Tags: green sea turtles, Marina Villatoro, tortuguero village, travel experta
Tortuguero Village, and the “Green Sea Turtles”
This is a short story about Tortuguero Village and the green sea turtles by Marina Villatoro, a young travel writer who lives in Costa Rica. It’s about Tortuguero Village, situated between the banks of the river and the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean. We hear so much about the Tortuguero Canals but so little about the village. Here there are no cars, only small boats docked along the river bank. Dirt pathways take you to the one room school house, then to the colorful central park, and the cute little restaurants lining the banks of the river, and small locally run hotels. Keep walking and we come to small houses painted the bright colors of the Caribbean, where children laugh and play in the mud puddles of the afternoon rain. Yes, the Afro- Caribbean influence is quite evident here especially in the local food, the style and colors of the houses, and the language. Both English and Spanish is spoken. Then, down a long path thru palm trees we come to the soft beige sands of a beach that seems to go for miles in the distance. Here is were the Green Sea turtle comes to lay its eggs every year from June through October.
These green sea turtles are protected by an organization called the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC) located here to do research and education.
A little history: In the 1950 Dr. Archie Carr, a biologist from the University of Florida, came to here to study these turtles and convinced the Costa Rican government to protect the area from logging, thus in 1978 the Tortuguero National Park was established to protect the green sea turtles and also for visitors to enjoy the awesome natural beauty and wildlife of the Tortuguero Canals.
You can read more of Marina Villatoro’s interesting stories about Daily life in Costa Rica and Costa Rica travel on the web www.travelexperta.com
Here at 10.255.150.253/costaricalearn to hear from you, my readers. Do you have a story about The Tortuguero Canals or Village. I’d love to share it. Simply click on comments or reply at the end of this article.