This is a tour available from different agencies and lodges in the area for a package price, including one night, two-day packages and three-night, four-day packages with lodging, meals, transportation and tours included. This is a must-see in Costa Rica. This area has no roads into it, but has many rivers and canals (transporting bananas). You can fly in by small plane or be picked up by van at your hotel in San Jose area. It takes 20 minutes by air and half-day by van with stops for lunch on the river and breakfast, with stops at a banana plantation and processing plant or facility.

Once you are at your particular lodge, which are isolated from one another along the river, you check into your room. All meals are served at certain times, buffet or sometimes family-style, and includes all excursions by canoe and guide into the jungle, as well as hiking tours with guide into the jungle. The lodge at which I was staying -- Turtle Beach Lodge -- supplied rubber boots and hiking staff and guide for all activities. We had one early-morning (5am) wildlife viewing canoe trip watching the various birds and animals start their day in the jungle. We saw monkeys, sloths, caiman, manatee, many birds and other wildlife.

You can go to a settlement of Tortuguero where the natives live who used to work on the banana plantation and now are mostly engaged in some capacity or other in preserving or catering to the tourists who visit for the turtle nesting which occurs from May to October each year. There is a Conservation Group there of biologists and volunteers who monitor the turtle nesting, tagging, counting eggs, and generally helping with the nestlings. There is a volunteer program that you can sign up for which you pay $1300 a week for your room and board and transportation to Tortuguero, and does involve physical activity and sometimes late hours when the turtles are nesting.

If you come off-season as I did when the turtle are not there, this place is still a must-see for all the other plant and animal life. It was the only place I saw the green tree frog and the tiny, red, poison-dart frogs in nature. There are numerous butterflies, dragonflies, and hummingbirds, including the giant blue morpho butterfly and the violet saberwing hummingbird.

This area is warm and humid, and if you are on the Caribbean as I was, the beach is wild, driftwood-strewn, and isolated. This is not the place to swim because of the rip tides, but is a wild, lonely area where you will not see another soul. All the lodges are separated in the jungle along rivers a long way from each other, so you really feel as though you are alone except for the few people staying at your lodge. Some lodges in the area cater to fishermen - I understand the fishing is excellent.

Turtle nesting is the number one activity that brings tourists to Tortuguero. Green sea turtles nest there from July through October, with the high point being late July through late August. If you want to see the turtles, you will need to get park service permission, and your hotel or tour operator can arrange this for you.

Even if you visit Tortuguero in the "turtle off season," there is a lot of wildlife to see. Our hotel included a tour of the national park canals, which was really an amazing experience. Traveling through the canals, you really feel as though you're deep in the jungle, perhaps having stepped back thousands of years in time (if not for the roar of the motoboat engines, that is). Be prepared to get up at the crack of dawn, as this is the best time to see animals up and about. We saw a variety of birds, including the rosate spoonbill, an entire flock of chestnut-mandibled toucans, parrots, egrets, wading birds, songbirds, and other birds I couldn't even name. (I stupidly left my "Birds of Costa Rica" at home, and was sorry I did so.) A family of river otters was a wonderful surprise, as, according to our guide, they are shy and not often seen. We also saw caimen, turtles, and basilisks (Jesus Christ lizard), though no crocodiles as I'd so badly hoped for. And of course, the monkeys: troops of howlers, squirrel monkeys, and spider monkeys were all seen on this trip. The canals are home to manatees, but they mostly keep to themselves and we didn't see any on this trip.

The canals themselves are just fascinating, and I could imagine the first people exploring them by canoe or raft. One of the rivers is almost black from the tannin that comes from leaves and other forest debris falling into it; you can see the immediate change travelling from one river to the next.

Entry to the park is around $7 for tourists, and 500 colones for Costa Rica citizens and residents. You can only get in the park with a tour guide, but this doesn't necessarily mean having to sign up for a large group tour.