This morning I woke up and was all excited to swim in the ocean. After some coffee, I went out and the waves were actually of decent size. You might even say that they were surfable. They were great for body surfing. After a while, Graham came out onto the beach, screaming, "SHARK!" Well, that scared me. I have never swum so quickly towards shore. We'd been hearing all sorts of things about bull sharks-- in Lake Nicaragua, the river, and at Tortuguero (to eat the turtle hatchlings), but hadn't seen one. It did not want to meet one up close. It turns out, it was only a dolpin fishing. Later, when I was walking along the beach, I saw a dead baby turtle washed up on shore, its lifeless body still clinging to a piece of driftwood. It was so little, no bigger than the palm of a child's hand. Such is life.
Graham and I were going to go on a turtle tour to see a female laying her eggs, but we decided not to for two reasons. First, people who had already gone told us it was really crowded-like 100 tourist crowded around 1 turtle trying to lay an egg. Also, we didn't have enough money, if we wanted to make it to Moin. It would have been cool, but maybe another time. Tortuguero is a cool town. Another one of the towns we passed through on this trip that exists without the hindrance of automobiles. Everything is by boat. After our put-in, we didn't see one boat until we arrived in Moin tonight.
It was interesting to talk to some of the people around in Tortuguero.The town is 60% Nica, 20% Tico, and 20% tourists. That is crazy. So at 10:30, we took our lancha bound for Moin. 3 hours later, we were in Puerto Moin amidst huge ships loading up with bananas and the like, bound for all corners of the earth. We got off the lancha and loaded our canoe and paddled 1 K back up the canal where we saw a hotel that was near our pickup. It was weird to be paddling a canoe among large ships. Once we checked into the hotel and secured the gear, we immediately took our passports to downtown Limon in search of a nice immigration officer who would let us enter Costa Rica.
The guy didn't want to give it to us, nor was he nice about it. But we were, and worked him a little. Finally, he siad he would give it to us, even though he only is authorized to stamp incoming ships. I tried to tell him our canoe was a ship of sorts, but my usual wit in English is lacking in Spanish. But, as we have come to notice, we are an exception to most rules governing the borders between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. We got our entrance stamp to Costa Rica, so long as we gave him a copy of our passports. We were more than happy to oblige. Done.
What a huge weight off my shoulders. Now I can say with confidence that I can go home. We'll get picked up tommorrow morning and be in San Jose by mid afternoon and spend the weekend there.
The trip is done and almost every goal won. What a trip it was. I hope everyone reading this has enjoyed living vicariously through us. Sometimes armchair travel is just as fun because your imagination is involved.
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