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.