Size: 18,946 hectares
Distance from San José: 245 kilometers by land and water
Camping: Permitted
Dry season: February and March

Tortuguero is one of Costa Rica's best-known parks, and not without reason. It provides the visitor a chance to view a diverse array of wildlife while traveling by boat on a series of waterways, including a section of the famous Limón-to-the-Nicaraguan-border canal. The canal was constructed in the 1930's to provide a more economical and safe way of transporting timber than the old method, which was to tie logs together and tow them to Limón via the ocean.

The park is the most important nesting site in the western half of the Caribbean for the green turtle. Other species of sea turtles that also nest along the park's long stretch of beach are the leatherback and hawksbill. The green turtle is a medium-sized turtle with long fins that grows to one meter in length and can weigh from 75 to 200 kg.

When it matures, it is mainly an herbivorous animal. One trait that is characteristic of these turtles is that they band together in huge groups to mate in places that are quite far from their usual feeding grounds.

The word "tortuguero" means "turtle catcher" in Spanish. The lives of turtles and people have been intimately intertwined since a lot time ago. The large-scale exploitation of the adult turtles and their eggs reached its peak around 1912, when commercial ships loaded to the underside of the decks made regular departures from Limón to carry their cargo to the United States and Europe. The trade in whole turtles declined with the advent of the practice of taking only the "calipee" (a cartilaginous substance found under the plastron or lower shell of the turtle that was used to make soup), and then leaving the poor animals to die a slow, miserable death on the beach.

But the calipee and egg trade continued, reaching another peak in the 1950's. The situation looked so grim for the survival of the turtles that in 1959 Dr. Archie Carr, a respected herpetologist and conservationist, began the Brotherhood of the Green Turtle and its subsidiary, the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC), to address the problem. They started out primarily as research organizations along with engaging in the protected hatching and release of turtles, but soon found themselves advocating new protective laws and finally the creation of the park. The park was signed into being in 1970, ending a long period of unsustainable exploitation of both the forest and the turtles.

The geomorphology of the park consists of a vast alluvial floodplain formed by a coalescence of deltas, which filled part of the ancient Nicaragua trench. The alluvial plain is only broken in the west by the Sierpe Peaks, which rise 300 meters high and which are part of the remains of a small archipelago of volcanic origin that once existed in the area. The flatlands correspond to Quaternary alluvial deposits formed during the last million years.

Tortuguero is one of the regions with the heaviest rainfall in the country (between 5,000-6,000 mm. a year) and it is one of the wilderness areas with the greatest biological variety. To date, 11 habitats have been identified in the park. The most important are littoral woodland, high rain forest, slope forest, swamp forest, holillo forest, herbaceous swamp, and herbaceous marsh communities.

There is an abundance and variety of wildlife, especially with regard to monkeys, fish, anurans (with 60 species identified to date), and birds (309 species recorded).
Some of the anurans that live in the park are the smoky frog, which is very numerous on the banks of the park's streams, glass frog which displays its internal organs behind its transparent skin, poison dart frog, whose skin is poisonous.

During certain times of the year, spectacular migrations of birds that nest in North America can be seen from the coast.

A natural network of scenic and navigable waterways crosses the park from southeast to northwest. These channels and marshes are the habitats of 7 species of land turtles which can be seen sunning themselves on logs in the middle of the water or on the islands of floating vegetation. They also shelter the West Indian manatee, one of the most endangered Caribbean species, crocodiles, a great variety of crustaceans, and about 30 species of freshwater fish, including the gar, considered to be a living fossil, eel, and bull shark, which can grow up to 3 meters long. These waterways also provide excellent observation posts for different species of waterfowl.

Turtles that nest here: loggerhead turtle, green turtle (nests from August to November, it grows to a length of 1 meter and adults weigh between 775 and 200 kilograms), hawksbill turtle (measures between 65 and 90 centimeters and weighing between 35 and 75 kilograms), and leatherback turtle.

Animals found here: the tapir, jaguar, ocelot, kinkajou, collared peccary, Neotropical river otter, tayra, olingo, three-toed sloth, grison, paca, white-faced monkey, spider monkey, and howler monkey, and the fishing bulldog bat, West Indian manatee (endangered species).

Birds found here: great green macaw, great curassow, turkey vulture, common black-hawk, white-necked Jacobin, violaceous trogon, and Montezuma oropendola.

Trees found here: banak, berm, Santa Maria, coconut palm, holillo palm, wild tamarind, crabwood, cativo, bully tree, dove wood, black palm, stilt palm, suita palm, portorrico.