We woke early the next morning to the sound of pouring rain on the tin roof. Because of the copious amounts of aloe I had rubbed on my legs, my sunburn was sticking to itself and everything else. Brilliant!
Shorts from yesterday were a no go; they had gotten sweaty and stinky from canoeing and if I wore them in an enclosed space such as a van, the other passengers may well vote to strap me to the top.
Pants it was….skinny jeans pulled over my scritchy, painful sunburn. I carefully shimmied into them, attempting to pull as delicately as possible so as to not irritate the sunburn.
Impossiburu.
I pathetically hobbled through the garden to our hotel reception, trying not to anger the leg burn gods, and waited for our early private bus to pick us up and whisk us away to Tortuguero by way of La Pavona.
The blissfully air conditioned and dry bus arrived. We stopped in town to pick up a Dutch girl and bumped out of town on rainy roads.
The rain continued nearly the entire time we were driving along costa Rica’s bumpy highways and roads. There aren’t that many road signs or labels on the roads here. I silently wondered how the driver even knew where we were going. Maybe we would end up in Panama or Nicaragua – we would be none the wiser and the rainy trip seemed to last forever.
We drove past bright green vegetation, rolling hills, mountains, and farms. A few times, we had to stop to let cows cross the road. Our driver swerved around slow vehicles constantly, following some sort of unspoken driving code of honor we couldn’t easily decipher.
We stopped in a town a few hours away and picked up two more passengers from Canada. I got breakfast – a delicious chicken empanada and fanta kolita. Kolita tasted strongly of a cherry gummy candy I liked, one that sticks to your teeth and is extremely chewy. The internet informed me the flavor was grenadine. Hooked!
The driver warned us that the last half hour would be pretty bumpy. What was the first 2.5 hours then? Yikes!
True to his word, last half hour was indeed amazingly bumpy. We had to swerve around potholes filled with water, and passing was nearly impossible. Somehow, he managed it anyway.
It had been raining hard all morning and the road had flooded in a few places. Fearlessly he navigated our van through some deep-looking running water over the road.
At long last, we reached the boats to tortuguero. The rain was falling in sheets and the river was swollen over its banks. We nervously hopped in the long-flat bottomed (covered!) boats and took off down the river.
The rain soon subsided and once it became apparent that the boat captain was indeed competent, we enjoyed the boat trip. One of the town tour guides was on board and he helped us spot wildlife. We didn’t see crocodiles or Jaguars, but we did see a monkey and a lot of birds.
The Canadian couple with us was staying at a lodge up a private, calm canal. The water was black from the minerals released by the palm trees. It was beautiful, but also a bit horror movie creepy.
At long last, we arrived at tortuguero. The rain returned. Yay. Our guides met us and took us through the marshy town to our hotel.
Here was the downfall of my jeans. We had to wade through some deep puddles…I was quickly soaked to the knee. The walk was relatively short but difficult, and we reached our beachfront hotel and immediately had to change into something less moist. Stink shorts it was!
We spent the rest of the evening peacefully listening to the sound of the rain and the ocean and lounging about.
We meandered down to the ocean and walked on the beach for a while. The tides are exceptionally strong here, so we can’t swim in the ocean, but we can wade in the warm waters and enjoy the soft black sands.
Tortuguero is on the Caribbean, and the town is appropriately laid back and flavored with Jamaican style. Dinner was a departure from our regular casadas, and reggae beats thump from nearby establishments.
The rain didn’t let up for the rest of the evening, but I did see a giant moth the size of my face!
Thursday: maybe less rain?