beach

Following a short break back at the lodge, we headed over to the Caribbean Conservation Corporation where we saw a movie about the sea turtles that the CCC was formed to study and protect. Because of the CCC, Costa Rica created the Tortuguero National Park, and set aside 15 miles of protected beach for the turtles to lay their eggs on. They also tag the turtles to study their migratory and other habits. Turtles born here travel throughout the entire Caribbean Sea and return here to lay their eggs.

Eric and Kevin on the beach.

Warning sign. This isn’t turtle egg season, so the beach was safe for us.

From the CCC we walked up the beach to the village of Tortuguero, which supports itself on fishing and tourism. There were about an equal number of tourists and residents.

I was enjoying not being on line, so we just walked on by.

I got up at 5:20 this morning to take a picture of the sun rising over the Caribbean Sea on the first day of the new year. Sunrises aren’t as dramatic as sunsets, especially when the sky is completely clouded over. Everything gradually got brighter, but there was no way to see that the sun came over the horizon at 5:50am.

Sunrise on New Year's Morning, Tortuguera, Costa Rica

Sunrise, New Year’s Morning

As I was setting up my camera, another gentleman walked out onto the beach. We smiled at each other and he headed down the beach. Then he stopped, turned around and walked up to me with a big smile and his hand outstretched. We shook hands and he said "I wish you a very happy new year," in a wonderful Northern European accent. I wished him the same, and he turned and walked down the beach.

There was something really moving about the encounter – it was so genuine and sincere on both our parts, standing on this remote beach, that was so different from the typical “Happy New Year” greetings we toss about.

Around 6:30 I got the rest of the family up so we could pack up to continue our journey. The boat left the dock at 8am, and we were looking forward to the hour long boat ride through the river and canals back to the bus. Unfortunately, the sky opened up again dumping enough rain to cause the captain to stop the boat and roll down the plastic window sides. If you’ve ever tried to look though the back window of a convertible you know the kind of view we now had. An hour of humming engine and the occasional banking turn, while blurry trees slide by outside the window.

Paul, our tour guide, on the boat leaving Tortuguero. It’s New Year’s day, he doesn’t normally look like this! (Sorry Paul!)

The rest of the day was primarily a day of travel to get halfway across Costa Rica to our next stop in Fortuna. The bus ride was broken up with two stops – one for lunch at the same place we ate a couple days ago (delicious! No problem having a repeat), and one at a 300 foot suspension bridge over a river. The second was kind of a novelty stop that was fun to do but mostly broke the trip into segments so we could stretch our legs.

Lunch

On the suspension bridge in the Selva Verde Rainforest Reserve.

Kevin and Eric on the far side of the bridge.

We arrived at the beautiful Lomas de Volcan hotel in Fortuna around 4pm. We traveled about 150 miles today by boat and bus, over about 5 hours of travel time.

Finally there!

The view out the back door of our cottage. We’re looking right at Arenal Volcano, which can’t be seen at the moment due to the clouds.

And here’s two shots of the volcano from right outside our room. These were actually taken the next day, but the flow works better if I put them here. These shots were taken about 20 minutes apart – the view of the cone was always changing. I wish I had set up a time-lapse series.

7:03am

7:24am

The Doubletree is a resort-type hotel right on the beach. After checking in around 4pm we went for a walk along the beach – enjoying the beautiful weather and watching some of the locals net fishing. We followed that with a drink on the pier while watching the sun set.

Puntarenas has a gorgeous beach.

And I have a gorgeous wife.

Net fisherman.

Beach, pier, and a very bright sun.

Sunset and a cocktail.

After dinner we relaxed for a bit, then Eric and I went for a walk back out the pier. Once at the beach we saw that there was an algae bloom happening of phosphorescent algae that I’ve seen in Southern California before. When the algae get churned up they glow blue. We first saw breaking waves lighting up as if they were being hit with a spot light, then we realized what was happening. We continued out to the end of the pier, where the pilings would cause the water to light up every time a wave came by. As our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we started noticing bursts of blue underwater, presumably made by darting fish. Then we noticed splashes near the surface where fish would rise to eat smaller fish, then a blue streak would shoot back down deep – they looked like meteors under water. This submerged fireworks display was dazzling, and we enjoyed it for about half an hour before heading back in, sad that for the first time on the whole trip neither one of us had a camera with us.

Back at the hotel it was laze in the sun time. We nabbed some lounge chairs and hammocks, sunglasses, suntan lotion and read (or slept) our way into the afternoon.

Reading “Death by Black Hole” by Neil deGrasse Tyson on the beach. A great collection of articles by a brilliant scientist/author. This chapter is called ‘Footprints in the Sands of Science’ – appropriate, yes?

Sarah and I took a couple of classes – the first was a “coffee class”, which was not quite what we expected. Rather than learning about the history of coffee, or how to brew the perfect cup, or a tasting of different blends, roasts or varieties, the class was really about how to make coffee-based cocktails, complete with bartender and lots of samples. We had a great time!

The hotel also offered a towel folding class which we thought would be fun – we’ve enjoyed the elephants and swans that have shown up on our beds at various hotels. They’re surprisingly simple to create.

Another sunset at the end of the pier – this one a little less dramatic because of the clear skies, but nonetheless very relaxing and beautiful.

After dinner Eric and I took Kevin and Sarah back out to the end of the pier to see the phosphorescent algae, but the bloom was a fraction of what it was the night before so it was difficult to see. I went out much later and tried to get some time exposure shots, which were only moderately successful. (Pictures to come…)

After a tasty and filling homemade breakfast on the deck we ventured out to take on a couple of local hikes. We decided to do both ‘beach’ and ‘bush’ in one day, beach first. We drove up the coast a few kilometers to the car park for the Wharekawa Wildlife Refuge. There is a short hike through the woods before arriving at the 5km white sand beach. Our pace worked out to be more of a meander than a hike – the shoreline was littered with shells and we took our time beachcombing, collecting a few prized shells and experimenting with ways to photograph them.

The trail to the beach at Wharekawa. We came to a fork and took it.

Sarah and Me on Wharekawa Beach, NZ

"Flying Shells, I" - A portion of a shell found on the beach, dropped from out of the camera's view to catch it floating above the horizon.

"Flying Shells, IV" - A small starfish in flight.

All of my (good) pictures from the beach are here: flickr.com/photos/rosendahl/tags/wharekawa/, including four of the flying shells.

We grabbed lunch in the town of Whangamata, and headed for part two of our day – the hike to Wentworth Falls. The hike was about a three hour round trip, including stops for photo-ops and falls gawking. The trail had been recently refurbished – we were told it was good for strollers, we pictured people pushing baby strollers up the hill and laughed, sure that they meant for old people strolling up the hill. Within the first mile we ran into a young couple charging down the path with an actual baby stroller. That’s a pretty nice trail. The falls were a nice reward at the far end of the hike, they are across a small valley from the lookout point, dropping halfway down the cliff into a pool, then dropping the remainder of the way.

On the trail to Wentworth Falls

Wentworth Falls. A bit tricky to photograph since it is best viewed from a vantage point through the trees. The most interesting thing about these falls is the pool on the side of the cliff about halfway down.

Once we got back to the lodge I laid down on the floor to stretch and woke up an hour later. Well rested and hungry, we went to an Indian restaurant in town that David and Sallie recommended. It was a great day.

Tortuguero Beach and Village

Happy New Year!

Puntarenas

Lazy Sunday

Hiking Near Bay of Plenty