Pacuare Reserve

We spent 12 nights volunteering at the Pacuare Reserve, which is south of Tortuguero on the East Coast of Costa Rica. To get to the reserve we took a bus to the closest town (Martina), Tana and Glenn's friend Scott drove us along a pot holed road to where we caught a boat along a canal to the reserve. During the day we painted, made signs, mended a shelter, cleaned turtle egg bags, walked in the forest, did some school, hid from the heat or the rain and did a lot of reading. At night we went on patrol with the research assistants and were lucky enough to work with the turtles too. Leatherback season had just started before we arrived.

On our first night out we came across a turtle about 5 minutes into the patrol. She was still only digging her hole so we got to see the whole process. Once she finds the place she wants to lay, she uses her back flippes to dig the hole, by scooping up sand and placing it to the side. When she is ready to lay, if she is too close to the sea or in a place that is not ideal for other reasons, a plactic bag is put in the hole to catch her eggs so they can be relocated. Once the turtle has finished laying she covers the nest and then camouflages the area - sometimes a very large area. While she is still covering the nest she is measured and checked for scars and missing bits (it's not unusual to see a flipper with a shark mouth size bite out of it, or a stump instead of a flipper). After camouflaging she heads back out to sea and it's our turn to camouflage her camouflaging to make it less obvious for poachers, who steal the eggs so they can be sold as an aphrodisiac. At 70 to 100+ eggs per nest and about US$1 per egg, that's some quick cash for them. It's illegal to take the eggs but not illegal to sell them. Back to human camouflaging - this involves getting down in amongst it with a stick and smoothing out the mounds and ditches the turtle has created.

Patrols were generally 4hrs long unless you got turtle near the end of your shift and it could be up to 2 more hours if she's only just comng out of the water. So not only was there the excitement of seeing and working with the turtles it was also great exercise.

My highlights were:

• the night two turtles were within two metres of each other and while I was lying behind one catching her eggs the other one was camouflaging and flicking sand on me.
• my last night when two turtles came up within metres of each other and I got to be in charge of egg catching for one while Kate (the research assistant) looked after the other one. It was my turtle, for a wee while anyway.

Heading to the North camp.

We were based in the South camp for most of the time except for the 2 nights we stayed in the North camp.


The canal

I borrowed this off the internet because the turtles are sensitive to light so we couldn't take photos.

We used red light when working with them and then only when needed.

A leatherback and her nest.

Again, not my photo.

A leatherback turtle track.
This one only covered a small area!
It was nothing compared to the mess some of them make.


Sunset on the beach

A funky looking crab.

Howler monkeys

...and another.

Tarantula!

At the bar across from North Camp celebrating Kate and Ria's birthdays.

Cold beer and lots of chocolatey goodies.

The Reserva Pacuare team - a stylish bunch.

I reckon they should wear these outfits for the turtles.

Had to have our photo taken with the Imperial sign.

Ready for the rain and the turtles.

My bag had many purposes:

shelter from rain, sand flicking turtles, mozzies (did I mention the night my butt was covered in bites? Clothes don't stop them, but my bin bag would have), protection for me as I sat between a sand flicking turtle and its nest while someone else removed the eggs, because we weren't there early enough to catch them, and it just looked damn cool.

There was also the turtle that was flicking sand beside the water. My bag couldn't save me that time as the sandy water smacked me in the head.

Is it weird to say I love leatherbacks? I'm thinking it has to be love since I enjoyed all of these things because I was hanging out with leatherback turtles!

Matt entertaining us one night at the North Camp.

The slight detour we took through a banana plantation on our way to Martina to catch our bus back to San Jose. The road was being dug up and no one was driving through for at least 2 hours.

Karen getting a helping hand from the students who came to our rescue at the last deep, muddy ditch. We were at a disadvantage with our muddy jandals.

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

After our weekend to Pureto Viejo, a few weeks ago, we decided we needed to return. Puerto Viejo is a Jamaican influenced Rasta town that is very laid back and popular with surfers. There are heaps of open air bars playing Bob Marley and serving cocktails. There are also beautiful beaches and a great atmosphere. This time we stayed for five nights. The first couple of days were overcast but after that there was plenty of sun to hide from.
Zane was doing some research on wildlife in the area, so school time was mostly spent on the beach.
My highlight was visiting a wildlife sanctuary and getting to hug a baby sloth. There were also howler monkeys which are much lighter than baboons and don’t bite as hard either.
We have two more weeks left in Costa Rica which will be spent further up the Caribbean coast volunteering with the leatherback turtles. I don't know much about it so it will all be a surprise. I do know there is no power so the next update will be from San Jose before we fly to Quito, Ecuador.

Just the littlest bit excited about our massive pina coladas.

Playa Negra (Black Beach)

This guy was behind glass.

This guy's fur is surprisingly soft.

My new neck fashion.

Cartago and Orosi Valley

We had one night in Cartago which is famous for its basilica. It wasn’t the prettiest of towns and once we’d done the basilica photo thing and checked out all sorts of religious souvenirs it was time for another town.

That town turned out to be Orosi. It is close to two volcanoes and has thermal pools. It was less built up and in a prettier setting than Cartago, except it was hard to get the pretty photo because of the huge number of power lines everywhere. Orosi also has the oldest church, that has services, in Costa Rica.

My small room.

Check out the elephant towels on the bed. They love their novel towel folding here.

The old church.

The front door of a very classy bar.

Walking in the rain with my spiffy umbrella that Tana is very jealous of.

A photo minus power lines and the sun.

San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

We headed to a cooler climate again and stayed in another cloud forest. This time in the San Geradon de Dota area which is about 80km south of San Jose. The area is famous as a place to spot Quetzals (which we did). We were at 2500m which made for a lot of puffing and panting when walking anywhere. The scenery was beautiful though so the helped. Tana and I did find a better way to conquer the hills when we went for a horse trek.

Each night we walked uphill (I know but it was worth it) to a local soda/restaurant that was run by this sweet little lady who always made sure she came out so say hi. As soon as we sat down we got juice and salad, and from there the plates kept coming until the table was full with beans, rice, veges, plantains (savoury banana), and a variety of meats including local trout. Just when we thought we couldn't fit anything else desert would be brought out which was stewed fruit, cake or biscuits and hot chocolate. Yum!

The view from our lounge

One of the bedrooms

An excuse to stop when Tana and I went on a 6.5km walk. The first half down hill was fine, but I whinged all the way back up.

The famous Quetzal

Only the male has the pretty long feathers. The female just didn't cut the mustard to reach blog quality.

The trees have plants growing all over them.

The waterfall we rode to.

Look carefully and you can see Tana in the shadows.

Drake Bay, Costa Rica

We spent 4 nights in the beautiful Drake Bay. It was a 35min flight from San Jose to Drake on the southern Pacific coast. It's one of the least developed and populated areas of Costa Rica. We spent our time walking in the rainforest, kayaking, snorkeling, swimming and relaxing (of course there was school too).

Looking down on part of San Jose. People don't have very big sections and what they do have seems to be roofed.

Our festive plane

Our accommodation

We had rooms in the building on the right.

The view from the comunal area

The local bridge. It was sturdier than it looks.

The view from my bed

The river we kayaked up and down.

It was really humid so water activities and cold beers were always welcomed.

This guy run across the top of the water in front of me.

There was always some sort of wildlife around. Even when walking along a path there were lizards running in all directions.

The island we had lunch on after snorkeling.

There were heaps of bright colourful fish, a school of Bigeyed Jacks and a Green Turtle.

The beach on the island was crawling with hermit crabs.

This guy was hanging out just along from our room.

It poured with rain on our last day but it was still warm.

I was just checking how wet it really was.