Costa Rica tourism and travel bureau - Tortuguero National Park

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Tortuguero National Park

Size: 18,946
Distance from San José: 254 kilometers by land & water.
Trails: Limited
Dry Season: February and March.

The existence of parallel coastal banks has given rise to the formation of lakes, channels and marshes.

Tortuguero National Park, located in the northeast part of Costa Rica’s Atlantic coast, is one of Costa Rica's best known parks, and not without any reason. Besides being the most important nesting site for the green turtle, in the entire western half of the Caribbean, it also serves as a refuge for other turtles, such as leatherbacks, and hawksbills.


	The park and the refuge consist of a vast alluvial floodplain formed by the coalescence of deltas from rivers, twisting and meandering into the ancient Nicaraguan Trench. The location of the area makes it one of the wettest regions in the country.

The wildlife here is rich and varied. There are unusually large populations of monkeys, anurans (which are a species of amphibians), birds and fish.

Resident fauna include the tapir, ocelots, jaguars, collared peccaries, river otters, sloths, grisons (furry, weasel-like mammal native to Mexico, Central America, and South America), frogs, macaws, toucans, and the fascinating bulldog bats (which feed on fish).

Green Turtle hatchlings.


	The flora in this area is also very rich and abundant. Some of the species found in this region are crab wood, coconut trees, banak, tamarind, bully tree, orchids, hollio palm, and heliconias.

The park is located in the northeast part of Costa Rica, on the Atlantic coast. The traditional way to reach the small town of tortuguero, where the park headquarters is, and other services are also available, is to take the canal trip from the port of Moin near the town of Limón. To get to Limón take the Braulio Carrillo highway to Guapiles and then the Sao Pin road to Limón.