From La Fortuna we bid farewell to the Volcano views and headed to a jungle lodge 2 hours by van and 1 hour by tractor into the jungle. The Jungle lodge was nestled beside a large national park set along a river bank. The first night we put on some rubber boots to protect us from mud and snakes and headed out on a hunt for night time crawlers. It didn't take us long to find our first frog than another species and another. We also came across stick insects the size of my forearm, lizards in all shapes and sizes and large toads. There wasn't much mammal action but the frogs and reptiles were fantastic! The photos below I can't take credit for, our camera is shit at night so these were collected from everyone else on our tour. After a horrible nights sleep under a bug net with 30+ degree heat and humidity we woke up the next morning for 5am and headed out on a bird watching walk. That's the thing with wildlife spotting you have to work around their schedule. We managed to spot some beautiful toucans and other pretty birds. I can't say it was worth the early wake up but not a bad way to start the day either. We spent the afternoon walking through the jungle to a near by swimming spot in the stream that was wonderfully refreshing in the heat and beautiful surroundings. After our swim we spent the day hanging out making home made empanadas, reading books, playing cards (exploding kittens was a huge hit!). That night we topped off our Jungle lodge visit with a bonfire. Despite the poor sleep we really loved the jungle lodge, completely away from society in nature. Next we headed to beautiful Tortuguero. To reach Tortuguero we had to take an hour long boat ride through rivers surrounded by wildlife. The name Tortuguero translates to Land of Turtles which couldn't be more true. Every year thousands of turtles return to the beaches of Tortuguero each year to lay their eggs. Researchers have studied the turtles here for over 50 years, one of the longest animal research centers on earth, to figure out how and why the turtles return each year. Many years back an American came and collected hundreds of eggs and brought them to Florida in an attempt to bring a turtle population to the US thinking that the baby turtles would hatch, remember their birth place and return 30 years later when they were mature to breed. However these turtles 30 years later didn't return to Florida as planned and instead showed up in Tortuguero, how and why unknown. We were sadly not here the right time of year for the turtles and didn't see any. However the national parks and beaches make it the visit still well worth it. The town of Totuguero is small and touristy but really nice with lots of artisan shops and an amazing Smoothie shop near the National Park entrance called Fresh Foods. The town is extremely environmentally conscious and recycles everything, plant holders and even the children's playground are made from old tires and recycled bits and pieces. Our second day here I headed out on a 3 hour kayak trip through the national park and Chris took a motorized canoe to avoid using his injured shoulder. Seeing the park on the river is the best way to get up close to the local wildlife without disturbing them. We managed to see spider monkeys, howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, caiman, all sorts of birds and lizards and some nasty looking spiders. It was absolutely amazing and one of the highlights on this trip for sure! Our finale stop before returning to San Jose was Puerto Viejo. It's a funky little beach bum town on the Caribbean cost offering up a cool mix of Afro Caribbean culture and Costa Rican traditions. Our second day our G guide (aka CEO) Eddie hooked us up with bikes for the day at no extra cost and took us down to a local beach. It was easily the best beach we went to in Costa Rica, white sand, hardly any people, warm Caribbean water and lots of shade. We bummed around the beach for the first part of the day and went into town later with the bikes. One of the girls on our tour found a restaurant called Bread and Chocolate which was incredible, highly recommend it! They make everything from scratch and use local cocoa to make vegan cakes, truffles and pies (so goooood!) After 2 1/2 days in Puerto Viejo it was time to leave and make the long drive back to San Jose. As we drove back Chris and I had a moment where we realized this was it. The end of our 8 months was happening! I'm writting this blog as we sit in the San Jose airport awaiting our flight back to Vancouver. In some ways it feels surreal that our 8 months of travel is ending but in most other ways we're excited to be getting home.
Costa Rica was a fantastic way to top off our travels, we both agreed it was a great last adventure before we start our next adventure at home.
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