Thursday was a long travel day as we made our way (leisurely) by bus and by boat to Tortuguero National Park, seeing lots of interesting things (including these remains of a rhinocerous beetle) along the way. We toured at a Pineapple Plantation - fascinating - and again at a Flower Farm, and stopped at a banana plantation enroute to our boat. This area gets 300+ inches of rainfall a year, but even without the rainfall our clothes are soaked (from persperation!) and nothing dries... Our lodge at Tortuguero is very primitive, and we're slathered in Off and sun screen (I actually ran out of sunscreen and had to pay $17 for a small bottle of what must be gold standard sunblock to see us through the rest of the trip!). After dinner, we all dressed in black - long pants, long sleeves - and made our way by boat to the turtle nesting area. There, we hiked through the jungle in the dark (the only light was from flashes of lightening and the occasional peek of moonlight when the clouds parted) to the turtle laying area... Taylor was right up fropnt, following closely behind the guide and picking her way expertly between the trees and along the path... She didn't want to miss a thing! Apparently last night the amount of light was making the turtles nervous because two aborted their laying chambers and bolted (as much as a turtle can bolt!) for the sea. However, we were finally successful in seeing a turtle lay her eggs - over a hundred!... Fascinating - and an almost sacred time! There were no pictures allowed, but the experience was amazing!
