This fantastic place is usually not on the itinerary of most visiting birders despite holding some tremendous lowland forest & wetlands.

We spent two nights at Tortuguero staying at the Laguna Lodge. We travelled by road from the Sarapiqui area to a small village called Cuatro Esquinas where the road ends in a gravel track. Our bus proceeded along this track for about 17km (???) before arriving at La Pavona where the boats to Tortuguero are moored. The boat trip to Tortuguero took about 2hrs (including stops to view Crocodiles & Howler Monkeys).

Tortuguero is a small town situated on a large forested sandbank with a large freshwater lagoon on one side & the Caribbean on the other side. The whole area is comprised of extensive flooded primary Rain Forest & Gallery Forest with numerous lagoons, pools & channels but no roads -all travel in Tortuguero is by boat or on foot!

During our stay we had two water-bourne wildlife-watching trips & a nocturnal nesting-Turtle viewing trip (no photography allowed). The Laguna Lodge itself is situated on the edge of Rain Forest & has a number of mature Rain Forest trees in its grounds which attracts a good number of birds including Toucans, Aracaris, Trogons & even the occasional Fruit-eater/Cotinga.

On leaving Tortuguero we travelled by boat to a small airstrip where our party flew out to San Jose in two small aircraft (one a 4-seater!). Undoubtedly flying in to Tortuguero from San Jose is the fastest way to get there. Travelling to Tortuguero by road from San Jose takes 3 hours road travel & a further 2 hours by boat.