Tortuguero - Photos

This last weekend we went to Tortuguero on the Northeast coast of Costa Rica to see sea turtle nesting season. That didn't happen. Instead, we walked for 4 hours up and down the coast in the pitch black of night and got a work out, but we still had a great trip. We learned and laughed a LOT! Here's a photo story of our weekend:

First, we went to the DelMonte banana factory.

The lady in the blue shirt isn't really a lady...

These are going to the local markets to get sold. Most of the rest go to the U.S.

Getting cut off the branch and into bunches and thrown into water to rinse them off.

We stopped on the side of the road to take a picture of the beautiful tree canopy over the road to Tortuguero.

Some of the most gorgeous flowers Costa Rica has to offer are found near the coast. I think we stayed at the Garden of Eden it was so pretty!

They even had a frog house. And yes, these frogs are very poisonous!

Cocoa pods where cocoa and chocolate come from. However, you can also crack one of these babies open and eat the white fuzzy fruit that covers the seeds and it's pretty sweet and delicious.

The table setting...

Oh yes, and the food was pretty amazing!

Birds ate next to us

It's ginger, just like most every other kind of plant is related to ginger here in Costa Rica.

Humming bird next with some of the cutest little eggs ever...

And an angry momma

Giant dragonfly...not that you can tell, but take my word for it.

Awesome plants next to the pond

Dawn on the boat ride

Jose Antonio, Roxana's husband and tour guide extraordinaire

My conversation professor, Roxana, and her son, Jose Andres

Pretty flowers on the island

And the rastifari man

Roxana's the first one into the water

Dawn buries Gabriel

Up to his neck

Everyone wants a water buffalo, mine his fast and yours is slow...

3 foot long iguana, I'm not kidding

Snow crane

Pink spoonbill

They call them horsetails, I'll go with it...

The trees where gorgeous

Seriously...

The foot long killer

Howler monkey...male obviously

Caiman

Living alongside the banks

I just like this one

Water droplets

Look at that reflection

Flowers on the river

And then it poured...

I was sad I didn't see a sloth, but luckily Jose Antonio spotted this guy in the tree about 40 feet up on the way back home. So we got out and took pictures of him.

I think he liked it

A lot, because he modeled!

Thank goodness for a good telephoto lens!