The best words to describe this morning are “aggressively rainy.” It was coming down in sheets when we woke up. The hammocks in the sandy pavilion were flip flopping over and over again in the wind, and rain could reach me even though I was tucked back in a corner of the dining area. The ocean sounded very angry as it smashed into the beach.
The rain does have the benefit of being cool on our ludicrous sunburn. I can wear approximately zero things without discomfort. Ow.
Any piece of paper I brought with me is starting to bow – even my passport. Nothing feels like it is actually dry, it sort of moistly sticks to you when you pick up anything.
We made the rain stop by resolving to get a late lunch at the Buddha cafe. Delicious batidos (shakes) were ours, and then killed time by milling around the supermarket and a large souvenir shop.
Tonight was the night for night walk. Lauren is feeling extremely hobbly due to her awful leg burn, so I went by myself.
In the dark.
Through a weirdly silent town in a strange place where all I can do is talk about weather, conjugate verbs if they are regular, and order food.
Great idea!
The internet assured me over and over again that tortuguero was a pretty safe place, and our hotel was just a six minute scamper from the docks.
Scamper I did – I was early, and the only one going on the night walk.
Excellent.
My guide handed me a heavy duty weapon flashlight. I’ve bludgeoned a lot of zombies in my day, so I’d rank my proficiency pretty high with this baby should anyone sneak up on me.
We walked north of town to a dark path, accompanied by a tiny white and brown dog from the town, and started looking for creatures of the night. I was also prepared to whack the creatures of the night, but I wasn’t about to reveal my strategy to my guide.
At first, we only discovered some spiders. They were kinda big, and my guide demonstrated that you could play yoyo with them if you placed one in your palm.
Hey buddy, I’ll pass, but if you want to play with this horror of horrors, be my guest.
And so, true to his word, the spider spun its web down, down from his hand, up again, and back down – very much like a yoyo. A horrifying yoyo you would never want to play with or have anywhere near you, but a yoyo nonetheless.
We carried on down the dark path, accompanied by the pooch. The path didn’t yield much, but we did see a few cool lizards. They were bright green, some were grey, and many were cleverly hidden. I’m not entirely sure how my expert guide even saw them sometimes!
We even saw a chameleon, with its long long tail and bright green body, resting on a large leaf. They turn a darker color during the day usually.
Along the way, my guide also pointed out several plants. Some of the flower ones are related to bananas, there are a few grape species around, and some trees are related to coffee. He also pointed out a type which is used to make jewelry – it yields a black and red seed that feels like a popcorn kernel.
Tortuguero on its ocean side is dotted with markers. These are used during turtle season – guides look for turtles and report the number to groups waiting in huts. It prevents large groups of people from accidentally disrupting the nesting sea turtles (green most commonly, but sometimes leatherback).
We reached the end of the path and the final light and turned towards one of the shelters.
Into the jungle.
Just the two of us.
Alone.
I gripped my flashlight.
I was on such edge that a nearby snuffling armadillo scared the crap out of me. It was rustling around, looking for food. The nine ringed variety are most common here.
We walked for a while longer in the twisty, pitch black darkness. We found a lot of frogs, including the incredibly loud, tiny white frogs we heard everywhere. We also encountered another group of night walk participants. Ok, so someone could hear me scream. Excellent!
We wandered by the water and found a kingfisher sleeping, a bunch of herons, and relatives to the quetzal. They stirred briefly when we shone our lights on them. Sharing the same tree was a green basilisk, blending in well with the tree trunk.
It was nearly time to head out. We stopped by the guide’s snake tree, but the snake wasn’t home.
The little doggy was with us the entire way, right until we returned to the dock. The rain had held off the entire time – this was the first night we’ve been here and it hadn’t rained at all.
The final miracle would be getting back in one piece. I reluctantly handed back my weapon and made a beeline for our hotel. Through the creepy park, under one light on the corner of the soccer field and straight across to the one diagonal from that one. Near the sea, I had to use my phone flashlight or risk squishing a toad or tripping on a coconut. I saw the outline of a person on a bench and crept away as quickly as possible.
Home stretch! It was dark and creepy and I swooshed past ramshackle houses as fast as I could without sacrificing relative silence.
Finally, the hotel was in sight. I passed the guards in the front and entered the room.
I made it! And the jungle was pretty awesome at night, too.
Tomorrow we leave tortuguero. I will miss it and its charms and creepy night parks!