Off to Tortuguero

Tortuguero, or City of Turtles, was the next stop on our journey. Almost the only opportunities go take there are through tour groups to stay in lodges. You have to take a bus and then a boat to get to the town. At first, we thought our tour guide might be okay because along the way, she showed us sloths and a local banana plantation and told us how things worked around there. However, as the trip went on, we liked her less and less. We did see some amazing things (more to come in later posts), but most were not because of her. There is an interesting separation between the locals and the town in Tortuguero and the resorts and tourists. There are some photos of the town here, including the local church and the ´main street´. This was the one and only time we saw the town. It was unfortunate because we would have liked to spend more time there. We asked our tour guide about going out there in the evenings (we could tell she was going out) and she strongly dissuaded us from going into town saying it was dangerous and she couldn´t condone us leaving the resort. It was actually BS because she had spoken on the way there about how much the tourism helped the small town of Tortuguero, but we quickly saw that the only people we were helping were the lodges and those who owned them. We did give the kids in town some money to open a coconut for us so that we could drink the juice and eat the fruit, but that was about it. It was sad, really because we both like to meet the locals and see how things are socially in the country and not just in the tourism spots. We did meet some great people from Switzerland, Spain, Chili, and Costa Rica who were on our tour. It was nice speaking with them. Of course everyone spoke a little English, so they spoke to us in English mostly. We were embarrased to not speak more Spanish, but hopefully we can learn more soon! Thanks, guys! Our tour guide, another Cindy was also very bossy and talked too much for our tastes. It´s too bad, because Tortuguero is a lovely place and someone who was a little more authentic could have made our trip a lot better.
As a side note for my girls, here also are my lovely cankles lounging in a hammock at Mawamba Lodge. Mawamba Lodge where we stayed is a very nice place and we highly recommend it - I just wanted to add a side note about our tour guide and the way things are set up in the town.