Tortuguero

8/12 6:15 AM: En route from San Jose to Tortuguero. We hop in a van followed by a riverboat with part of our luggage and are on our way. We meet Modesto, a tour guide who brought us to and showed us around Tortuguero. Modesto became part of our family for the 4 or so days we knew him, and he was honestly one of the most wise and interesting people I have ever met. He could spot monkeys and nearly invisible lizards and birds in the rainforest canopy from his boat. It was amazing.
After about 5 hours of travel on a boat, we finally reach our hotel, the Laguna Lodge, where we were greeted with a delicious cold coconut beverage and a wet towel to clean up with. We had an delicious buffet lunch and then went straight to a zipline canopy tour.
After a refreshing swim and dinner, we had a nighttime tour of the Caribbean shore where we got to see turtles laying their eggs!! It was one of the most memorable and unique experiences I have ever had. The trained guides walked around until they found a turtle in the process of digging her hole to lay her eggs in. Then they radioed our group to come join them, and we got to stand right next to the turtle and watched the actual egg-laying. We had to be very quiet and use dim red-lights, but we could still see everything perfectly. The combination of being in the presence of such a beautiful creature, at night, on the beach turned out to be one of my favorite nights ever. How could this night have gotten any better? It ended with the first of many hammock sessions, in which we just hung out and talked. What a GREAT day.