"Know that the same spark of life that is within you, is within all of our animal friends, the desire to live is the same within all of us." -Rai Aren
The dangerous waves crashing to my left. The rustle of the leaves coming from my right. My feet being weighed down by the constant entering sand. My face dripping with sweat from the humidity and the running. My feet tripping over each other as I get lost in the stars shining in the open sky above me. But I had to keep going- There was a turtle up ahead!
The other student teachers and I and a few others travelled to the Caribbean coast this past weekend near Límon, to go on a turtle tour at Estacion Las Tortugas (literally meaning Turtle Station). This is a place that dedicates itself to protecting the turtles and helping them to grow in population, since they are endangered. When turtles come ashore to lay their eggs, they take measurements (of the female and her nest), record information, catch the eggs as she lays them, recreates her nest at the station, re-lays them, and helps get the turtles to the sea once they hatch. They even sift the sand they lay the eggs in to protect them from any predators and so that they can hatch in nice, clean sand. They do all of this as volunteers. No one pays them to do this. These incredible people from all over the world are putting in their own time to help these breath-taking creatures. Needless to say, they haven't seen the last of me there as I plan to return as often as I can to help save more turtles.
The first day of the trip, Friday, April 20th, 2018, we all gathered in the center of Atenas. The guy who put all of this together, Paul (I mentioned him in a previous post about how we had met with him to discuss specifics about the trip) piled up our bags in the van and we started on our journey. We stopped along the way for the restroom, food, and drinks, then quickly made our way back on the road. Even though the station wasn't extremely far away, driving in Costa Rica takes a lot longer than I had expected because of all of the mountains. There was also road work- so that didn't help! Lucky Paul had brought his best reggae music, mahn (Hearing Sunshine Reggae as we started down the mountain to the eastern coast was all I ever needed in life).
Though the four hour trip was longer than expected, overall it went fast, and before I knew it, we were in a boat making our way to the station, passing crocodiles, caimens, and howler monkeys. The station was like a camp, with a food hall where we got and washed our own dishes, a museum filled with information about sea turtles, bedrooms with bunkbeds wrapped in mosquito nets, bathrooms with only freezing cold water (but hey, water is water and I'm lucky they had any at all since that can be a problem in Costa Rica), and research stations where the volunteers worked and prepared but with no internet! That was honestly one of my favorite parts. Below are some pictures of the place!
After we had lunch and got settled, Paul gave us a "Turtle Talk," going over important facts about turtles we would need to know to prepare us for the tour. In another post, I have included a lot of interesting information about Leatherback Sea Turtles (the specific species we were working with) that I have learned. I included a picture below of the map of the beach that the turtles come on where the station is allowed to react with las tortugas.
During the day, I happily relaxed in a hammock by the water reading Stephen King short stories- how does it get any better?! I also was able to sketch (or try to) some amazing nature scenes on the first day while awaiting the arrival of the turtles.
The first night of turtle watching we only found one turtle. She laid her eggs and I actually got to put them in the artificial nest back at the station! Yes- I got to hold actual turtle shells! Lauren and I got to place them in the nest (about 45 each because this turtles laid 89 fertilized eggs!) and were trying to think of how to describe them. We thought that a water balloon was a similar texture but they were a little bit harder. The eggs were still very soft and delicate, though, and about a little bigger than a pingpong ball. I could fit two in my hand as I reached down into the nest to place them. It felt really great being able to help these magnificent creatures. Read my next post to hear about my second night volunteering and about the animals I encountered during my time at the station!
como siempre, pura vida