Now we have less than 8.
We have had a lovely time here in Costa Rica. It is an incredibly beautiful country and words would only come short in describing the lush forests, vast sky, and playful ocean. It is a weird transition, though. We have gotten so used to being uncomfortable and dirty, living next to the earth, and sleeping and rising with the sun. We set the pace for our days, taking time to talk to strangers or take a nap on the beach. How different it is to hear cars honking on the streets- get out of the way! move! faster!, fast food chains, enclosed buildings. It feels constricting, too fast. But it is probably a good way to transition to our lives back at home. Honestly, I do not think the culture shock was coming here. It is going to be going back.
This last Tuesday we made our way to the beach Camaronal to work with tortugas on a nature reserve. Marvin greeted us and showed us where we would be staying (it had a floor!) and gave us a brief overview of what our work would be like. Each night we had three people on night patrol. We walked down the beach without lights looking for a dark trail in the sand, leading out from the sea. We would follow the tracks up to the turtle and watch in her egg-laying process. Once the mom found the perfect spot, she dug out a hole in the sand with her back legs. Once it was sufficiently deep she relaxed and went into a trance. We dug out a hole behind her so we could collect the eggs as she laid them so they could be taken back to the hatchery. This responsibility and close connection brought out many of our motherly instincts and I know many of us walked away feeling like proud mothers. While the mama turtle was in her trance, Marvin tagged her front flipper with a clip a bit like an earring. Once she finished laying, she buried the “eggs” and patted down the sand with her body- exhausting work. After a rest, she moved a few feet to the side and messed up the sand to confuse predators which nest was which. After she completed all of the steps (each of which took about ten minutes) she slowly made her way back to the sea. We took the collected eggs back to the hatchery, counted them, and buried them in the sand to be hatched about seventy days later.
Those who were not on night patrol either took a shift from 9PM to midnight, midnight to 3AM, or 3AM to six. The job there was to monitor the hatchlings, weigh and measure them, and then release them to the water. Although this was all that was mentioned in the job description, shifts also included philosophical conversations, star gazing, playing with baby turtles, watching the sunrise, and naps.
Our nights were fun and successful but sadly we did not see the leather back turtle (biggest in world) or an arribada (where more than 100 turtles come to shore to lay their eggs). However, a leather back did come up and lay her eggs 10 minutes after our patrol was off and neighboring beaches saw an arridaba.
Despite our late nights, we had sufficient energy to do other volunteer work in the mornings and afternoons. The work included trash cleanup along the beach, collecting and burning driftwood, and making steps on a nearby mountain trail (which we got out of one day when a turtle with a fish hook in her mouth crossed our path).
Thursday was filled with homesickness early in the day, thinking of our families back home, celebrating Thanksgiving without us. But we were filled with joy that night when we indulged in our homemade Thanksgiving dinner complete with delicious pasta, papas, and chocolate cake.YUM! We have so much to be thankful for.
On Friday afternoon the volunteer work was not so pleasant. We excavated (cleaned out) the holes in which the turtles had already hatched. Besides the awful smell, we encountered egg shells, unborn turtles, babies that had perished, but also a few vivos. It was a difficult job, seeing the sadder part of the miracle of birth, and some of us handled it better than others.
Thankfully, we had the next day off to rest and disfrutar. We chose to spend the day having a BEACH GAME DAY! I love games and can honestly say that is was one of the funnest days of this trip. Lisa led the group and a fellow volunteer, Mathias, in a sand castle building competition where we showed off creations of a leather back turtle, an olive turtle, an octopus, and a family of jabba the hut snowmen. After, we played beach flags, which was filled with trickery, intense energy, and lots of laughter. Maya won with flying colors (although she is a professional and may have had an unfair advantage). After a little descansa, we finished out the morning with a relay race- Irish Christmas, wheel barrels, somersaults, carrying members back and forth, and leap frog. Not only were these actions a thousand times harder than I remember when I was a kid but we were all dying of laughter and could hardly do the challenges. Two of the three teams tied as they plunged into the waves that knocked us all off our feet. It was a beautiful day and a perfect way to spend our second to last day in Costa Rica.
When we went to sleep that night we were happy to know that we would not have to wake up until five-thirty the next morning. We are turning into old people here in the way we sleep. We spent the day making our way to Alajuela, Costa Rica, a city next to the capital, San Jose. We hop on a plane tomorrow for our last week in Roatan, Honduras, an island in the Caribbean. There will be scuba diving and enjoying each other.
This week has also been full of some funny and embarrassing moments which will now be shared in our Carpe Diem Maya 2013 Cone of Shame…
1. Tess forgetting our hostel name in Liberia
2. Katie and Maya “losing” (letting the cat eat) newly hatched turtles
3. Maya, Ellen, and Lisa eating the last slice of cake that was intended for Marvin
4. Shane s presentation
Five. A continuation of the tradition of coming to the group meeting sin Noticias or Nat Geo (Shane)
Much love to home. We miss you like crazy and cannot wait to come home but are also unsure of how we are going to leave these places and people that have become our home.
Pictures to come!
Ellen