Tortuga Lodge and Gardens, Tortuguero National Park

Tortuguero is the tropical rainforest, the jungle, the jungle book, what people imagine when they think of the Amazon…only better. Tortuguero is a fantastic tropical rainforest a lowland tropical rainforest with primary and secondary forest that is criss crossed by narrow creeks and backwater lagoons.

The special thing about Tortuguero is that there is a very high return on the guests investment, when guests spend a day in the park they are often rewarded with sightings of three different species of monkeys, multiple species of tropical birds, reptiles such as boa constrictors, eye-lash vipers, land turtles, sloths, caimans and crocodiles, playful river otters and much more. When you visit Tortuguero National Park by motorized boat or by kayak, you hold your breath because you just know that you will see some new creature around the next bend.

Sightings in Tortuguero are potentially intimate. By this I mean that I have sat in a boat that is so close to a male Howler Monkey that I could have reached out and touched him. He was chewing on the new born leaves of a bush on the bank of the river and I could see his torn ear, the scars on his face I imagined that they were his battle scars from territorial fights, I could even see the chewed up leaves inside his mouth, his teeth.

I’ve been on a boat and watched a troop of Spider Monkeys cross the river. The really strong ones, flying through the air from one side to the other, the branches dipping low with their weight and then back almost to their original position. Then moms and grandmas make a bridge and baby monkeys walk across them to get to the other side. Always the cocky adolescent thinking he or she can make it unassisted and then missing it and having to scramble to the top. You have front row seats to this theater here.

As your boat coasts down the creek a Slattey Tailed Trogon on a branch over the river, you see it coming and hold your breath as you glide under it, next a pair of Tiger Herons have a fantastic nest built on a branch hanging over the creek. They seem to be having a discussion that I decide to interpret as a disagreement about whose turn it is to sit on the nest. This goes on for a very long time, we sit and watch. They negotiate until finally dad sits and mom goes hunting.

The sounds are tropical rainforest sounds, monkeys crashing through the trees, birds warning off a predator of their nest, the chirping, bickering and banter that accompanies flocks of birds foraging. In the distance a seed pod that filled with gas finally explodes sending out a cloud of seeds that will fly somewhere and land in the mud and fight to grow. The river water is a mirror reflecting the trees on its bank.

In Tortuguero you’ll hear the hardest rain you’ve ever heard. I don’t know what rain sounds like in India or Bangladesh for example, but it Tortuguero it rains hard and the sound is impressive.

If you lie in your hammock in front of your room and close your eyes and just listen, you will hear life going on in the forest.

Tortuguero is the closest thing we have to an African Safari, the dynamic is similar, you get into a motorized vehicle and go out with a gifted local guide to navigate the creeks of the park and look for a creature, tree or flower to add to your list of things experienced and your memory bank of color, sound and smell.

Kayaking gives the rainforest a different perspective. You’re in the water where you can paddle past the turtle sunbathing on the tree trunk and you can watch the croc swim by (yes, it’s safe). I like to lean back as far as I can and look up and see the pattern of the leaves against the sky. On a kayak you’re down in the water so you have an eye level view of the understory of the forest. I’ve seen agouti digging for seeds and other species of birds gingerly walking along in search of crabs and bugs.

In Tortuguero it’s as humid as you’ll ever feel. We love it, but our guests don’t especially like it. It’s warm to hot. You wear sandals, shorts, t-shirts, caps, sunglasses and lots of sun screen for the boat rides. But then all of the sudden the wind picks up, the smell changes, gray clouds roll in and open up with the epitome of a tropical downpour. Pull out the rain ponchos, hide your face because the rain hurts and hunch over.  It rains like hell for 20 minutes sometimes less sometimes more and then the sun comes out again and the wildlife goes back to its business.

In Tortuguero there are two communities. One, the Tortuguero Village, is the original town. The people that live there are African Americans that are descendants of mostly Jamaicans from either Nicaragua or Costa Rica. If you read the biographies of the staff at Tortuga Lodge you will see that we have employees that emigrated to Tortuguero from Nicaragua running from Somoza and others that immigrated running from the Sandinistas. The descendants of the first 5-6 families that settled in Tortuguero are still there and tell of hunting for food, fishing, swimming in the river and eating sea turtle meat during the season.

The second town is San Francisco de la Boca de Tortuguero. This town is the home of the Word Adventure. This town was originally a squatter’s town; they took over a piece of the park where there is an ancient volcano. The parks service actually burned the town down a couple of times trying to get them out. Now they have everything that a town in Costa Rica has to have to be considered a proper town, a church, a school and a cantina.

The lodge itself is very laid back. It sits right on the Tortuguero River and everything you do is done in the company of the river. Motor boats are often cruising up and down the river; very brown people are paddling by in dugout canoes.

The rooms are simple, very simple. It’s a real testament to the work of the lodge staff and the guides that our upscale guests leave the lodge extremely happy. The rooms are clean, with lots of air circulating. The rooms do not have windows, they have screens which help keep you cool and have the added advantage of letting you listen to the sounds of the rainforest. Each room hot water showers with tired tiles, a front porch with a River View and a hammock and that’s it. The best amenities we have are Mantled Howler monkeys that bark starting at about 4am every day!

Guests often ask us why they should go to Tortuguero when the Atlantic Green Sea Turtle isn’t nesting (late June - September). What I’ve written up until now tells you why guests should go even if the turtles aren’t nesting. The turtles are a big plus, a once in a lifetime experience, but I think everyone that travels to Costa Rica and is interested in wildlife and the rainforest should go to Tortuguero rain or shine, turtles or no turtles. If you have the opportunity to travel during turtle season, fantastic, but if you can’t, don’t miss out on the monkeys, crocs, tropical birds and expanse of rainforest.

If Tortuga Lodge sounds fascinating and full of rich experiences at this point, you might wonder if you should also go to Monteverde Lodge. It turns out very different experiences you might crave await you there….

More Information in Tortuga Lodge and Gardens

by Natalie Ewing