Well, we made it!  Arrived on time in San Jose.  Quite a modern airport so comforting to the family... I've certainly been through much worse!  San Jose has about 2 of Costa Rico's 4 million but you'd never know it... very sprawled out I guess.  We stayed downtown at a little local hotel (Aranjuez).  Quite nice... not to 5 star North American standards but quite suitable for our budget!  Went down the street to a local bakery and fed the family dinner for $7.  That's quite the bargain!  Early to bed because we were getting picked up at 6:10am for our 3 days in Tortuega on the Caribbean.

Met by Modesto, the "old Silverback" of the Tortuega Canals in a relatively new Checy Astro van.  Our own personal guide/driver... and what a guide he turned out to be.  He should have a Masters or PhD in biology although I'm pretty sure from his background that he didn't graduate high school.  Knew the English, Spanish and Latin names for hundreds of species and knew all kinds of interesting facts about them.  During the drive from San Jose, just over the continental divide, Rachel was feeling a little carsick so be pulled over.  We.were waiting at this little pullover and looking at a tree.  He starts out by saying its a Gum tree and then points out the big Bromalid plants growing in its nooks and crannies.  Then tells us about the "blue jeans/ poison dart frogs that lay their tadpoles in the water urns of the Bromalid and how the mother goes up and down the tree to feed them pellets she finds on the forest floor and then how they get their poison (eating termites).  The whole day was like that.

It was a three hour drive to the port of Moiya (sp?) where we boarded one of his three motorized longboats for a 3 hour cruise up the Tortuega Canal system to the village of Tortuega in Tortuega National Park.

We saw a 10' Crocodile,

dozens of different bird including juevenille versions of familiar Canadian birds like Cormorants, Great Blue Herons and Ospreys.

Very cool to see them at a different stage of their life than we are used to seeing them...gives you a whole different perspective.

We also got to see quite a few "Jesus Christ Lizards" although how he picked these out on branches at 25 mph baffled me... we often didn't see what he was looking at until we were right on top of them... as in this picture.  They get their name from the fact that they can walk (or more accurately stomp) on water...  very cool.  This one is a male.

He dropped us off on the Island of... you guessed it...Tortuego where we are staying the night.  About 10+ miles of black sand beach which they tell us we can't swim in (rip currents).  It looks safe enough but there is NO ONE in the water.  Very hot here... no A/C.  We're here to see turtles... lots of holes and turtle tracks to/from the ocean but we have to take a night tour to see them.

Off for dinner.  Amazing that in a place that doesn't look like it has running water and has no cars that we get 5 bars of free wifi!  Gotta love the internet.

Love to all.