Turtling

        Before Costa Rica, I only knew of one kind of "turtling."  The "I can hang out on the beach with friends until we see a turtle, watch what it does, help out if we can, and then go to my own cozy familiar house to sleep" type of turtling.  About a month ago, I went turtling in Playa Matapalo with AVSO volunteers and IFSA friends.  I would have posted about this experience earlier but it would not have been just because it's one of those trips where you need to look at from the distance to really appreciate anything from it.

        Haha so I'm sounding dramatic but it honestly was a crazy/surreal/awesome/awful experience.  We arrived friday to a house full of europeans not interested in making eye contact and ate leftovers and rice.  We learned about the project from one of the only friends we made there, a beautiful spaniard named Roberto with dry humor and a gaze that goes from looking bored to deep contemplation.  That night, we had our first shift of work, and I was called to work from about 1-3 in the hatchery where they had all of the nests protected.  We weren't allowed to wear bug spray and were to wear all black.  Justine, a girl who's actually from SoFla and not affiliated with our program, and I saw a nest hatch and had to measure the baby's and everything... and later that night I found a straggler roaming around other nests... It was so cute!  Anywho, after a night of little sleep (two nights in a row actually since we had to leave early fri morning to even get there), we woke up to leftovers for breakfast, a new batch of volunteers, house duty (my job was to clean the towels on the floor around the house and in the bathroom---yes with euroPEE and hairs present), and a beach clean-up.  A couple volunteers opened up to us and were friendly, such as Hannas from Germany and Mathias, a guy from Iceland who looks like Heath Ledger (COOL RIGHT?  I'd never actually met someone from Iceland before, nor Heath).

       Well anyways, that night my shift was from 11-12 for a walk on the beach to look for turtles laying eggs.  We didn't see any, but we did get to see some friends releasing baby turtles.  And we didn't see any turtles laying eggs, some friends from our program did see some the night before, so overall I think everyone got to have a taste of turtle action.  We even saw some poachers... who don't look like men with mustaches in safari outfits holding rifles... they're more like young women or men in beach clothes chillin' until they see a big blob walk out of the water.

Making our own turtle nests to learn how they're structured and how to locate the eggs (Thanks Tracy for the photo!)

       Oh, and let me just give you all a summary of the hostel where we stayed.  Our room had no fan the first night, we didn't have the window open for fear of getting eaten alive, which happened practically to everyone, we painfully forgot every time we sat down on the bed that the mattress was super thin so our butts got a wee bit sore, the shower had no curtain so everything got wet, and there was this beautifully terrifying spider the size of my big palms that was chillin' behind the         bathroom door.  Needless to say we didn't close the door to use the bathroom and I showed outside after the first day.  Oh, and there was a bar next door so I snuck into their bathroom when needed and every night as we tried to get an hour or so of sleep before or after our shift, we heard telenovelas, soccer games, and sweet trova and dancing music coming from outside.

       Overall, I'm very glad I went.  The beach really was a beautifully vast beach that had a lovely sunset.  Also, the volunteer work, although tough at times, showed us what volunteer work actually is.  It's volunteer work for a reason.  It's volunteer work because no one's going to get paid to do it and because if you don't do it, no one else will.  I think it was also a great bonding experience for my friends and I in the program.  We really did have to rely on each other for motivation and encouragement during the seemingly meaningless tasks and to combat the grouchy sleep-deprived and hungry monsters we became.

       So there you have it.  It was a great experience that I would never do again... not the turtling part, because that I'm all for and will continue in SoFla... but as for turtling in Costa Rica, I'm afraid once was enough.

Playa Matapalo

Hatchery - totally don't remember what it's called in Spanish

PS-sometimes I think of the couple friends we made there that said they were to live there for 6 months or so.  They didn't know exactly what they were getting themselves into, and you could tell there was a thread of regret in their voice but at the same time a glimmer of hope that at least they were doing something to help nature and were living in horrid conditions in the name of a cause larger than themselves.  So yea, I really respect them, and I hope you do too, even if you don't know them because people must be doing things like this all of the time... now that's truly amazing.