Tortuguero, Costa Rica, which can be translated as Place of Turtles, is a village on the Northern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica in the Limón Province. It gave its name to the neighboring Tortuguero National Park.

Tortuguero, One of Costa Rica's most popular ecotourism destinations, the canals, rivers, beaches and lagoons of Tortuguero National Park are a study of Rainforest, freshwater and marine biology. The park and small town of Tortuguero are accessible by boat or small aircraft. When people think of Rainforest, the first thing that automatically comes to their minds is Tortuguero.

The beaches around Tortuguero are key nesting sites for many of the worlds most endangered species of sea turtle. Accordingly, there are two biological stations, the Cano Palma Biological Research Station and the John H. Phipps Biological Field Station, which operate from the area immediately around the village, and which concentrate on research and conservation of the local ecology, particularly the turtles.

Tortuguero National Park covers nearly 14 miles of coastline and is an important nesting beach for four species of marine turtles, including the Green Turtle, which has existed for more than 200 million years and can weigh more than 400 pounds. The nesting of these massive creatures is one of Nature's most amazing spectacles. Green Turtles nest along the beaches of Tortuguero from July to October. The Hawksbill, Loggerhead and Leatherback turtles are less common, and come ashore to lay their eggs between March and October. The females usually come ashore at night to dig a nest and bury their eggs in the sand. Night tours are available that give visitors a chance to witness these gigantic reptiles lay their eggs on the beach. After laying her eggs in the hole she has laboriously dug with her flippers, the female turtle completely buries the eggs with sand to disguise and protect them from their natural predators.

Parque Nacional Tortuguero extends north along the coast for 22 km from Jaloba, six km north of Parismina, to Tortuguero village. The 19,000-hectare park is a mosaic of deltas on an alluvial plain nestled between the Caribbean coast on the east and the low-lying volcanic hills of Coronel, Caño Moreno, and 300-meter-high Las Lomas de Sierpe--the Sierpe Peaks--on the west. The park protects the nesting beach of the green turtle, the offshore waters to a distance of 30 km, and the wetland forests extending inland for about 15 kilometers.

The park--one of the most varied within the park system--has 11 ecological habitats, from high rainforest to herbaceous marsh communities. Fronting the sea is the seemingly endless expanse of beach. Behind that is a narrow lagoon, connected to the sea at one end and fed by a river at the other, which parallels the beach for its full 35-km length. Back of the lagoon is a coastal rainforest threaded by an infinite maze of serpentine channels and streams fed by rivers flowing from the central mountain ranges and by the torrential rains that fall in the area. On the periphery of the forest lies a complex of swamps.

Tortuguero shelters a fabulous array of wildlife, including more than 300 bird species, among them the great green macaw; 57 species of amphibians and 111 of reptiles, including three species of marine turtles; 60 mammal species, including 13 of Costa Rica's 16 endangered species, including jaguars, tapirs, ocelots, cougars, river otters, and manatees. Commonly seen birds include toucans, aricaris, oropendolas, swallow-tailed hawks, several species of herons, kingfishers, anhingas, parrots, and jacanas. The wide-open canals make viewing easier than at many other parks--superb for spotting crocodiles, giant iguanas, and basilisk lizards basking atop the branches, swallow-tailed hawks and vultures swooping over the treetops, and caimans luxuriating on the fallen raffia palm branches at the side of the river. One of my favorite pastimes is to watch bulldog bats skimming through the mist that rises from the water and scooping up a fish right on cue. Amazing! That hair-raising roar? A male howler monkey that has misjudged a leap and hit a tree with legs spread apart (this, at any rate, was the explanation given by one irrepressible guide).

The western half of the park is under great stress from logging and hunting, which have increased in recent years as roads are cut into the core of the rainforest from the west, north, and south. The local community and hotel and tour operators are battling a proposed highway sponsored by banana and logging interests into the region between Tortuguero and Barra del Colorado. The Tortuguero Conservation Area Project, Area de Conservación y Desarrollo Sostenible de las Llanuras del Tortuguero, Apdo. 338, Guápiles, tel. 710-2929, fax 710-7673, works to protect the region and publishes literature on local ecology. Particularly threatened is the large mammal population.

About 50,000 tourists a year come here to explore the forests and swamps of Tortuguero National Park and to see any of four species of turtles that nest on the beach. The recent boom had spawned fears that the park was becoming overloaded with tourists (there were only 240 visitors in 1980). Help by carrying out anything you bring in. Rubbish disposal is a serious problem at Tortuguero: leave no trash.

Entrance is $6, payable at the Cuatro Esquinas ranger station (park headquarters), tel. 710-2929, fax 710-7673, at the southern end of Tortuguero village, or at Estación Jalova, at the park's southern end (45 minutes by boat from Tortuguero village). You can also buy a four-day pass ($10) that includes access to Barra del Colorado Wildlife Refuge. There's no fee to travel along the canals via the park en route to/from Tortuguero village.

Manatees
Tortuguero's fragile manatee population is endangered and was thought to be extinct until a population was located in remote lagoons within Tortuguero. Traditionally they have been hunted for their flesh, reputedly tender and delicious, and for their very tough hides, but the greatest threat of late has been chemicals and sediments washing into the waterways from banana plantations. Ironically, ecotourism is taking a toll, with increasing boat traffic. Manatees have moved west toward more remote lagoons seeking quiet places to mate and are rarely seen. It is thought that perhaps about 100 manatees inhabit the lagoons of Tortuguero and Barra del Colorado. Alas, Dr. Bernie Nietschmann of the University of California, Berkeley, who ran a research program to count and study the manatees, died and his research program has since foundered.

Turtles
The park protects a vital nesting ground for green sea turtles, which find their way onto the brown-sand beaches every year June-October (the greatest numbers arrive in September). Mid-February through July, giant leatherback turtles also arrive to lay their eggs (with greatest frequency April-May), followed, in July, by female hawksbill turtles. Tortuguero is the most important green-turtle hatchery in the western Caribbean. An estimated 30,000 turtles come ashore. Each female arrives two to six times, at 10- to 14-day intervals, and waits two or three years before nesting again.

During the 1950s, the Tortuguero nesting colony came to the attention of biologist-writer Archie Carr, a lifelong student of sea turtles. Carr enlisted sympathy through his eloquent writing, particularly The Windward Road (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1955). His lobby--originally called the Brotherhood of the Green Turtle--worked with the Costa Rican government to establish Tortuguero as a sanctuary where the endangered turtles could nest unmolested. The sanctuary was established in 1963 and the area was named a national park in 1970.

When To Go
Rain falls year-round. The three wettest months are January, June, and July. The three driest are February, April, and November. Monsoon-type storms can lash the region at any time; rain invariably falls more heavily in the late afternoon and at night. August through November are best for turtle-watching. The interior of the park is hot, humid (very humid on sunny days), and windless. Bring good raingear; a heavy-duty poncho is ideal (the lodges provide these for guests). It can be cool enough for a windbreaker or sweater while speeding upriver under cloudy weather. Take insect repellent--the mosquitoes and no-see-ums (you'll need Avon's Skin-so-Soft for these) can be fierce.

Canoes And Boats: You can hire dugout canoes (cayucas or botes) in Tortuguero village ($6 pp the first hour, $3 each additional hour, without a guide; Miss Junie's rents canoes for $10 for four hours). Give the canoe a good inspection before shaking hands on the deal: paddle around until you feel comfortable and have ascertained that there are no leaks and that the canoe is stable. Alternately, consider a panga, a flat-bottomed boat with outboard motor (be sure to rent one with a relatively non-polluting four-stroke motor), or a lancha (with inboard motor), which will cost more. It's also a good idea to check on local currents and directions, as the former can be quite strong and it's easy to lose your bearings amid the maze of waterways. And don't forget to pay your park entrance fee before entering Tortuguero National Park.

You can also rent kayaks through the Save the Manatee Foundation. All the funds go towards purchasing educational materials for the new village high school.

Guided Tours
If you want to see wildlife you absolutely need a guide, as otherwise you'll not see 10 percent of the wildlife you'll see in their company. The local guides--there are about 40 guides trained by the National Parks Service and organized into a local cooperative--have binocular eyes: in even the darkest shadows, they can spot caimans, birds, crocodiles, and other animals you will most likely miss. You can hire local guides in the village for about $5 pp, per hour (tours usually last two or three hours).

The guide will lead you deep into the narrow caños and chug up the side streams where the vegetation narrows down to a murky closeness and he is forced to cut the motor and pole to make headway. On a guided three-hour tour from Tortuga Lodge, I saw crocodiles, caimans, howler monkeys, sloths, green macaws, turtles, toucans, herons, a diminutive pygmy kingfisher, river otters playing tag alongside the boat, and dozens of other species. The succession of creatures--some virtually at arm's reach--seemed almost to have been installed for my benefit. I felt as if we were in a museum instead of a wilderness. Exploring at night is no longer permitted.

.