Getting to Tortuguero on the public boat from La Pavona

I took the back way to Tortuguero, down the Río La Suerte. I actually like this route more than the trip from Caño Blanco or Moín, which the bigger hotels use. It is also a lot less expensive, because it's the way local residents get back and forth from Tortguero.
You take the 9 a.m. bus to Cariari from the Caribe Terminal in San José. The San José-Cariari trip takes about 2.5 hours. When you get to Cariari, walk about 4 blocks down the main street to get to the local bus terminal and catch the 12 noon bus to La Pavona. The 2700 colones that you pay gets you two tickets: one for the bus to La Pavona and one for the boat to Tortuguero. The Cariari-La Pavona bus ride takes about an hour and a half. The boat waits until the bus gets there. At the Río La Suerte is a still-under-construction building where there are bathrooms, etc. The boats are covered and quite comfortable.
Do not bring big luggage on these boats. You can leave your major luggage at your hotel in San José. Anything that you cannot have at your feet on on your lap will be piled on the front of the boat, and they do not seem to be that concerned about whether it will fall off or not.
The trip is pretty, down the winding Río La Suerte. It gets more jungly as you near the National Park. The boat trip takes about an hour.
Cariari-La Pavona buses leave daily at 7 a.m., noon and 2:30 p.m. The Hotel Sura is a nice place to stay right across from the Plaza in Cariari. Return boats leave from Tortuguero at 6 a.m., 11:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. to go to Pavona. Buses to Cariari meet the boats.
There is another boat that leaves from La Geest, but you have to go through a banana plantation and it's more complicated. You also have to walk through this disinfectant solution before you can enter the plantation.
Boats from Moín, Limón's port, cost about $35 or $40 per person as opposed to about $5 from Cariari.
Miss Junie's is definitely the most pleasant place to stay in Tortuguero village. It is the only hotel that has a park-like area in front of it, so there is a nice view of the waterway from the hotel. Miss Junie's cooking is famous, and she has a breezy restaurant, also with a nice view of the water. The new, wood-paneled rooms on the second floor of the hotel are also pleasant.

Here is an example of how communities, conservation and ecotourism are working together in the high mountains of Costa Rica. If you are interested in hiking, trekking, volunteering, recycling, or just spending time in a beautiful mountain community at very affordable rates, read on.
Find out more about our customized ecotours and travel planning advice.

INNOVATIVE COMMUNITIES: COOPESAVEGRE, PRESERVING THE BEAUTY OF PROVIDENCIA
In 1998 the Government of Spain launched a far-sighted program to preserve the watershed of the Savegre River, deemed one of the purest rivers in Latin America. The extensive oak forests of Alto Savegre had long been familiar to the Spanish as the source of the oaken casks used to age their famous wines. Most of the campesinos who lived in the high forests made their living from turning ancient oaks into charcoal, until the Costa Rican govenment stopped the practice in the 1970s.
Around the turn of the century, a Spanish delegation visited 36 communities from the river´s headwaters in Providencia down to where the Savegre meets the sea south of Manuel Antonio National Park. They built simple suspended bridges to help people get around in this steep, mountainous area, and trained many campesinos to be environmental advocates.
Today these efforts are bearing fruit as many of their trainees manifest their commitment to this beautiful river in a number of interesting projects throughout the watershed. Two of them are described here. This is one of the few regions in Costa Rica that is actively working on a zoning plan. Restaurante Las Cascadas del Savegre (2226-6376, coope_savegre@yahoo.com) serves well-prepared fresh trout as part of a elegant four-course meal. The welcoming exterior decorated with hanging flower baskets and the clean design of the interior are unexpected in this isolated mountain village. Owner Juan Francisco Aguero takes off his chef´s hat and leads you on a short, fascinating tour of Providencia, to see the ecologically-run coffee processing plant, the waterfalls in the crystalline river, and La Piedra, the cave where the first campesino settlers stayed after discovering this glorious area. The tour, lodging and three great meals cost around $50-$60/person.
Albergüe Las Cascadas, about a kilometer down the road are simple and clean rooms ($20/person, including breakfast, contact info above). They rent a new 2-bedroom house for $60-$70.
Armonía Ambiental ((shared baths, heated water, $40/person including meals and tour, 2226-6376, coope_savegre@yahoo.com) has fantastic views of 14 mountains and the rich oak forests of Parque Nacional Los Quetzales. For breakfast, Doña Noire serves artistic arrangements of the great variety of tropical fruits grown on her farm. When we were there, calalillies were in bloom and lent a touch of elegance to the humble charm of her dining area. Accommodations are in her home or in a new cabin up the hill with great views.
Creative recycling: In this pristine mountain village, as in most gorgeous rural areas, there is no garbage disposal facility. Doña Noire addresses this problem with creativity and enthusiasm. She and her family stuff plastic soda bottles with more plastic, and use them as building materials. She makes planters out of old bleach bottles and washing machine innards. She builds garden terraces out of tin cans, Even though villagers bring her all their discards, she can´t find enough garbage to satisfy her creative ideas. Her enthusiasm is contagious. Volunteers are welcome at Armonia Ambiental, as are vegetarians. The family can take you on hikes or horseback rides in the forest above their farm. Armonía Ambiental is located a couple of bumpy kilometers beyond Restaurante Las Cascadas.
SAVEGRE TREK: Coopesavegre (2226-6376, info@coopesavegre.com) can take you on a 6-day, 5-night trek starting on the páramo at 11,350 feet above sea level and hiking down to San Gerardo (7150 feet). The next day you hike to Providencia (5688 feet). The third day has an 8-hour hike up to 6250 feet, descending to La Chaqueta at 2300 feet, The fourth night is spent at El Brujo Tent Camp at 800 feet. On the fifth night you arrive at El Silencio before marching into the sea at Playa El Rey, part of Manuel Antonio National Park on day six. The trip can also be done by horseback. The whole 6-day trek costs about $400/person including naturalist guide, lodging and meals, and offers many opportunities for birding, fantastic vistas, refreshing dips in the river, and visiting communities along the way. You have to be in good shape to do this rigorous by rewarding trek.
To enjoy these adventures on your own, it is best if you speak Spanish. Or see www.keytocostarica.com. We can provide you with excellent bilingual naturalist guides and drivers.

Phoning Costa Rica and free map offer

Some practical information here:

Problems phoning Costa Rica? Telephone numbers in Costa Rica changed this year from seven to eight digits. Many websites have not been updated yet.
If you are trying to call Costa Rica directly, first dial the access code and area codes: 011 506, then add a 2 to any number that begins with 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 9 (land lines).
Add an 8 before any number that begins with a 3 or an 8 (cell phones).

Examples: if a number in your guidebook or on a website is 645-5223, you would dial 011 506 2645-5223.
If a number is 397-3489, you would dial 8397-3489.

Excellent free Costa Rica map: When you buy the current edition of The New Key to Costa Rica at mapcr.com you get a free copy of their excellent waterproof map! This is the most complete and accurate Costa Rica map we have found. It shows roads to out-of-the-way places, and enlarged street maps for popular destinations like San José, Escazú, Alajuela, Heredia, the Central Valley, Monteverde and Santa Elena, Manuel Antonio and Quepos, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Puerto Jiménez, Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna, with hotel, restaurant and activity locations in each place. Amazing! It was created by a pair of very savvy cartographers who first toured the country by bicycle on their honeymoon and have gone on to provide a map like no other.

Introduction
I've been writing and updating The New Key to Costa Rica since 1982, when I inherited it from my mother, Jean Wallace. When the book became a best seller in 1989, I was afraid that it might be aiding and abetting the destruction of the natural wonders it was extolling. So, with co-author Anne Becher, and the help of many other people, we developed a system that rated lodgings on their commitment to conservation, to preserving local cultures and fostering local economies. As far as I know, it was the first “green rating” to be published in a guidebook.
A rating system similar to ours was adopted by the Costa Rican government in 1998 and has developed over the years. It is called the Certificación de Sostenibilidad Turística (CST). After the CST became established, I stopped including our Sustainable Ecotourism Survey in the book, because the government system was making people and businesses more aware of sustainable practices and they had a lot more resources than I did.
In the last ten years, the Small Grants Program of the Global Environmental Facility has funded campesino and indigenous conservation organizations all over the world to build their own ecolodges and create trails and other nature tourism attractions within their forest reserves. These destinations represent what I had always wanted to see in Costa Rican tourism: locally-owned lodges that preserve natural resources, provide great adventures, and give visitors a chance to meet real Costa Rican campesino conservationists. Now I feature these lodges in my book. In addition to practicing conservation and sustainable practices, they are owned by community organizations. The lodges that have made the highest ratings on the CST are often owned by non-Costa Ricans. Since the issue of land tenure is crucial all over Latin America, I felt it was important to bring travelers' awareness of this new phenomenon which offers the possibility of supplementing farm income, while providing authentic ecotourism experiences.
The community ecolodges that had been funded by the Small Grants Program banded together in 2001 to form ACTUAR, the Costa Rican Association for Rural Tourism. I have formed an alliance with ACTUAR in which I use the knowledge and reader trust that I have developed over the 26 years that I have written and updated The New Key to Costa Rica, to familiarize tourists with the benefits of community-based tourism. In addition to featuring ACTUAR member destinations in The New Key, ACTUAR and I have collaborated to make this unique form of travel more accessible to visitors.
The first idea was for me to lead groups to visit ACTUAR destinations. I gathered the first “pilot” group together in 2003 and led two other tours in 2004. By the end of 2004, ACTUAR started hiring excellent bilingual naturalist guide/drivers, and I started planning customized itineraries for the many readers and web browsers who contact me for travel planning advice. I am now the North American sales representative for ACTUAR and I answer their 800 number in the US. People who contacted me for travel planning advice have generated over $250,000 in income for ACTUAR over the last year and a half. That income allows ACTUAR to serve as an interface between the communities and tourists, and provides income for ACTUAR members and their families.
I am currently working on the 19th edition of The New Key to Costa Rica, published by Ulysses Press in Berkeley, California. Information from my latest research trip to Costa Rica will appear on this blog.