🐢 Tortuguero: Not Just for Turtles

Tortuguero has always held a special place in my heart — maybe because it feels like the end of the road, or really, the end of the river. Even today, getting there means a winding journey: canals, boats, and narrow jungle rivers that seem to hide the modern world behind layers of green. Maybe that’s what makes it so special.

Peak season here is different from the rest of Costa Rica — visitors come from every corner of the globe, not for beaches or volcanoes, but to witness one of nature’s greatest migrations: turtles returning home to lay their eggs. It’s something truly magical, and still a bit of a mystery, even to science.

Each year, four species of sea turtles — including the majestic green turtle and the giant leatherback — travel thousands of kilometers, crossing entire oceans, guided by senses we barely understand, to return to this one stretch of Caribbean sand. They come here for the same reason their mothers did, and their mothers before them: Tortuguero is among the most productive and important nesting sites on the planet. Watching a mother turtle heave herself up the beach to lay her eggs, under a sky full of stars and the rhythm of the surf, is something you never forget.

But Tortuguero isn’t just turtles. The canals and lagoons teem with life: caimans hiding in the shallows, herons fishing from low branches, and tarpon — silvery giants — flashing beneath the water. Locals tell stories of once‑abundant small fish like mojarra, part of daily life and a reminder of the richness that built these communities.

The culture here is deeply tied to the land and sea. Early settlers depended on turtle meat and eggs, fished these fertile waters, harvested coconuts and timber, and later planted bananas that floated out by barge. Even today, Tortuguero remains remote: a place you can’t stumble across by accident. You have to want to come here — and that’s what keeps it so special.

To me, it’s a destination, never an afterthought. It’s wild, raw, and alive — a mosaic of water, sand, and rainforest, where every ripple in the canal might hide a story, and every night, the turtles remind us that some places are worth traveling the world to find. 🌿🐢💙