Caribbean beaches and other Tortuguero, Costa Rica General Tips

Favorite Thing: Not the brilliant aqua blues normally associated with the Caribbean Sea. The beaches and the surf along the northwest Caribbean shore in Costa Rica are wild. The beach at Tortuguero was deserted--not a single soul in sight. The water was much too rough for swimming.

However, these beaches do attract a lot of attention those few nights a year that the green turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. The green turtles live their lives swimming throughout the Caribbean reaching as far north as Florida coastal waters, but the females all come back to the Tortuguero area to lay their eggs. For centuries turtles and their eggs were ravaged by sailing ships and the local people. However, a marine biologist, Archie Carr, began studying the green turtles in the 1950s and was able to prevail upon the Costa Rican government to grant the turtles protected status. In present times the local people and the Costa Rican government understand the conservation issues and the turtles are now zealously guarded from would be poachers.


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