Follow the Journey

Hola amigos y familias! Sorry for the delay in the blog post for last week, we have been busy as always! After our sad goodbyes at Tyler’s place, we loaded up and walked across the Costa Rican border to catch a bus to the Nicoya Peninsula.  Our clan spent the past week at Playa Langosta on the pacific side of Costa Rica, working with turtles!  Playa Langosta as well as two other beaches make up the Marino Baulas National Park, which was created in an effort to help preserve the highly endangered Leatherback turtles that come to nest there.
We split up into turtle watch crews and nights were spent patrolling the beaches in shifts, waiting for the turtles. Our night walks were beautiful under the billions of stars and framed on either side by the surf and dry forest.  The blue phosphorescence lit up our footsteps with tiny glittering lights. When we saw a turtle track (which looked like tractor tracks leading up the beach from the water) we got to witness an ancient natural ritual.  It was amazing to watch the turtles laboring to dig their nests and lay vast numbers of eggs at one time (sometimes up to 80, depending on the species).  Most people saw Loras, Negras and we even saw a giant Leatherback. When the turtles are laying their eggs, they go into a trance at which point we were able to get in close and touch their shells and collect the eggs to relocate them if need be.
Tired from the long nights,  our days were spent swimming in the ocean, playing soccer, surfing and chilling with our camp friends Steven and Jefferson.  We enjoyed fantastic candlelit meals (no electricity here!) courtesy of our wonderful cook Abuela.
After a week, we were worn out and ready to move on to San Jose where we stayed at an awesome hostal and enjoyed a night out on the town.  We were rudely awakened at 3 am to catch our flight to Roatan.  And the adventure continues!  The end.
Tune in next week for the exciting culmination of the Central American Odyssey.
Till then, hasta luego.   Bjorn and Alaina