"Rain Forest Visits" Top 5 Page for this destination Tortuguero by grandmaR

Tortuguero Travel Guide: 110 reviews and 325 photos

Tortuguero Canals in 2008

Tortuguero National Park

Great Egret

The park name comes from the Spanish word for turtle: tortuga, as does the name for the Dry Tortugas in the US. Six of the eight known marine turtle species come here every year to nest, making this the most important park for marine turtle research in the world. About the only thing we did NOT see in the park was the sea turtles that the park is named for. because we were there during any of the nesting seasons.

We stayed outside the park at Parismina and took two trips into the park. The most exciting one was the night tour. But the daytime tour was nice too. We saw several kinds of monkeys, river turtles, poison-arrow frogs, caimen, and many birds including a toucan.

Railroad trestle

Then we revisited the park in 2008 from a cruise ship. It was just as I remembered and I got some better pictures.

Travel in Tortuguero National Park is by water or by air and you get around in the park mostly by water, although there is a narrow gauge train. You can't get there by land. It is full of canals.

Pros and Cons

Pros:Wonderful wildlife
Cons:Lots of mosquitoes
In a nutshell:One of Costa Rica's National Parks

Last visit to Tortuguero: Dec 2008
Intro Updated Mar 1, 2009
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Reviews (16)

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Nightlife (1)
Boating in the Dark
What to Pack (1)
Because of Mosquitos
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Travelogues (1)

Written Mar 1, 2009

8 photos

Revisiting the Canals

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Comments (3)

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807Wheaton Sep 22, 2010 at 2:00 AM

We're on our way to Costa Rica in January - enjoyed our pictures and comments. Greetings from Augusta, GA
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BruceDunning Aug 14, 2009 at 2:26 PM

We were on a cruise, so did not get enough time to see a lot, but you showed me some we wanted to see. Thank you and good job.
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Helga67 Jan 2, 2006 at 1:39 AM

I remember seeing all those animals too. I liked the boat trips a lot. Good tips. Happy New Year!