Hot Water

Today we had to say goodbye to Costa de Oro and begin our adventure. At 5:15 AM Alvaro came and picked up Kayla and took her to Hotel Laguna Mar. I was still trying to put the last things in order when Alvaro returned to get me.  When we arrived to the hotel,  Drew was waiting for us with some much needed coffee.

Bill and Audrey, pulled up to the hotel fifteen past six and we loaded the car up. We went for a quick drive to Liberia, with just one stop at the Do-It Center. After Bill and Audrey got all sorts of things for the house, we were dropped off at the car rental place. We thanked Bill and Audrey  for the ride and went to get our car.

As in everything in Costa Rica, the car rental took a little longer than expected and we even had to switch car companies because the first tried to rent us a Sedan by saying "there are no bad roads in Costa Rica." We finally ended up in a mini SUV which we know will better fit our needs.

One of our beautiful views along the drive.

Our first glimpse at the Blue River.

Thanks to Drew, we had our first hotel planned in Blue River, which was a place I had never seen. So after only one wrong turn and an hour and a half later of beautiful driving we crossed the Blue River. Of course, we stopped at it to take some photos. While taking the pictures, I stepped back into river and was surprised to find it was hot! We admired the beauty of the river and its unique color then once again, we climbed into the car. 

Only 100 meters past the river, we found the turn in for the resort. When we got there they gave us a map of the place which included a butterfly farm, hummingbird garden, sauna, hot springs, and a mud bath. Kayla and I decided there was no time to waste because we had so much to do, but first we needed to unpack the car.

Our room's private porch.

Huge bathroom!

And our really comfy beds...

When we arrived in the room, we couldn't believe how big it was. There was a great hammock on the front porch and two queen beds. When we turned the corner for the bathroom, the shower was almost the same size of my room I had been living in in Costa de Oro. Once we had thoroughly investigated our room, we quickly changed into our suits in search of the mud bath.

Our search begin at the spa, where we saw the special $1/ minute for massage. With this we were torn… Massage or mud bath first. We went with the mud bath since it was so warm outside, we felt the mud would feel best. The way one takes a mud bath is to first soak in the sauna for 20 minutes and then lather up in mud. Once the mud is dry then rinse in cold water. Only Kayla and I learned we are far too impatient for the full treatment and after only 5 minutes we were over the sauna and moved on to putting mud on. The mud was cool, but we quickly covered ourselves with the volcanic mud. We rinsed just as quickly, finding the water not to be cold, but the same temperature that we had grown accustomed to in Costa de Oro.

We made a run for the hot tub only to find we took a wrong turn in the garden and ended up in the butterfly enclosure. As we entered the tent we were memorized by the number of blue morpho butterflies. Forgetting how cold, we wandered the gardens watching the butterflies. After we couldn't stand the cold any longer, we made our way to the hotsprings. While sitting there, Kayla and I decided we needed at least a ten minute massage since our life on the beach for the last 5 months was so stressful.

Hotel Restaurant.

After a nice massage, hot shower and quick nap, we made our way to restaurant for a quick dinner before calling it an early night. Tomorrow we have an early day a head of us because we are going on a tour of Blue River, Blue River Estates and the waterfall.

Mele Kalikimaka

After almost 6 months in Costa Rica, 4 of which were spent living with the amazing community of Costa de Oro, it is time to wrap up the project.  We began by waking up early and exhuming all the nests that had hatched. During our 7 exhumations, we removed just over 300 live baby turtles that we released this evening.

The 300 plus turtles from the exhumations this morning.

Every turtle represents a nest that was in the hatchery this year.

Once all the exhumations were complete, we said good bye to Michelina and began packing up the house. Surprisingly enough we met our goal and the house was ready by 4PM.Of course the children showed up on time for our last activity of the year. Celebrating Christmas by making a snowman, our in our case a tropical sandman! We then released the 300 turtles with the help of the town and said our goodbyes. It was really hard to say good bye to such an amazing community even though I will be back in just over a month.

Last sunset in Costa de Oro

After the sun had set, we headed up to Laguna Mar for an amazing meal of homemade shrimp ravioli and a drink. I was surprised to see a couple of my friends had come by the bar just to wish us safe travels. Well I better get back to my last night in paradise and my pina colada! Keep posted for  Kayla and my travels around Costa Rica this coming week.

This awesome video made by one of the volunteers,

Michelina, which sums up the last month on the project!

That Wild Migration- Beautiful Swimmers

Tons of turtle tracks

Yesterday I got to witness a phenomena that anyone who works with turtles dreams of see, an Arribada. Arribada means 'the arrival' in Spanish and is a mass nesting event that occurs in only Olive Ridleys and Kemp Ridleys.

Here is how it all began. I woke up early, at 5:30, to do a morning check of the beach followed by an exhumation for a couple visiting from Pennsylvania. When I got back into the house our German volunteers had made us German pancakes, which are pretty much crepes and nothing like The Original Pancake House's German pancakes, but delicious nonetheless.

Around 10AM Erik came to the house to tell us that they just found out that Corozalito had an Arribada and that we could all go. So 8 of us, plus the 6 other people they are already picked up, all pilled into the car and headed the 15 Km north to go see some sea turtles.

Me posing with a turtle.

When we got there, the beach was not full of turtles like I had expected, but there were still turtles nesting. The sand was so hot I was amazed the turtles could even walk on it, but they seemed to be still trying to nest. Then I looked out on the horizon , just past the breaking waves, and saw a ton more turtles waiting to come in. It seemed as though they were waiting until the sand cooled down before they nested.

Sea turtle nesting.

Another nesting turtle

After about an hour, the Pretoma truck was loaded and ready to return us all to our appropriate projects. But lucky for me, Alvaro showed up, which meant I had the opportunity to stay back and watch the turtles a little longer. The interesting thing was, right after the truck left the majority of the turtles stopped nesting and  were just coming up and  leaving. When they would reach the hot sand the would turn around and rest, holding their flippers out of the sand, like they were being burned. We even had to help a few because they not moving and just sitting on hot sand.

Another hour passed and it was time for me to head back and have a much needed lunch with some good girl friends  before heading back to Costa de Oro. As for the arribada, I still have high hopes to make another trip to Corozalito today!

The Skeletons are Dancing- Desperation Samba

Over the past couple days a lot has happened. We have put just under 20 nests in the hatchery. The children returned and painted sea turtles on their tie-dyed shirts and they have showed Kayla and I all about a local fruit called a limon dulce, sweet lemon. However, this fruit is not sweet, but rather un-flavorful and can't be used for lemonade and overall not that great. Nonetheless, it was fun to learn from them and see them excited to share their fruit tree with us.

Limon Dulce Tree

Colita with this carved coconut

Maria Fernada preparing a limon dulce

Just tasting the limon dulce.

Kayla and I also caught our turtle-loving dog breaking into the hatchery. Its was around 8 PM and out redneck alarm system started to clank. We looked at each other, then I ran out the door and Kayla grabbed a flashlight. When I reached the hatchery the dog was just slipping through a new hole in the hatchery and headed straight for a nest. By the time I got the door open the dog had already broke ground. Kayla and I must have spooked him because he looked up at us and realized we were blocking his exit. So like a scene out of a cartoon, the dog ran straight through the hatchery wall. With our culprit visually caught, we were on edge all night waiting for a possible return. Then the next morning I headed over to the owners house and asked for the dog to be tied up at night. They were very receptive, however we are still a little nervous that the dog may still break in again.

Yesterday we were able to celebrate Halloween with people from all the projects. Around noon, we were picked up by Pretoma and were taken up to Laguna Mar. We had a great day at the pool enjoying the sun, cocktails and fish tacos. We all had a fun swapping project and turtle stories.

Ingrid, our skeleton.

Team Costa de Oro

Fish Tacos

Ingrid, Me and Kayla enjoying margaritas in the pool

Sharing Halloween with the kids.

We headed back to the project just after 5 pm and Kayla and I went to the children's  house to share candy and treats with them. They loved the glow sticks my parents had sent me.

Luna dressed up for Halloween.

Ballads

There is not much to say about today, except it was long. We spend the better part of the day driving from San Jose to Costa de Oro. Since my dad had already driven to and from San Jose many times in the past week and a half, we decided to take a different route. As with most drives in Costa Rica, the views were beautiful and well worth the extra 20 minutes to see a different part of the country.

Coffee plant

Boats in Puntarenas

Howler Monkey 

During the drive however, we ran into traffic due to road construction and a funeral procession which both completely stopped us. We finally made it back to the Laguna Mar hotel where Drew and Micheal had both a room and a drink ready for us. We hung out at the hotel and enjoyed the sunset before heading back to the beach for dinner and patrol. It feels so good to be back at the beach and I can't wait to see some turtles tonight.