Visit to San Miguel

I've been here a month and have yet to visit San Miguel. It's the beach just north of ours and when the tide is low enough we are essentially the same beach just separated by an estuary. With the sky looking like there could be a possibility for rain I packed up a small back pack with money, keys, water, a few snacks and my yoga mat and decided it was time to venture on over to meet the PRETOMA group on our neighboring beach. Every night we walk to the estuary as part of our patrol, it's about a 45 min walk or roughly 2.4 km, and then to the San Miguel station house about another 1.0 km on the north side of the estuary. Okay, so I didn't plan my trip so well with the tides because I was more concerned about the weather. I had to the cross the estuary twice both in about waist deep water and then it started raining pretty heavily once I got to the other side. I brought my yoga mat because at their house they try to do yoga every morning. And like my house mates they did some research on me and saw that I'm a yoga teacher. Unfortunately by the time I got there the outdoor yoga studio in the grass under the trees was pretty wet and everyone was a little preoccupied. But pura vida! There is always next time and they know they can always walk to our beach as well.

I hung out with their new research assistant, Hilary, as well as their two volunteers, Issy and Olivia (Issy stayed with us her first 2 nights in Costa Rica). The station house in San Miguel doesn't get the wifi abilities we have here in Costa de Oro, so we walked down to one of their restaurants down the road so the girls could check their emails and we grabbed a drink. We then headed over to another restaurant for lunch . They don't have a kitchen like us and live in what seems like a slightly larger community so they eat their meals out as part of their living arrangements. My family would be proud being the picky eater I am sometimes I can be a challenge to cook for. But I didn't get a a say in what I wanted to eat and I ate it all. It was pretty good, though I couldn't tell you what it was...

After lunch they were all going to take a nap and offered me one of the extra beds, and to stick around for their exhumation and a few other turtle projects they had going on in the afternoon. I left Victor at home though and figured he was probably getting so bored without me being around that I declined the nap thanked them for having me over and decided to head home.

I wanted to get a different view than the one I see every day so I decided to take the road back. It was nice because I was able to see a little bit more of San Miguel. I talked to Maddie, their coordinator, before I left to see how long the walk would be. She said it was about a kilometer to Javilla and then from previous experience I knew it would be about a 45 minute walk past that. I think I saw flamingos on my way to Javilla, though I am not sure that they live in Costa Rica. Once I was just past Javilla two trucks had passed and a man on a horse before I was offered a ride. Okay, so I technically wasn't hitch hiking my thumb was not being used at all in this process, I was just being shown some Costa Rican hospitality. And I couldn't be the rude American so I took the ride, knowing that you can't drive to fast on our dirt road and I was ready to bail at any minute. I got out at the bus stop that is right at the entrance to our little beach community but had another road to walk down. One of our local friends passed me on his motorcycle but his back seat was already occupied so I figured I wasn't going to get a ride down the road. Not 30 seconds later a truck comes driving by and there were guys sitting in the bed so I hopped in with them and realized it was Wilson with them, he is the local that helps the San Miguel project. I got a ride down the road and when we came to the T at the end I went my way and they continued on theirs. Don't worry everyone, since this adventure I have promised my mom no more accepting rides for strangers.

The best part of the day though,was when we were working on fixing the hatchery again, stinking dogs. Our American neighbor was back in town! He came out to say hi and ask how our project is going. He is wanting to film a documentary about the turtles so soon we will be trained in the equipment since we will be doing most the shooting for him, as well as maybe some interviews. But wait there's more! He said we could come by anytime to use his washer AND dryer! So I think tomorrow Victor and I plan on washing our sheets and get some laundry done at his house.

Lotti, who organizes all the research assistants and coordinators also came by while we were doing some exhumations. We were talking about when we might be closing the project for the season here, either December 1st or 15th, we should know soon. Most the projects go until the 15th, but because we are a pilot project we are not quite sure. But, our time is coming to an end soon, we only have maybe 10 more days to collect eggs for our hatchery before we just stop relocating eggs. We still need to go over the details about what our plan will be once we stop putting nests into the hatchery and hope that we can rely on some local help to make sure the turtle babies are tended to once we are gone.

Boy. this month has passed quickly! And just as I'm settling in it feels like we are going to start wrapping it up! The hardest part moving here was the cultural shock and the inability to communicate. I'm getting much better and everyone is so patient with my Spanish. But I think it will be more weird to go home and not be getting up in the middle of the night to walk the beach for a couple miles and having to listen to spoiled kids whine a lot more.