To say that my two night, three day, add-on for my Costa Rica tour was off to a rough start would be an understatement. I had just arrived in Tortuguero National Park after a several hour trip by bus and then boat, and the weather, which had cooperated for the entire trip to this point, turned. Tropical rains are no joke, and these were torrents, basically starting the moment I stepped off the boat at my lodge.

So I was wet, I was a bit bored – after all, there isn’t a ton to do at a lodge in the pouring rain, although our group tried to do a nature walk, one that ended with wet turning to soaked and my mood worsened – and I was a little upset to find out that the description of this add-on had been misleading. Tortuguero National Park is best known as being the home for three different species of sea turtles, in vast numbers, but it was apparently only in the fine print that in March there was roughly a zero chance I would see one.

More rain into the evening, and there was worry that my two activities for the full day in the park, a boat tour in the morning and a walk around the town of Tortuguero in the afternoon, would both be canceled. I lamented not going home earlier, and fell asleep to the sound of the tropical rains.

Waking up the next morning, I stumbled through the drizzle to my lodge’s restaurant for coffee, then pulled out my phone to see what Apple Weather, in its infinite wisdom, said was on for the day. And it seemed the worst might hold off for the morning. Finally, a piece of good news! After all, the boat tour of the national park would be done in a small speedboat, one with no top, so that it could get into the myriad of canals and rivers running through what is really one big wetlands. I put on my raincoat, put my phone in a protective plastic pouch, and boarded the boat. And then my trip turned around.

You see, while the appeal for me to visit Tortuguero National Park was the turtles, and those turtles were a big part of the reason for the area being protected, it is actually just a tiny portion of what makes this place special. The park contains 77,000 acres on the Caribbean coast, and is cris-crossed by seemingly dozens of rivers. Some of those are natural; others are manmade dredge. Regardless, the volume of water here, fed by rivers and about 250 inches of rainfall annually, leads to an area so rich in wildlife – even beyond turtles – that a mere three hour boat tour was a safari bonanza. (It is important to note that outside of the driest seasons at the highest tides, the rivers remain freshwater as currents are strong enough to keep seawater out.)

While there are large animal species here like jaguars, manatees, and tapirs, they are unlikely to be spotted. My tour focused on birds, reptiles, and plants. In just a few hours, we saw three species of monkeys (spider, howler, capuchin – these are the only ones in the park, so we didn’t miss any), both crocodiles and caimans, iguanas, basilisk lizards, bats roosting, and more birds than I could count.

And oh, the plants! From those that float on the waterways using air-filled sacs that are sort of like styrofoam, to huge flowering trees, palms with twenty foot fronds, grasses, and more, there are more shades of green here than one would imagine possible. Each glimpse contained what seemed like more than a dozen species.

The rain held off, peaking only at a soft drizzle and then only for a few minutes at a time, and my tour came to an end back at my lodge in time for lunch. My weather app wasn’t so confident for the afternoon, but my spirits were buoyed by the successful morning outing, so I put my raincoat back on and boarded a larger boat to cross the Tortuguero River to head into the same-named town.

The town of Tortuguero sits on a super narrow strip of land between the Tortuguero River (manmade) and the Caribbean. About half of this width is the beach, the one that all the turtles come to in order to nest. That season was over, but remnants remained in the form of large holes all over the sand, each of which was a sea turtle nest. Some had hatched naturally; others had been eaten by animals, as evidenced by the pieces of shell all over.

Monitoring each season is a responsibility that falls jointly to park rangers, law enforcement, and the Sea Turtle Conservancy. Founded by Dr. Archie Carr, the conservancy (and its predecessor, the Caribbean Conservation Corporation) was the first organization that tagged sea turtles to help trace migratory patterns. After noticing that fewer and fewer turtles were returning to shore, they worked with Costa Rica to get Tortuguero National Park created in 1970, and to get international protections put into place for open waters. While the organization is based in Dr. Carr’s family home of Gainesville, Florida, there is a visitors center here on the outskirts of town.

My short visit was both educational, teaching me various aspects of the history of sea turtle conservation as well as about the different species that come here, and a bit depressing. Researchers and volunteers here track the number of nests each season, and while there is some natural ebb and flow (turtles don’t breed every year), the numbers are on the decline, from a peak of 186,000 in 2010 to only 41,540 in 2024. (I am not sure if that is number of nests or number of recorded hatchlings. It seems too large to be the former, but with about a 1/1,000 rate of survival into adulthood, too small – I hope – to be the latter.)

After the visit, it was a short walk into the town itself. Tortuguero is a small town, with a full-time population of around 2,000. It consists of one main street, along which are restaurants, shops, tour companies, and other tourist-facing businesses, and a few other residential roads. (There are no cars, so “street” is used loosely.) Locals here are more heavily Afro-Caribbean than in the rest of Costa Rica, and that culture is evident in the music, colorful houses, and even the food.

I walked around a bit, then stopped into a riverfront cafe for a drink. As with before, the rain held off, and my only regret ended up being not having my sunglasses along.

On the boat ride back the next morning – and the subsequent long bus ride – I reflected. Tortuguero National Park is hard to reach. (You are best off purchasing a package through one of the lodges that includes transportation, but you can also make your own way and stay in town.) I didn’t see any turtles. And it rained. A lot. But I ended up having a really good experience. I’m not sure I would do it again given the logistical challenges, but I am glad to have come on this occasion.

If you, too, want to come to Tortuguero, I only suggest making sure ahead of time whether or not it is turtle season.

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