Tortuguero's Treasure Chest

A normal Saturday morning in the Vasquez house usually began with Paolo rolling out of bed just before noon. He ate whatever his older sister Caprina fixed for breakfast. It could be fried plantains and eggs. It could be her version of gallopinto. Her version included so much pepper it gave Paolo sneezing fits.
Afterwards, he spent the afternoon on the living room couch watching cartoons while Caprina sat at the other end, reading her pocket book.
Today was different. Senor Vasquez came into his bedroom early in the morning, literally shaking his son out of bed.
“Get up, get up, get up, sleepyhead!” he said.
“Why can’t I sleep late?” grumbled Paolo.
“You and I are spending the day at the reserve.”
Senor Vasquez worked as a zookeeper at the Tortuguero Nature Reserve. Over 20,000 animal species were said to live in the Reserve. Paolo might get to see a hundred different types of animals. Still, that would be more than enough to fill his day.
Paolo joined his father in the kitchen. Caprina stood at the stove, frying plantains. She served them with a scoop of ice cream and cocoa powder. As Paolo and his father enjoyed breakfast, Caprina scrambled eggs.
“I haven’t been to Tortuguero in such a long time,” she said.
“You can come if you want,” said father.
“I can’t go. I have some chores to do around the house.”
“Chores can wait,” replied her father, “Many things have changed since you were a child.”
“Alright, let me eat first,” she replied.
“Paolo and I have some things to do anyway.”
“We do?”
“Follow me,” said Sr. Vasquez.
Paolo and his father loaded animal cages and water bottles onto the truck. Sr. Vasquez tossed a rope over the entire bundle and fastened it in place. Afterwards, he called for his daughter. When Caprina emerged from the house, away they went.
A small motorboat idled at the end of the dock. Sr. Vasquez drove his truck to the edge of the pier. He parked the truck and began untying the load.
Porters hurried from the boat to help. They made several trips, running up and down the pier. A line formed alongside the boat. Sr. Vasquez and his children cut through the line and boarded the boat first, with the park workers. The remaining passengers boarded, too
After everything (and everyone) was loaded onto the boat, porters untied the boat and away it went.
The boat skipped across the waves as it drove up the coast. Tortuguero did not look like much to Paolo. Even when the boat entered the cove, there were no signs of life. A quiet river appeared at the back of the cove.
The boat’s engines slowed only a slight bit. As Paolo looked behind the boat, he saw the boat’s wake lapping at the shore.
Then, Paolo looked up the mountainside. Scarlet Macaws flew high above. Their bodies were covered with feathers in every color of the rainbow. Paolo had seen macaws back in Puerto Limon, but he had never seen so many at once. They dotted the forest. Their bright red feathers were easily spotted among the trees.
Paolo imitated the macaws as he held his arms outstretched between his father and sister. He craned his neck backward, weaving his body back and forth like the high-flying birds.
Whispers came from the other passengers. Parents and children pointed towards the shore.
It was a cayman. The cayman looked just like a crocodile, only smaller. He laid atop a tree branch that jutted out from the water. His thin, pointy snout was halfway open.
Paolo stretched out his neck and held his jaw open, just like the cayman. He stared at the cayman and the cayman stared back.
Without warning, it let out a hiss. He looked as if he might eat anything that got too close.
Everyone pulled his or her hands inside the boat. Everyone except Caprina, that is. Her elbow dangled comfortably over the guardrail.
“Watch out!” said Paolo.
“He’s way over there and I’m way over here,” she replied.
“He might have friends underwater,” replied Paolo.
“She’ll be okay,” assured Sr. Vasquez, “Caymans don’t like swimming underwater. When they swim, they can’t see much better than your or me, even though they have extra eyelids.”
“What do you mean extra eyelids?”
“It’s a transparent eyelid that closes when they swim or eat. They use it to protect their eyes.”
The passengers and the cayman kept a steady watch on each other until both were a safe distance away.
Up ahead, the river opened into a bay. The boat pulled alongside the dock. Porters threw towropes onto the dock and hurried to secure the boat to a mooring post.
Quickly, they moved from murky swamp to crystal clear water at the beach to the rocky hillside. More porters unloaded the boat as passengers and workers hiked the mountain trail together.
Overhead, the howler monkeys barked loudly as they swung through the treetops.
“Hooo hooo hooo hooo,” they bellowed. Paolo imitated the howler monkeys as he called back to them. Children hooted and grunted as they joined in the game. Soon, the mountain trail was filled with the sound of howler monkeys and howler children howling out in unison.
Sr. Vasquez smiled at his son as he rubbed him on the head. The mountain trail forked at the top of the mountain. Sr. Vasquez paused at the intersection and dug into his pocket.
“Here’s some money to get you two through the morning. I’ll see you on the landing at noon.”
Sr. Vasquez and the other zookeepers went one direction. Paolo and his sister went the other, with the other visitors. The entrance to Tortuguero Nature Reserve sat just around the bend.
Acacia trees stretched over the mountain trail, forming a canopy of leaves that shaded the footpath. Three-toed sloths hung from these branches, crawling from branch-to-branch.
Paolo leapt up and grabbed a low hanging branch. He hung upside-down, just like the lazy sloths. He stretched backward and looked at his sister.
“Pato!” she scolded him. Caprina snatched Paolo by the shirt, pulling him off the branch.
“You can’t act up like that. This is Papi’s work. You’ll embarrass him.”
Paolo hung his head. Caprina draped a hand over Paolo’s shoulder, which comforted Paolo. He looked up at his sister. She did not acknowledge him. Paolo wasn’t sure if he was still in trouble. Just to be safe, he decided to quit acting like the animals.
“Where do you want to go?”
“Anywhere you’re going, I’ll go, too,” he answered.
“Follow me.”
The other side of the hill sloped down to the valley. A canal cut across the bottom of the valley. Caprina and Paolo walked down the nature trail, which ended at another beach.
“What are we going to do now?” he asked.
“When I was a little girl, Papi used to take me on a boat ride through the canals.
“But we were just on a boat,” groaned Paolo.
“This is different.”
Caprina walked up to the shelter house. A man sat at the counter, collecting money for boat rentals. She dug the change from her pockets. She counted out thirty colons and handed them to the man.
Caprina picked out a bright red canoe. She towed it to the shore and placed a pair of oars inside.
“Don’t forget your life jacket,” reminded Paolo as he tied the strings on his vest. Caprina directed her little brother to sit in the boat while she fastened her vest.
Paolo adjusted himself in his seat as Caprina shoved the boat into the water. She hopped into the back of the canoe and started paddling. Soon, Paolo began paddling, too.
The boat glided silently through the narrow canal. The only noise was the sound of paddles dipping into the water. Occasionally, they’d also knock the side of the canoe.
The canoe snuck up on a spotted sandpiper. He had white feathers on his chest and brown tail feathers.
He walked back and forth up the riverbank, avoiding the waves. He fished in the shallow waters. He dug around in the sand with his yellow, needle-shaped beak. Occasionally, he’d gobble up worms and minnows as he found them.
Further down the canal stood another bird. His long legs held his body high above the water. His beak was needle-shaped, just like the sandpiper. His neck was like a strong vine.
“It’s a giraffe bird,” said Paolo.
“Actually, it’s a great blue heron,” replied Caprina.
The canal took a hairpin turn. Caprina followed it to the open water. Her father had brought her out to the Caribbean before, but she found it hard to steer through the choppy waves.
“Where are we going?” asked Paolo.
“We’re going to the turtle sanctuary.”
“Maybe we should find another way.”
“We’ll be alright. We just have to take the boat past the breakers.”
At a certain point, the water was deep enough to avoid crashing waves.
Senor. Vasquez worked in a hut offshore, which the workers called ‘the bait-house.’ Zookeepers prepared meals for their animals in the bait-house. Most of the meals consisted entirely of seafood. When Sr. Vasquez looked up from his work, he noticed his children approaching in the red canoe.
“What are you two doing?” he called out.
“I wanted to show the sanctuary to Paolo.”
Sr. Vasquez finished cutting fresh fish and dumped the pieces into a tub full of seafood. He carried the tub down the dock to the shore. His children met him on the beach.
“Be careful of the hatchlings!” he called out.
Caprina held out an arm, stopping her brother in his tracks. Down at his feet, a flock of turtle babies were paddling through the surf. They struggled against the giant waves.
Caprina scooped the tiny turtles into her hands. She gathered them like a chef might carry oranges in an apron. Paolo untucked his shirttail and gathered turtles, too.
They waded into the surf until the water came up past Paolo’s waist.
“One, two, three!”
On three, Caprina released the turtles. They plopped into the water and tumbled through the waves. The baby turtles used their flippers to turn themselves upright. They paddled furiously against the current. Paolo watched the forces of Mother Nature at work. Clusters of tiny green creatures floated through the clear blue water, trying to find their way to the sea.
“Good work, children,” exclaimed Sr. Vasquez.
“This is what you do all day? It’s amazing,” said Paolo.
“If you think that was amazing, you’ll really be amazed by the sanctuary,” replied Sr. Vasquez.
The old man walked up the beach with a child on either side. His muscular brown arms carried a plastic tub full of seafood. Paolo and Caprina’s clothes were wet and covered in sand. Caprina pulled the tail of her shirt through the neck and tied it into a bikini top. Paolo simply let the tail of his shirt hang down around his knees.
A crowd gathered at the crest of a sand dune. Another zookeeper stood in the middle of the crowd. He held a Green Turtle firmly in his grasp. The turtle’s shell was as bigger than the man’s chest. Sr. Vasquez walked right by the crowd.
“Can we stop for a moment?” asked Paolo.
“Follow me, I’ve got something better than that,” said his father.
The children walked down the other side of the sand dune. A brown building sat at the bottom of the hill. Sr. Vasquez stopped at the door. A sign above the door simply said, “Employees Only.”
He sat the plastic tub on the ground beside the door and fished a key ring out of his pocket.
“Welcome to Tortuguero’s Treasure Chest,” said Sr. Vasquez. He unlocked the door and swung it open.
Paolo’s eyes sparkled as he looked inside. His father was right. This was like nothing he’d ever seen before.