am, and mind you I'm half awake at this point, and discover that another cockroach has decided to make our shower it's home. Luckily, I felt brave enough to run out and grab my shoe in order to kill the darn thing. And did all of this without screaming!
After everyone woke up and got ready we all headed for coffee and cookies before heading out only to find out that the trip was being pushed back until after breakfast at 7 because we couldn't go out with the lightning. This was a bit frustrating but, we were all happy to go back and get an hour or so more sleep before heading out later. After breakfast it was still raining but at least the thunder and lightning had stopped so we headed out on the boat to see what creatures were waiting to be seen in the canals! This weekend I was truly blown away by the beauty that this earth has to be seen and how little of it we actually get to see in our every day lives. It was absolutely breathtaking, I really believe there are so many beautiful creatures that have yet to be found. After the morning boat ride, we headed back to swim for a bit before lunch and then our jungle tour. It began to rain again after lunch but that didn't stop us from taking our hike in the jungle near the lodge. We put on our lovely muck boots and headed into the jungle with our guide for the weekend Urben.
When we first got in the van on Friday Urben greeted us by saying that he hoped after this weekend we would see the world, and Costa Rica, in a different light and if we opened our minds and our hearts we would truly understand what "Pura Vida" is...This happened for me after the night boat tour, more about that in a bit.
Anyways, the jungle walk ended up involving eating termites right from the termite mound (they tasted like pepper and really weren't bad at all! The worst part was sticking your finger on the nest to try and get the bugs to crawl on your finger and then eating them). The hike was very educational, mosquito filled, muddy, sweaty, and fun, afterwards we headed back to the lodge to hang out the rest of the afternoon. A few of us went for a walk down the beach to a lagoon. Sadly the portion of the Caribbean beach we were on had to strong of rip tides and too many sharks to go swimming but it was still beautiful and nice to walk down the beach and explore. After exploring for a bit, and finally hearing Carley's rap song which I've been waiting to hear....and creating a new starting phrase for the rap, "Fall back a bit yo" haha, we got ready for our night boat trip and dinner. Only 6 of the 12 of us decided to go on the night boat trip since it was extra money, but man am I so glad I spent that extra money. It was the best $25 I've ever spent and was my favorite experience here in Costa Rica so far. It was so crazy to think we were the only things around for miles and that our little bubble of light was literally the ONLY light other than that millions of stars in the sky. We saw so many amazing creatures, we were just leaving the dock and saw a baby caiman which our guide, Urben, decided to try and catch and succeeded after a few tries! The little caiman was in the middle of eating a fish too so it was really good to see the fish hanging out of his mouth! We also were able to touch him and it was really cool, and surprisingly soft!
SO COOL!
The rest of the fun things we saw were rare birds, but still really cool. Urben told us about how birds have developed so that their bodies can shut down but they are still aware and are able to take flight and defend themselves if need be. That being said, he managed to grab hold of a bird that was sleeping on a branch and we were all able to touch it and see it up close. Who can say they pet a wild bird, in the middle of the night, in Costa Rica?!?! I can. That's who. Haha, eventually we reached the lagoon which was our end point and shut off the boat for a bit to take in our surrounds. It was in this moment that I swear I could feel the jungle breathe. It was absolutely amazing and nothing I can say will do it justice. I have never been more at peace with myself, my life, and where I was than I felt in that moment. It was truly a moment in my life that I will never forget and that I will go back to in times of great stress. It was after this moment heading back to the lodge that I can to the firm decision I will return to Costa Rica some day. This beautiful country will always have a place in my heart and I wish I could share that love with all my loved once back at home. I will come back here some day with my loved ones and show them the beautiful world that they're missing. This feeling of peace, love, hope, joy, contentment, remained with me the rest of the night and I slept like a baby once we got back to the lodge.
Sunday: We all decided it would be a great idea to get up at 4 and watch the sunrise. Which, yes this was a very good idea because that meant we could watch the sunrise over the Caribbean ocean and I've never seen a sunrise before. But that also meant that we had to get up oober early again, or at least I had to get up oober early. If you know me at all you know that I just can't go do something without showering first, this means that when we were leaving at 4:45 this morning to walk out to the beach to watch the sunrise, I had to be up at 4 so I could shower. Now you might be thinking that's crazy, and yes it is a little crazy, BUT my thought process was as follows: If I get up at 4 and shower, then I can go watch the sunrise and not have to shower before breakfast afterwards, thus I can go back to sleep for longer after the sunrise. So that's exactly what I did. The sunrise was pretty, but it would have been a lot more beautiful if a storm hadn't been coming in and it had been less cloudy. I still thought it was pretty though. And I got to go back to sleep with the rain making lovely noises outside for an hour and a half before having to head back home. The boat/car ride home was pretty uneventful other than enjoying taking pictures of the people who fell asleep :)
This weekend was one in a million and I'm so grateful that I was able to have the opportunity to experience nature and the jungle the way that I did. I only wish that I was able to share exactly how I felt and exactly what it was like with everyone not just put in simple terms what it was like. I hope someday everyone gets to have an experience like the one I was able to have.
This week should be pretty uneventful, but you never know! My host family is talking about taking me to Guanacaste (which I've heard is one of the most beautiful places in Costa Rica) for the weekend to visit some of their family. We'll see what we end up doing. I was going to look into volunteering at a turtle research center that Urben works at for the weekend but I might not be able to. If only I was here for longer and had more time to fit it in. I'm thinking (hoping) that maybe next year I can come volunteer to help the turtles for the month of May, but that's just a hope. We'll see if I have the money to "spare"....
Until the next adventure,
♥SEJ
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