Tortuguero and the Northeast

27 January Last Wednesday the spring SST group awoke early for an adventure in the lowland rainforests of Northeastern Costa Rica. After travelling over the mountains of the Braulio Carrillo National Park, we visited a banana packaging plant and ventured on to Puerto Moin on the Carribean coast, where cranes lift truckloads of bananas onto barcos for shipment to the States and Europe.

Following a three-hour bus ride, we boarded an open-air, flat-bottom boat towards our destination of Tortuguero, a village with no roads nor cars. This village of 300 is inhabited largely by people of Afro-Carribean culture. Later, we chatted with people in Tortuguero about the history of the town, conservation, and issues related to tourism.

Upon our arrival at Tortuguero, we visited the Carribean Conservation Corporation, an organization dedicated to conservation of the biodiversity of the Tortuguero region. Specifically, the CCC is a center for education and research on the sea turtle. The Tortuguero beach serves as the primary nesting site for the Green Sea Turtle in the western hemisphere.

The following day Liza Mora, a researcher at the CCC, guided us through the Tortuguero National Park, first by canal, then hiking up Tortuguero Mountain. Through her expertise, we observed monkeys, iguanas, indigenous and migratory water fowl, river turtles, caiman, and crocodiles. During the hike we enjoyed the beauty of creation with a bird's eye view of the canals and Carribean coastline. Other highlights included watching troops of three species of monkeys and observing small white bats roosting under a large palm leaf.

• The group at the CCC with Liza Mora
• Each evening the group (here with Liza) participated in a time to reflect and process the day's events
• Kelly, Angela, and Rachel on the canal
• The group in the canal boat