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Yesterday, we left Tortuguero towards the Braulio Carrillo National Park. We arrived in Las Horquetas in the early afternoon. After leaving our backpacks and finding rubber boots in the correct sizes, we put our daypacks in garbage bags and climbed on the the back of the tractor cart that would be taking us the 9 miles (3 hour) journey up to the lodge. After 2 hours on the tractor of doom, we arrived at El Plastico, where we got to leave the tractor behind and walk the next 2 miles up to Rara Avis. I think everyone enjoyed the break! Now I fully understand the “hiking in rainboats” approach. It’s kind of essential here. We finally arrived at the lodge. The main area is an open-air lodge with picnic tables and the sleeping lodge is farther up the hill. After some coffee we checked out our rooms. It’s quite campy, but our room (for 4) has an ensuite bathroom with [rumored] hot water. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow!
We had dinner in the lodge area, and then sat around chatting for a bit. Suddenly, the German woman from our group came running in “ein katastrophe!” “mouse house”. After a bit of translation, we laughed it off. About an hour later, I walked into our room and came face to face with a huge rat! Not a mouse, a RAT; definitely lost in translation. It had already eaten into my granola bar stash and part of my apple that I’d stored up on a shelf. It ran up the ladder to the top bunk. After putting the food in the garbage away from our room, I came back and it had returned. So shudderingly disgusting! So after much squealing and rearranging, we tried to get some sleep.
Our second day in the rainforest, we went hiking and then swimming in the waterfall. It was a beautiful day and so relaxing. And thankfully, we didn’t have anymore rat run-ins.