I'm home

Wanted to let everyone know I'm home safe. Flight was on Wednesday and got in at about 12:30 to lax and home by 2:30.

Few more blog posts to come filled with more pictures and an account of what happened my last week in Costa Rica!

I'm alive!

Hey everyone! Interrnet has been kind of spotty on the road  but I just want to let you all know I'm safe.
The last two nights we stayed in Rio Celeste in the northern part of Costa Rica. We got up early this morning to go for a great hike and saw over 20 species of birds.
We are now in the Arenal area staying in La Fortuna. Tomorrow we are going to take a ferry across the lake and spend a day or two in Monteverde. From there we'll plan what we want to do until our flight on Wednesday!
Thought I'd make sure you all knew I was safe though.... And I learned I'm not a huge fan of mud baths... Good thing it was free!

End of turtle season

Here are some pictures from the last few days at Costa de Oro. We had the giant BBQ Monday evening. At 4:30 the neighborhood kids came over to join us. It was our normal turtle release time but we didn't have any turtles to release that night. They hung out a little bit and we had so much food I gave some to them as well.

The next night we had about 300 turtles to release! We all decided that we should dig up the nests to see what was going on. From the time that an olive ridley turtle hatches to them reaching the surface is three days - they fall asleep a lot. With that being said, we thought there should be turtles in a couple nests and that would cut down what we were leaving the our locals to tend to (7 nests). After opening four nests that morning we decided to go and check a couple more just to see what was going on. We did only to find three more nests to come up that had babies hatched and ready to go.

Since it was midday and warm we couldn't release them then and saved them all for our 4:30 release with the neighborhood. During the day of packing we kept going out and checking the hatchery make sure nothing else exciting decided to happen while we were working inside the house. There was a nest we didn't think would have babies yet that we found one hatched from, though when it cooled off and we could sit on the sand we found that there was actually just that one baby that had hatched early.

When it came time for our last sunset pictures, Courtney really wanted her sand man. We were having troubles just building a regular sandman when Alvaro suggested we stick a trunk in the middle and build around it. The architect would suggest that. The kids had a lot of fun building the sandman with us and we put up some little palms for Christmas trees, Court had lights to add, and we decorated the sandman with my easily accessible bathing suit top and hat that weren't packed yet. (Mari and Jon - hope you like the sandman's Solution Surf hat).

Yesterday, Courtney and I  headed north up to Rio Celeste after the guys at the car rental agency in Liberia treating us like we were complete morons who had never been to Costa Rica. I don't think people get off planes looking as dirty as we did...

But none the less we were off and on our way into the rainforest.

Hasta luego Costa de Oro

This morning was a sad one. In fact the past few days have been pretty sad, packing up the house and saying goodbye to everyone. We had our BBQ on Monday and then a clean up day after. Last night was my last sunset at home. It was beautiful and filled with hundreds of baby turtles we had pulled up from their nests that morning. Perfect way to leave. Last night we had dinner at Drew's and brought our luggage up since we were either walking up here this morning or getting a ride with Alvaro on his quad. luckily we got the ride. Our friends live in Javilla and Costa de Oro is about 10 min the opposite direction, we already felt like they were doing us a huge favor we didn't want to inconvenience them any more by asking them to get us.

I don't have last night's sunset or any of the baby releases uploaded. Everything got packed and spent the night at Drew's, except me. I'll get some pictures posted when I get internet next. We are heading up to Liberia to pick up a car and then figuring out where we are going from there. I'll keep you all posted on my whereabouts though!

Waterfalls

Saturday we went for a little hike with some friends back in the hills of Javilla. Their property lines up to a waterfall that is about 60 feet high, at least what they told us. Unfortunately, there wasn't a water hole big enough for us to swim in but it was a fun site to see. Once we got the waterfall we then hiked around up to the top to take a look from the top of the waterfall. We talked about going up to the next fall, but I think we were all a little tired and starting to get a tiny bit hungry, so we opted to turn around and go back to the house. We hung out and socialized for a little bit and then they gave us a ride back to the house. They had a new truck, Victor and I were having a discussion on the way up about how nice the bed of the truck was in comparison to others we have sat in on the very bumpy roads here.

Two more nights here, in no way am I ready to leave. I woke up this morning just thinking about all the work that needs to be done. Luckily we are having a BBQ at our house today for all the projects so we can stay at home and get some packing done while everyone comes to us. We are having pork ribs, a leg and some steaks, all cooked on a pit that is going to be dug out on the beach. I was pretty excited when I heard. But it is one more chance to see everyone before we leave.

Our friends we went hiking with are heading up to Liberia on Wednesday so we are going to get a ride with them up that way and pick up a car in Liberia to go out on our adventure. We got lucky that they didn't mind us tagging along because I think Courtney and I were both not looking forward to taking the bus (and 8 hour bus ride).

December 2

Okay okay, I'm lagging with the sunsets a day. Here is last nights sunset from the hatchery. I thought the clouds were too pretty and much more exciting being from the hatchery rather the beach again.

November 28

This picture is a day late, but the good news is today's picture looks exactly the same!
It's been overcast and yesterday it rained a little bit as well, not nearly enough but oh well.
Wednesday is our last day, I don't want to talk about it, I'm starting to get sad about it.

November 27

Last night's sunset wasn't anything special, actually looked like we might get some rain. Unfortunately no rain, just a really hot, sticky night.

Camera is up and running again, leaving it in a bag of rice for a few days seemed to do it good, luckily.

Playing with horses

Sorry for not having another sunset picture last night. We were doing exhumations and the bugs were starting to come out. Only 8 more days here, and I haven't seen a nesting turtle in about a week and a half, maybe longer. It's not summer here and the days are dry and we haven't had a good rain in probably a week, which makes it hard for turtles to nest since the sand on the beach is so soft. Our hatchery is back up and running with babies starting to hatch every night. We have about half our hatchery left to go, which seems like a lot but when Victor came back from his visa run half the hatchery had hatched in the week he was gone.

The other day we went out horse back riding. It was a great way to learn about the area around us. We rode through streams, pastures, saw two troops of monkeys and found a few of the guanacaste trees that this area is named for. All the volunteers said that they had ridden before but not a lot. While we were riding one of the girls told me her father is a horse whisperer, she was actually probably the best at riding when we first started and it all made sense.

Next up will be some hiking to waterfalls up behind Javilla. Courtney and I are in the midst of planning our after trip. We are planning on hitting up Tamarindo, Arenal, and Monte Verde and spending about a day or two in each place. It's official I have a flight out of Costa Rica, I will be heading home on the 12th!

November 25

Camera is still in a bag of rice wanted to really make sure that if its water its dried out. So I went down to the beach tonight with my ipad to get a picture, yes I was that person.

Thanksgiving Feast

As I've said before, Thanksgiving was at Laguna Mar, and it was delicious. We had salad, bread (homemade by Pablo), turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole (new to me), mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and carmel ice cream. Oh my goodness the turkey was so delicous, it was probably the most moist turkey I have ever had. It was brined the night before and then wrapped in banana leaves to help hold in the moisture. Pablo saw I didn't like pumpkin pie and brought me out extra ice cream. The bread was also so delicious that we asked Michael if we could have the left overs the next day. Cranberry sauce was the only thing missing. When Courtney mentioned that usually turkey is so dry we need lots of gravy and cranberry sauce to help Pablo realized he forgot to make the cranberry sauce. This was Pablo's first Thanksgiving that he prepared and he spent three days preparing it. It came out fantastic, though he did look a little tired at the end of the night.

And I'm sorry I did't get a sunset picture tonight, Court and I were working on a couple exhumations and had gross dirty hands. Also, my camera might have water damage, or the LCD screen is going out... so my camera is in a bag of rice just to be on the safe side.

November 23

Courtney and I finally made it home from Laguna Mar. It took us all day to finally make the move. Michael even tried to convince us to stay for dinner and then Pablo (the chef who lives in Costa de Oro) can take us home. Man I wish I took him up on that offer.

We got home in time for sunset and the one exhumation that needed to be done. So we got some babies in with tonight's sunset again. Victor was hoping that the clouds wouldn't rush in and the green flash would be visible. I told him no matter how clear the sky looks the clouds will always rush in at the last minute.

Sure am going to miss these sunsets. Tomorrow we are going to go horseback riding bright and early, I'll be sure to take lots of pictures! Sorry I don't post so many pictures on my blog, I only brought my iPad and Blogger makes it a little difficult to post the pictures, so I'll do lots of picture album posting when I get home!

Happy Thanksgiving

Today's picture is actually taken in Javilla at Laguna Mar, or Drew's. He is hosting the Thanksgiving feast tonight for the Americans on the projects. And I am so thankful that my parents got me room here to stay the night. Actually I am really thankful that my parents supported me coming to Costa Rica because this has all been one great experience. Also joining us are three girls from Corozalito (one of them is from the states) and then there is also Victor, Mickle, and Courtney (who is also staying the night with me).

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

November 21

Started off this morning with hatchery checks. Had a nest start to come up but they fell asleep. I tried to leave them as long as possible until the sun was up. Then they spent the rest of the day sleeping in my shower until we could release them this afternoon.

Today was pretty cloudy and overcast. Perfect weather to rest up since Courtney and I are spending tomorrow at Drews for Accion de Gracias. I believe Mickle is coming up with us to spend the day lounging by the pool but Victor has yet to decided if he wants to come up in the morning or venture up a little bit later. But all I know is I get a hot shower tomorrow!

Sunset a day

I only have about 15 nights left in Costa de Oro. It's really sad that my time is coming to an end. But I thought I'd let you all enjoy in a sunset a day with me until I'm off to go explore a little more of Costa Rica before heading home.

Tonight's was a little late so I wasn't able to grab all the colors in the sky. We were doing some exhumations and all of a sudden the sun was sinking really low. But I ran back to the house and grabbed my camera real quick for this shot.

Red Handed

On Saturday we went and painted at a local school. They had a wall that needed to be painted and Ingrid asked us on Friday if we would like to go and help them. We were to paint the inside of the surrounding wall. This is more of a fence that surrounds the school, About a month before I got here Courtney, Victor, Matt and our volunteers went and scrapped the wall of the blue paint that was there prior. Well, a couple months later they had us come back to finish the job that was started. We painted the inside of the wall this rusty red color; we have no clue why just the inside of the wall. But with the aid of Victor, Mickle (volunteer from San Diego), Ingrid, and Iona (our Romanian volunteer) we were able to get the whole thing done in just a few hours.

We started off with just one roller and a bunch of paint brushes, and Ingrid and I walked down to the hardware store to grab another roller and some paint trays. Boy was that the best decision of the day, I think we could have been there all week had we not. At one point one of the rollers broke, so I ran back over to buy another roller since we still had another wall to go. Those few times of painting Dad's offices came in handy though, since I have perfected my technique for painting quickly and efficiently.

When we were finishing, Courtney joined us. She had been on a horse tour with the group from San Miguel in the morning and was going to come help when she was done. After cleaning up and washing our very dirty hands we decided we were all starving. Day 2 of Loma Clara! This time I got the Fajitas de Pollo con Tortillas and they even had pineapple-mango smoothies that we all grabbed.

After eating and settling the bill we walked back over towards Coyote and decided to go by Super Rey's to grab ice cream. I also grabbed a Café Brit Iced Coffee, good thing I don't live closer to a super I might develop an addiction to these. And then we headed down 100 meters towards the office to get a ride home.

Another fun successful day in Coyote, well, any day I get ice cream in Coyote is a successful day to me...

Butterfly Farm

A couple days ago we went to Mike's Butterfly Garden, in Bejuco which is about 10 k from our house. Unlike most butterfly gardens his is all outdoors which means we get to see more butterflies come and go with the seasons and we never know what we are going to get. We saw lots over butterflies and learned all about the different plants that they are attracted to and why, even how butterflies mimic each others coloring.

Interestingly enough, Mike used to be an entomologist in the army. Who knew that was even a unit?! They go into survey the area prior to war so they know what kind of insects they might be needing to deal with. Anyways, his true calling is bees and all of his knowledge is fascinating! He has a few different hives.He is currently working on replacing some hives by replacing the queens in some nests to change the type of bees they are. He has lots of honey and we got to try two different kinds.  I even tried pollen which was delicious and learned about how it can help with recovery time in endurance sports.

There was a tree down towards the front of the property called the bat tree. This tree is giant and the root system is all above ground. This is where the bats sleep under the roots in the tree. We also took a walk to go and look at his beehives from afar and he explained how he was in the process of trying to split the hives in half. Needless to say, it was a very fun and informational tour to go on and so many beautiful things to look at. We walked through some trees along a little river and even though it was 9 am it was still mosquito time, or some other little biting bug because I came out with a few fresh bites.

After the tour we got a ride back to the house. Mickle (our new volunteer from San Diego), Iona (one of our German volunteers), and Victor got out of the truck and opted to eat lunch at home. Courtney and I continued our way towards Coyote in the truck. We stopped off at Lotti's house and talked with her. We decided that our official end date will be December 5th.

After talking to Lotti, we continued up the road up to Coyote. We decided we really wanted to go to Loma Clara. Courtney went the week prior and had the steak, which she had said was fantastic. We both ordered the steak, which also comes with some shrimp. We got a choice between veggies or rice and both opted for fresh veggies instead of rice which we get plenty of all the time.

 While eating our food, a friend of Courtney's pulled up, he came by and talked to us. He said he was going to be making a real quick stop here but then had to go run some errands. We were kind of bummed hoping for a ride back to Costa de Oro, even though after eating so much steak we probably could have rolled back down the hill home. We finished our food and got a beer and he was still there so we decided to ask for  ride. And that's how we got our ride home. He asked if it was okay that he needed to make a few stops though and wanted to make sure we weren't in a hurry. When he found out we were going to walk he laughed and realized we weren't in any hurry at all. 

We stopped off at a supermarket and Courtney and I grabbed some ice cream. We were going to stop off at the market across the street to pick up a few more things. There is also a bar right next to the supermarket and we got distracted. It had looked like the bar had been redone recently and looked pretty nice. We grabbed another beer. before we ran to the market next door. We grabbed a few more items and then were off back home. It was a fun day away from the house for a little bit and to go hang out around Coyote.

My Costa Rican Dog

While living here the last few months I've adopted a dog. She is one of a trio that are referred to as the tres hermanas, which is actually a mom and her two puppies. This one is Nonita and she is the cutest little thing. At one point she had been accused of being the hatchery intruder but that was quickly proven false when Courtney and I tied her up for a night across the street and the hatchery was still broken into. She and her sisters are strays on the beach. Someone had at one time owned them but moved out of the area and left the dogs, so all the tourists on the beach take turns caring for the dogs.
I've been told I'm not allowed to bring any pets home but this one is just too cute to leave! She surprised us when she kept returning and looked perfectly fine being tied up the night we did. Might have been all the little meals we kept bringing her throughout the night. These dogs are very much like North Shore dogs. They run wild during the day but these dogs have nowhere to go home for food at night. They love to run up and down the beach and hunt fish in the surf. So maybe I will just send her out to the North Shore to live with Betty and her dogs!

Arribada in Corozalito

Today Lotti and Eric came over early this morning right after we had finished cleaning up breakfast. They told us we had five minutes to get ready -  the arribada in Corozalito was going on. We told our volunteers that we were going and if they wanted to come to they needed to be in the car and ready to go in five minutes.

 An arribada is a turtle nesting phenomenon where thousands of turtles come up onto the beach and nest usually for about 3 nights, but since there are so many turtles they will sometimes come up in the day as well. Arribada's only happen on a select few beaches in Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and India which is why this was a special thing to be able to witness. We learned that there is a new protocol this year when counting turtles during an arribada; the turtle is only counted when you see her laying her eggs. When thousands of turtles are coming up a night it is hard to get all their measurements and tag all of them. Also, in Corozalito they don't have a hatchery so they eggs are left on the beach and the coordinator and volunteers will go back and check on the nests and do exhumations on ones that they can find on the beach.

 It was a fun time getting to see the turtles nesting in the day time and as always seeing our friends from other project sits.

BABIES!

Here is a baby update for all you guys!
We had looked into a nest with Lotti today and found some little hatchlings! The nest is still hatching but we did pull 5 babies out. Two of our Volunteers (Julia and Chantal) have not been able to see babies yet so they were very excited to be able to go out and release them even if it was a little rainy outside. Everyone got a chance to take a picture with a baby and see them off to sea.