Tortueguero Canal & Cahuita National Park

[dlstex]

We just arranged to tour both Tortueguero Canal & Cahuita National Park through Caribbean Adventures. However I am wondering if we are attempting to see too much on one tour. The Liberty is only in port for 8 hours and I requested that we be back 1 hour before ship sails. So we basically have a 6 hour window.

[2552phxcrzr]

We did this with Danilo Hall on December 16 - Cahuita / Canal Cruise / Late Lunch at Playa Bonita. We were with him from 7:30a to 3:30p - so we had a bit more time than you will. (That's Costa Rica time by the way -- ship time is different.)

 

The canal cruise portion was about an hour, leaving from Moin, which is close to Limon. That leaves you the rest of your time in port for Cahuita.

 

Cahuita is about 40 km south of Limon, relatively slow going, with lots of stops en route - but that could have been because Danilo did a great job of "reading" our interests and stopping to show us things that he knew we'd enjoy. It was such a pleasure not to have to "ask to stop." You could ask your guide to drive straight through on the way there, stopping only for exciting sightings - such as Howler Monkeys, etc.

 

We did not have time to see all of Cahuita - that would have been an impossible undertaking, but we were there for a good three hours, walking the nature trail that parallels the beach. If you take your swimwear, you can take a swim break if you like - and if the surf permits.

 

We could have stayed longer at Cahuita, but we had also requested a lunch break -- had great, fresh seafood at Quimbamba Restaurante at Playa Bonita.

 

Have a great time - and since you mention you booked with Caribbean Adventures - if that is the same as Caribbean Adventure Tours, say hi to Danilo from Erin and Mui if you get him as your guide. He'll remember us as the people with all the camera equipment!

 

(By the way, the registered guides meet their clients at the end of the pier; don't make the mistake of going all the way to the pax terminal unless those are your instructions from your tour guide.)

[dlstex]

h2so4; Thanks for getting back with me. We were hoping you would respond to this thread. I arranged for this tour after reading your comments on a previous thread I had. I figured you would be the one who would best know. Danilo has been very responsive and assures us he will have us back to the ship on time. I was just worried we would be rushed about and not get to really enjoy the tour. Any suggestions as to what to do along the way?:D

[2552phxcrzr]

You will have a great guide in Danilo - he is very safety conscious (did not speed on the road; had soft drink at lunch while we enjoyed some of the local brew). No worries about him getting you back to the ship on time - however, when you meet up with him, verify your time (ship's time) against his watch and work with that knowledge. (Is he guiding you himself? He does have associates that he works with.)

 

Because we are serious amateur photographers, we took it very slow on our tour (even willing to cut out the requested lunch if necessary; but that did not become an issue). Danilo stopped to show us flowers as well as animals, at one point going in search of a spider that he thought we might find interesting.

 

I wasn't so sure about the stop at a local man's house to see a sloth - at first. But this gave us an opportunity to see the animal that we had already seen in Panama (and again on the Tortuguero cruise later) from a much closer perspective, so in the end I was glad we made the short stop. We also stopped on the road near a banana plantation and Danilo gave us an improptu a-to-z lecture about how bananas are grown ... I found it very interesting as I had no clue about the process. If you come across Howlers on the way to Cahuita, stop to check them out - they were in hiding most of the time we were at the National Park, although we did see a couple just before we left.

 

The scenery on the way to Cahuita is beautiful - mangroves on one side, the Caribbean Sea on the other - so you might want to make a couple of quick stops to just take pictures. Keep an eye out for hawks and vultures along the way to Cahuita.

 

The canal cruise - you'll be in your own boat with a driver and perhaps an additional guide - amazing how they can spot a 6-inch lizard from afar. The ride out is leisurely in pace; on the way back, much faster because you're retracing your route (unless they spot something interesting, like needle nosed bats roosting on a tree trunk).

 

The stop at the overlook at the end of the tour was great - view of Limon and the port with the ship docked in the distance. (A must-see on a nice, clear day especially.)

 

I think my recommendation would be to tell Danilo exactly what you're interested in so he can focus on those aspects.

 

When are you going? I'm still working on my photographs, but will be happy to post a link if you're not going before the end of January.

[dlstex]

h2so4: we will be in Costa Rica 4/16/08. We would appreciate seeing some of your photos. My wife is an also avid amateur photographer who has been able to turn this into a small side business. This is one of the reasons we opted for this type of excursion. Just finalized everything for our cruise and now comes the hard part. The wait. Danilo said he does remember you and sends his regards. ;)

[2552phxcrzr]

OK - will provide a link to the photo albums as soon as they are ready.

[2552phxcrzr]

I posted a separate thread as well, but since I promised to post a link in this thread - here it is:

 

 

Have a great time in Costa Rica and during the rest of your cruise vacation.

[shorties]

We just arranged to tour both Tortueguero Canal & Cahuita National Park through Caribbean Adventures. However I am wondering if we are attempting to see too much on one tour. The Liberty is only in port for 8 hours and I requested that we be back 1 hour before ship sails. So we basically have a 6 hour window.

 

 

Do you have a website for this tour?:confused:

[2552phxcrzr]

Here's the website for Danilo Hall - ours was a custom tour based on our interests, but he has some standard options as well.

 

http://www.geocities.com/adventure_caribbean/

[dlstex]

Well, what can I say? We just got back form our cruise and had a great time of it. I just wanted to get back to this post and let everyone know what a wonderful time we had with Danilo at www.geocities.com/adventure_caribbean/index.html and was everything h2so4 said it would be. My main concern was that we were trying to see too much in a short period of time and that did factor in. A couple of more hours would have been perfect. We eventually toured with two other couples and did both the canal and the Cahuita National Park. If we had to do it over, I think all were in agreement we would have liked to concentrate on the Cahuita National Park. This was an absolutely beautiful place with loads of wildlife and scenery. The ocean was to one side and lush jungles on the other side. This is the nice thing about Danilo. He will tailor his tours to what you want to see. We have been on many cruises and this is by far the best tour we have done. We are seriously looking at flying down to Costa Rica and doing a land tour with Danilo. :D

[2552phxcrzr]

dlstex - glad you had such a good time. We too hope to use Danilo when we return to Costa Rica for a land vacation. Looking forward to seeing some of your photos (hint, hint)

[dlstex]

dlstex - glad you had such a good time. We too hope to use Danilo when we return to Costa Rica for a land vacation. Looking forward to seeing some of your photos (hint, hint)

Haven't figured out the best way to post pics. Perhaps you could instruct me. The hard part is going through almost 1500 pics to get down to the best few. Darn digitals. Almost unlimited. Thanks for suggesting Danilo. He said to say hello to you if we chat. Something about all the camera equipment you had that made you stand out.:D You could tell he loved his country and loved showing it to people. His biggest complaint was that he could not show us more due to time constraints. I was elected to hold the sloth.:eek: Turned out much better than I thought.:) Watched two camins (sp) fighting in the canal but the pictures were too blured and got to watch a Hawk attack a small eyelash viper and carry it off into the trees. Good picture of the hawk but hard to see the viper. Again, thanks so much for the suggestion.

[2552phxcrzr]

My pleasure - I like to promote local guides who do a good job. There is no comparison between a ship-sponsored excursion with a group (not that we don't do those on occasion as well) and a private tour that is customized to one's specific interests. We always come away for more satisfied after the latter.

 

That cayman encounter sounds interesting - sometimes you just have to put the camera down and enjoy the sighting, which is not easy to do. The hawk sighting sounds good - our hawk wasn't doing anything exciting, but he did stand still long enough for portraits.

 

As for posting photos - As you may recall, I use SmugMug (http://www.smugmug.com/) - they have a variety of account categories from standard to pro - but they are all fee-based. The most popular photo hosting site seems to be Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/) - I believe they have a free account that is limited in what you can do, as well as fee-based options. There's also PBase, Webshots, Kodak Gallery, Zenfolio, and Picasa as well as many other hosting sites. If you do a search for "photo hosting" you'll find even more options. I think what you select depends on your "hobby level" and what you ultimately want to do with your photos.

 

As you say, the hardest part is culling down the pictures - I find that letting a little bit of time pass helps in that respect as the passage of time dims the memories associated with the pictures. That said, I find it hard to wait too long, because I am excited to share them with others. Digital certainly has its pros and cons - quantity is definitely one of the cons.

 

If you want to discuss further or have specific questions, feel free to drop me an email at eerkun at yahoo dot com - please put your CC username in the subject line so that I can fish the message out of spam in the event it ends up there.