Tortuguero Mosquito Walk

Oh hi! Tortuguero only had one walk that you could go on through the park so we saved it for a morning activity, hoping that this would mean that it wouldn't be too hot. Ha ha, it was hot, even though there had been a heavy downpour it was a very humid, sweaty close heat, perfect for a walk! So off we went to bother Richard again to rent some wellies that he assured us we would need. I thoroughly checked mine for cockroaches, it took some time for us both to find a pair the right size for both feet...we had a bit of help in the end, just as well.

We paid the entrance fee to the park at the Cuatro Esquinas station, just round the corner from Richards jetty. What a great office! This was one of thoes activities where, to the locals, you must look totally mad doing it.

A bit of sexy welly/leg/shorts action.


We totally basted ourselves in our new mosquito repellant called 'OFF'. It was pretty hideous spraying yourself with Deet aerosol...still, better than masses of bites.

Here is a map at the start of the trail, the walk is in purple on the top right, sadly its a very short walk. Boo.


So we set off on the El Gavilan land trail, its only a 2km walk so we planned to eek it out abit to make more of it. It was immediately obvious that we needed the wellies, the trail being very boggy in places. The jungle forest was dripping wet, green and glossy. This was really wonderful.

Flowers that we hadn't seen before really seemed to stand out.


The idea of taking the walk at a slow stroll abruptly vanished as we soon realised that we were both being persued by wafting clouds of mosquitos. We didn't admit this to each other at first, so as not to spoil the activity. But there was no getting away from them. Wiji was way off in the distance before I noticed.


I had to run a head of him to get him to take a piccy of me. Lots of plants and trees were labled, sadly no time to dally over this.


A gray-necked wood rail...how do I know this? Well we brought an A4 laminated bird guide for the area...whatever. There were a few of these birds scurrying through the undergrowth. Nice red legs, though I looked funnier in my denim skirt and calf length wellies...cringe!


Monkey hair brushes! For real, according to Richard on our guided early morning canoe trip with him. He picked one out of the river and passed it down the canoe, and Wiji brushed his hair with it, worked a treat! Very firm and spikey sharp.


Across the width of the path ahead was a massive spiders web. I was dordelling behind riffling through the leaf mould in search of the perfect monkey hair brush to keep, when I heard Wiji calling me. On turning the corner I saw the web and Wiji dancing about to fend off the mosquitoes. I had to remove the web with a palm leaf so that we could get around. I tried several times to get the spider in focus first, but to no avail. Meanwhile Wiji was getting understandably impatient, hopping about, and rather horrified that I had mosquitos stuck to my face, biting me. We thought this was a golden orb spider. Shame that you can't really see how big it was, or how huge the web was. Brilliant thought that we didn't walk into it. LOL.


We heard howler monkeys on the walk. It made me think about when we were in Tikal, Guatemala where I read about the uncut trek you could go on through the jungle to the unrecovered Mayan ruins of El Mirador. Probably not as wet, but the jungle was so dense it seemed impenetrable immediately off the path.


The path lead us to the beach, which was a welcome respite from the mosquitos who didn't seem to follow. We basted ourselves in more Deet. 'Tuck everything in! Tuck it in!'


Again the beach was deserted. I love being on the beach in the rain.


Aaah, this looks like a sad scene now. It wasn't though. And further up the beach was a father and son fishing off the shore.


I seek them everywhere! The illusive ghost crab that I couldn't wait to see, on the beach or in the village they where sooo quick that they always scurried down a hole before I saw them. This was becomming a bit of a joke. Wiji had seen loads, apparently. You can see what this one was eating.


Back off the beach and into a clearing by the water tower. Another one of the beautiful spikey trees.


A bit like 'lords and ladies' some phalic flowers.


Looking in the jungle floor and using the flash to see down the hole: 'I can see you, and your eyes on sticks!'


There was a really sweet, but pleasant smell on the walk, a bit like vanilla, but we couldn't see the flowers. It definitely wasn't us, especially as we had chemically embalmed ourselves in Deet.

Looking for frogs in all the right places, but we didn't see any.


At the end of the walk we looked at the photographic display. Here is Tortuguero's main street in the black and white photo in the 1960's. It was interesting to see Miss Miriam's and Miss Junie's back in the day.


And back in a loop we walked to Richards jetty where we began. Wiji washing his wellies off in the river before giving them back. We went off to our room for a cold shower, it doesn't look swelteringly hot here does it?! Wiji felt that we deserved a chillax before some more banana cake!