Monkeys and Turtles and Rain, Oh, My!

TORTUGUREO N.P. Nov. 6--  Today we awoke to the sound of howling. Shirley's clothing is damp.

Last night we were serenaded to the sound of torrential rainfall. Fortunately,  the resort provides umbrellas, so that we could stay reasonably dry when we walked to dinner. But this is today, and in a few moments we decide whether we really want to go on that ride in a boat that has no roof. If it rains like last night, this excursion is going to be worse than miserable.

Is this what we were in for?

While we're deciding that, let's talk about our first day in Costa Rica, yesterday.Yesterday was a mixed blessing. The howler monkeys made an appearance, but they were so high up in the trees, we could only hear them. The seven tiny turtles made it to the sea, but they did it behind our backs. There were patches of blue sky,but when the rains came, they came in sheets--which is really excellent, for reasons I'll explain later. We also got to meet a poison dart frog on our first days here -- probably an unlikely occurrence. So far, there's no downside to that. And Wilson got his first glimpse of the Caribbean.

The day began a with a bus trip that would take us halfway across the country, from San Jose across the continental divide to the Caribbean to see the turtle hatchlings.  On the way, Alexander, our guide, told us what is happening in a country that hasn't had a standing army for 66 years. (The army was abolished in 1948.) What's happening is that Costa Rica, a nation of 4.5 million and about the size of West Virginia,  has a literacy rate of 98 percent. Ninety percent of its electricity comes from renewable resources. Hydro accounts for the vast majority, supplemented by wind and thermal. The thermal energy is due to the nation's abundance of volcanoes.

 The heavy rains are not only good for renewable energy. They are the reason Costa Rica has so much water that is drinkable from the tap. And this water is useful for the high tech industry, which involves companies such as Intel. And although agriculture is not the backbone of this country's economy, the water helps with growing bananas year around and harvesting them daily. Each banana plant consumes 21 liters of water a day, Alexander noted.  (He also added that Costa Rica's 21 climate zones don't merely benefit its biodiversity;  some of those zones and the rich volcanic soil, also provide the basis for growing some of the best coffee in the world. ("Juan Valdez drinks Costa Rican coffee," he jokes about the character in coffee ads.)

The ground here seems to be heavily weathered, with some of that likely coming from the chemistry kicked out by the country's volcanism. As Alexander notes, volcanism and plate tectonics are part of the life of Costa Rica. One earthquake  in 1991 raised the Caribbean coast by 3 feet; another in 2012 raised the Pacific coast two feet. Pretty soon the country will be as large as the United States,  he joked. Because of earthquakes, high rise buildings are de-emphasized and school children are trained on what  to do when the shaking starts.

As he tells us this, our bus continues to ascend, until it reaches about 4,000 feet, a far cry from the highest volcanic peaks, but high enough to carry us over the continental divide, when we begin our descent toward the sea. Enroute we stop at a small community for breakfast, where we visit a butterfly  hatchery, and where Alexander also happens to find "Bluejeans," an amphibian lingering on a large green leaf. Bluejeans is a poison dart frog whose blue legs lend it the strange moniker.

This little guy could sit on a quarter with room to spare.

Later, as we drive past the verdant overgrowth, the bus pauses for us to catch a glimpse at some movement in the trees. It is howler monkeys, moving through the treetops, causing branches to dip and wave. We try to take a bead on them with our cameras, but the foliage hides them while their howling rains down on us. Alexander does a great imitation in what appears to be an attempt to keep them engaged with us. I wonder--when he speaks Howler, do they detect a "tico" accent?

Our group included Americans, some ladies from Spain, and a couple Seattle women, Dee Quiggle and Audrey Hampton.

Dee Quiggle, Shirley and Audrey Hampton at a lifesize statue of the Leatherback Turtle in Tortuguero, our destination city.

Audrey illustrated just how small the world was when she mentioned that she worked for the City of Seattle,  which probably has 10,000 employees. Since she had worked for utilities, I investigated what seemed like the remote possibility that she would have known my old Air Force buddy, Charlie Shell, who retired from the city. He had worked in a couple departments, including engineering.

As a matter of fact, she had visited him just last Sunday, she reported. So Shirley, Wilson and I flew through Dallas to reach San Jose, Costa Rica, only to bump into a stranger who just happened to be a colleague of someone I've known for 45 years and who had just spoken with him.

Our final approach to Tortuguera national park involved a river boat on La Suerte (the lucky) River,

The same type of craft that transport goods on the river also transported us to our resort.

That boat ride gave us a river-eye view of what a Costa Rican rain forest looks like:

Like a green glacier, the burgeoning forest pushes a wall of foliage right up to--and into--the river.

The Suerte eventually joined the Torturguero River, and ended at the Laguna Lodge resort in Tortuguero, where Torturguero National Park is situated. (The name basically means Turtle Land, sort of.) The resort lies on  a thin stretch of land between the river, and the Caribbean beach 656 feet away, where young sea turtles are hatching at this time.

A prominent sign announces that we have arrived at "Turtle Land."

We went looking for the hatchlings late in the afternoon, while glimpses of blue -- or at least lighter -- sky appeared. Alexander cautioned us that there's no predicting when the little critters will dig out and race for the ocean. We walked the beach, examining broken shells, finding the tracks where the mother came to lay their eggs, and discovering enormous dips in the seashore that looked like bomb craters --the places there the mother turtles excavated to lay their eggs, which can number more than 100. We also spotted what appeared to be the tracks of raccoons, one of the many predators who await the emergence of the young turtles. We found nothing.

Wilson crouched in a turtle excavation, provide a frame of reference for the size of the egg nests.

I took the opportunity to photograph Wilson studying the nesting site and checking out the Caribbean surf, as the group kept looking for the babies, and as another group entered the beach to look.

Wilson takes a moment to experience the surf of the Caribbean for the first time.

No babies to be found. Shirley photographs the mother's tracks from the nest.

Then I hoofed it to catch up with my group, and afterward we headed back to the resort. Later, a fellow groupie divulged that, after we abandoned a nesting crater, the second group approached the site we had been standing at when they came onto the beach. It was there that they watched seven tiny turtles emerge from the sand.  Flanked on either side by protective human legs, they made their rush to the sea unencumbered.

At dinner, a retiree from Ohio by way of Florida asked about Wilson,the indestructible. Supporting the sending of the One World Futbol to disadvantaged kids who could use them is something his church might take an interest in, he said. He asked for my card.

So that was yesterday. Today we braved the weather, which turned out to be pretty mild, and spent a couple hours cruising the canals of the rain forest, taking in sights like these. Then we returned to the resort, intending to breakfast and reboard the boat for a second excursion. But that got delayed. The photo below gives an indication why.

The view from the porch on Nov. 6, and the reason we had been dubious about the boat trip.

Tomorrow we'll tell you about the board ride through in Tortuguero National Park--and about The Little Turtle that Could.

Once pointed in the right direction, this little critter wasted no time heading for the surf.

Love,
Robert, Shirley
and Wilson.