I just came back from one of the ecological wonders of the world – Costa Rica. What a terrific place! They’ve never had an army and a quarter of the country is national park and other protected land. The biodiversity of Costa Rica is astounding, especially considering it’s roughly the size of West Virginia. The diversity of the landscape – extensive Atlantic and Pacific coasts with volcanic mountains and farmland between – is partly responsible. Also, of course, this is a tropical country with benign weather year around.
Tourists flock to Costa Rica. Two long coasts with gorgeous beaches, volcanoes you can drive up to in national parks, ziplines, river rafting. That’s me in front of the raft, by the way.
The Caribbean coast most impressed me. I spend several days in Tortuguero, a national park only accessible by water and air. It’s the closest I’ve been to a jungle and is replete with animals like caimans (they look like small crocodiles), brown pelicans, magnificent frigate birds, dozens of herons (little blue, tiger, cattle, green, tricolored), green macaw. The list goes on. Tortuguero is most famous for nesting turtles. For instance, the beaches swarm with leatherbacks on January nights.
Given the timing of my visit, I didn’t see turtles. I did see the beach, though, and was stunned that the distance from the upland down to the ocean distance was so short. That means this critical habitat is extremely vulnerable to rising sea level caused by climate change.
I’m always on the lookout for ideas for future books and have been thinking about setting one in Tortugero. Mara, Ted and Harvey would study impacts of warming on the turtle beach. What a setting for a mystery – caimans, the jungle, and howling monkeys and more!