Day 5: Estacion las Tortugas

Today was a bittersweet day. We had to say goodbyes to our new friends and family at Monserrat, but we were ready to experience more of Costa Rica.  Thank you Montserrat, Margherita, Favio, Blanca,  Alejando, Wendy and Lucia!

Once our goodbyes ended, we reunited with Gabriel and started our journey towards Estacion las Tortugas where we will be helping to protect leatherback sea turtle eggs and hatchlings from poachers and other natural dangers. 

Some of us managed to take short naps on the bus, but it was hard because the road is very bumpy (and as you know, Gabriel drives like a maniac). After a two and half hour ride, we had the pleasure of meeting Adrian's mom, Senora Nila. We picked up her up on the way to a local restaurant that Adrian frequently visits. Lunch was delicious! We had the option of eating chicken, fried fish, pork chops, or beef…nonetheless our plates were licked clean and we even had dessert!  Our ice cream dessert was very yummy.

After lunch we dropped off Adrian's mom and briefly met his beloved dogs. We were now off to our first school visit, and to our surprise it was the school Adrian attended as a child.   This is a small school on the Caribbean Coast.  The school is home to about fifty students.  The students range in age preschoolers to eighth grade.   The school has large windows that face the street and the wire mess covering the windows allows the breeze to blow through freely, when there is a breeze.

Right as we came off the bus, the students greeted us at the front gate by grabbing our hands and walking us around the school to give us  tour.  Some of our girls played a quick game of soccer with the students.  Soccer is the football of Central America and the game of choice.  Everyone puts their blood, sweat and tears into this game regardless.  At first we were hesitant to play thinking we might hurt one of the kids but we quickly learned we were the ones who needed to be concerned for our own well being.  The kids threw themselves into the game and played fast and furious.

The game went back and forth with the ball flying in all directions.   One side finally scored a goal and the competition bar was raised.   Finally the game ended as a tie with both sides scoring a goal.  

After the game we headed back to the classroom in order to be introduced and present the students and school with our gifts. 

It was very heart warming to watch their faces light up at the sight of gum, crayons, glue sticks, and toys. 

To conclude our short visit, we took group pictures, and said our "see you laters". It was time for us to continue our voyage to the Caribbean coast. To give you an idea of the Costa Rican roads, our trip took over four hours and it was only sixty miles.

 


Before our bus trip ended, we passed through banana and pineapple plantations.   As we passed by the banana plantation, Gabriel made a quick stop.   We piled off the bus and followed Adrian into the banana field.  Adrian explained that the banana tree is a female but has both male and female flowers.  The female flowers turns into the bananas with the male flower turning into the shell around the bananas.

The blue bags are placed around the developing banana's to protect them from blemishes.  All grade 1 banana's, no blemishes, are exported.  Any banana with a blemish is considered a 2nd or a 3rd.  A 2nd banana has a brown spot or something that does not change the 

taste or quality but appearance.  This is sold in Costa 
Rica.   Grade 3 bananas are made into baby food.   These 3rd category bananas might have a bruise that is seen on the banana's meat.  This can be removed and made into the pureed baby food.

All banana trees have three trunks because they are three generational trees.  One trunk is the baby, which is the newest trunk.  One trunk is the mama and the last trunk is the grandma.   After three generations the entire banana field is cut down, removed and new baby banana plants replace the entire field.

The mama trunk carries the banana's.

The pineapple fields we passed covered much of the land on both sides of the road for miles.  Pineapples are from the bromeliaceae family.  These plants are plant every which way and not in rows.  The pineapple grows at the crown of the plant, possibly flowering in 20 - 24 months and fruiting in the following six months.  The pineapple plant produces a pineapple once every four years.  The pineapple plant is short, stocky stem with tough, waxy leaves.  Costa Rica and Hawaii provide the world with most of its pineapples.

Back on the bus we headed down the road to the docking station where we will pick up the boat that will take us to Las Tortugas - TURTLES!!!!!

Our bus reached the dock and we quickly pile off.   We begin removing our luggage and carrying them to the boat.  Our short boat ride takes us through a small canal surrounded by rainforest and leads us to our new home, which will be so for the next two nights.  We were embraced by humidity, tasted by mosquitos, and welcomed by the people.   Our travel to our island was a new adventure.   The breeze cooled us off and kept the mosquitos at bay.  The sounds of the jungle reminded us of the Rainforest Cafe minus the elephants!.   We jetted over the brackish water which are home to caiman and crocodiles.  The trees were alive with birds from tips of the trees to the forest floor.  Basilisk and lizards roams the branching that hung over the waters.......

Soon we arrived at the shore that would start our short journey to camp.  Once in camp we were assigned rooms and quickly dropped off our belongings.   After settling in, we had a quick orientation of the camp and learned the 'do's and don'ts" of island life.   We were introduced to the camp staff and greeted by  Stami, the lead turtle researcher.

Soon, it was time to eat again!  Dinner was in the main dining area which was a family style set up.   Each of our rooms was assigned a meal duty of either set up or clean up.   The first group set up dinner by setting the table and placing food on the two tables that would be ours.   Our group has really bonded so we were not short on conversation!

After dinner the excitement begin to grow as we prepared for our first sea turtle patrol which started at 8 pm. The eleven of us were split into two groups, each group patrolled a different part of the beach: Group 2 patrolled stations 0 - 15 and Group 1 patrolled 16 - 25.   Group 1 headed out first since they had to walk down to station 16.  Five minutes behind, Group 2 headed out for their patrol.


Group 1 had been walking less than ten minutes when we
were lucky enough to spot a sea turtle already on the beach preparing to lay her eggs.  It was pitch black outside, the moon shine was covered by a dense layer of clouds.   The moon was waning since full moon was only three nights prior.  The waning moon could have allowed us a nice moon glow to see where we were walking.   Instead, the darkness made it was very difficult to see the turtle.  Once we got closer and as our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we were all able to make out the turtles outline and were amazed at her size. We waited for Group 2 to catch up to us since this turtle was at station 6 which was in their territory.  That group stayed behind to help the turtle deliver her eggs and in relocating the turtle's eggs closer to the hatchery to prevent poachers from stealing the eggs. All of this involved waiting for the turtle to finish cleaning the area preparing it for egg laying, digging her hole (about 70 cm deep), and enter into a trance where she begins laying her eggs (80-100 fertile eggs and 15 - 20 infertile eggs). Right before she started laying her eggs, our guide held a plastic bag in the turtle's hole  and under her tail in order for us to safely relocate the eggs. This whole process can take up to an hour and a half. Once all of the eggs were in the bag, we measured her shell's length and width (length was 162 cm or over five feet  and the width was 70 cm and the weight is close to 900 pounds), and checked to see if she was tagged (if not, they tag her). Another guide dug a similar hole farther from the shoreline to protect the eggs from poachers. We laid flat on the sandy ground and carefully placed each egg deep into the replicated nest. For the rest of the remaining hours of duty, we patrolled the beach in case more sea turtles came. 

Group 2, had the joy of helping hatchlings find their way to the sea.  The hatchlings were digging their way up and out of the sand and our job was to see them safely to the oceans edge.  We do not carry them all the way to the ocean as the struggle to dig up and out and to practice moving on the sand develops strength for their swim and survival.  Group 1 did not help in relocating the first turtle's eggs since they had already moved down to their station location, however they did come along another opportunity 30 minutes before their shift ended and worked on yet a second turtle.  They repeated the entire process described above with their turtle which lasted till about 1 am. 

This was all of our first experience with sea turtles and to have two turtles on our first night was amazing.  This is the end of the Leatherback turtle birthing season.   We will never be able to explain how amazing the process is and how blessed we are to have aided in helping to preserve leatherback sea turtles. We hope our efforts will make a difference and we hope our description made you feel as if you were there a well.

Love from all in Costa Rica.

Pura Vida!