Welcome
Hello and welcome to my Ecology Project website. My project this summer is about Leatherback Sea Turtles. I will be posting information about the project here.
My site is new, so you will continue to see changes to the content in the coming months. I welcome you to continue to check this site for new updates about the Leatherback Sea Turtle Conservation project.
Recent News
6/17/10 - Third Update
Its been a while since I've updated this page, but I would like everyone to know that I am leaving for Costa Rica tonight and will be posting a report of my experiences shortly after I return on June 29
7/17/10 - Trip Report
Day 1
We arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica at about 10:30 am after a long night filled with delayed planes and bad food. After a 45 minute bus ride thought the streets of San Jose, we arrived at our hotel. Then getting our bags and seeing our rooms, we then went to lunch. We then ate classic Costa Rican food, rice and beans. Delicious.
Ice breaker name games? Don’t even get me started, there were some very embarrassing experiences, but overall quite fun. It was raining pretty hard and it was only 2 pm. Then at 3 we went to play team building games, which were enjoyable. Later in the day we found out that Germany lost to Serbia in the World Cup and it was heartbreaking. Dinner was, for the most part, good. The time it took to become dinner was not good at all. Dinner was supposed to be at 6 pm, but actually no, we got there at 5:50 and then at 6:30 they set our tables, great. Then came the first course, soup. Absolutely ridiculous. The soup was followed by spaghetti and jellow and all three were very tasty. Then after dinner games, which we were all dreading because we just wanted to sleep. The games were okay however and now it’s 8 and I’ve gotten 3 hrs of sleep in the last 24 hrs, so ends day 1.
Day 2
For starters, this morning my alarm didn’t go off, it was great. So one of the girls had to come and wake my roommates and I up. Fantastic start. After some showers under water that happened to be just a shade warmer than ice, we had breakfast. It was cliché, to be honest, rice with beans and eggs, bread and fruit.
We were supposed to leave afterward, but due to a landslide we were delayed by 2 hours. To “make up” for lost time we decided to play more undignified games with another EPI group that was also at the hotel. More fun. After that we hung around for a little bit and around 11-11:30 we boarded the bus and left.
We drove through one of the biggest reserves in Costa Rica “EL Parque Nacional”. It was quite beautiful and we passed through a “cloud forest” in the mountains so high that most of the scenery is engulfed or surround by clouds. The last 1 hour or so of the ride was over many bumpy roads, farms on either side.
When we arrived at La Suerte Rainforest the humidity was clearly evident. Another great lunch of rice and beans, we had it this time with some tuna. After getting our room assignments and getting set up we went on a hike. It was raining and quite muddy hence making it slippery as well. We got back and we learned how to classify organisms. Then we had some chill time before dinner, I bet you know what it was. Another hike, this one at night followed dinner. It wasn’t raining as much, but the fauna mainly included frogs, lizards and various insects. Now we are back and I’m writing my journal. That was the extent of today
Day 3
Today I woke up at 5:45 and went outside to watch the birds. I saw some beautiful birds and my friend took some pictures, it was great. A bit later we had a wonderful breakfast of rice, beans, and eggs. After breakfast we found out of activities for the day. We were to spend the morning planting and monitoring trees and their growth. It was extremely, extremely hot and by the end of the two and a half hour activity I was soaked in sweat. Literally.
After this we all came back, changed into nicer, dry clothes and had some good lunch of the classic. We played a game in which groups are countries and we had to fight to develop it in our own ways(each of us having a different profession).
Soccer is a big thing in Costa Rica, so we played a game with the locals. As we expected, we got slaughtered. It was good fun however, once again, we came back covered in sweat. When we returned to the house I took a wonderful cold shower and it felt so good after being hot and sweaty all day. After dinner later in the night we practiced our skit that we were going to perform for the school.
Day 4
I’m writing about this day a day late, so I don’t remember much except for some major parts. Basically, yesterday we went on a very long and humid hike through the rainforest, in which the flora and fauna were spectacular. Many pictures were taken and we saw so many frogs there is no way I could give u an accurate number. The best part of the hike, my favorite anyway, was the mud. It was the most enjoyable mud to walk through. It was really funny watching everyone stumble and slip through it and at some points it was almost a foot deep. After this very long hike we washed up and did some research. We had to research a certain species and give a presentation on that animal. I chose the Baird’s Tapir, it’s quite a fascinating animal but there is too much information to go into right now. That’s all I remember from yesterday.
Day 5
Today was left La Suerte and went to a Costa Rican high school. The people there were really nice and welcoming. After exchanging presentations we split up into groups and took a tour of their school. With all the natural beauty and how open and relaxed the attitude was, I really enjoyed it. They even had 2 rivers, a farm, a fish pond, and multiple trails that went into the forest around their school. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind enrolling there; too bad it’s in Costa Rica. After having lunch, which was fantastic, we headed off to catch our speedboats to Pacuare. The scenery during the boat ride was really nice and going through the canal was fantastic. After a boat ride for the better part of an hour we arrived at the trail to our camp. One-fourth of a mile and we are there, within 15 minutes at the camp we’ve seen howler monkeys not more than 30 feet away. It was a splendid sight and a great welcoming committee. After setting up in our cabin we immediately were sent to turtle protocol. After protocol we went to dinner, more of the classic, following dinner we went to the cabin and found out who was in our patrol groups. I’m patrol leader and tonight we leave at 12.
Day 6
This morning we went on patrol at 12 and it was pretty useless. 4 hours of only turtle tracks. I was pretty disappointed and to top that I only got 5 hours of sleep. It wasn’t even deep sleep; it’s much too hot in Costa Rica for that. Breakfast was very cliché and afterwards we had a lesson. The coolest part of the lesson was that there was a Yellow Eyelash Pit Viper sitting in a tree not 10 feet away and I believe some very good pictures were taken. Other than that we spent the whole day learning about turtles. This is also a day late, my apologies.
Day 7
Today we SAW A TURTLE! It was AMAZING! It was so great, the most unbelievable experience, and hopefully it will happen again tonight.
Today we went to the South Station and we saw so much; Howler Monkeys, Spider Monkeys and Capuchin Monkeys. Plus we saw a Jesus Lizard, a very rare Agami Heron, a spider eating a lizard and a sloth – which are really rare to see. We also saw a frog with a tadpole on its back. Then we came back to the North Station, went to the beach and I saw some poachers; two boats and they were harpooning turtles. It was intense and the camp coordinator freaked out. It was actually quite exciting. We had dinner and my patrol leaves at 10.
Day 8
Today was, by far, the best day at Pacuare. In the morning we had breakfast after showers and of course, we then had to go to the beach and get all sandy. After getting all sandy we went across the canal to a bar and got Fanta, Coke and Pepsi. We had our lesson their and it was a good change from the cabin. We came back and had lunch followed by a siesta, during which Max and I broke coconuts with our hands and got milk all over ourselves.
Much needed relax time, was as usual followed by another lesson. In this lesson/activity we had to make up our own animals, name and everything. It was great, my group made a very strange Eagle-like creature. We then presented it to the group and I believe we won best animal. Then we went to excavate a nest! It was amazing, I got to help our naturalist (Juan Carlos) uncover old eggs! It was a mind blowing experience, yet very hard to describe. While walking back to the cabins we saw hatchlings! They were going to the ocean, and at first there were 2, but eventually we had seen 9 hatchlings disappear into the depths of the ocean. The best part was that I got to touch one and help direct it toward the water. It was fantastic! We then had dinner and are now getting ready for patrol.
Day 9
Here is another one that’s a couple of days late, but still, it’s here. So after seeing the baby turtles we continued on our usual routines and I went out on the twelve o clock patrol. Our patrol got really bored with not seeing anything so we built a massive sand crocodile that was incredibly life like, plus making it was really fun. The following morning, our last at Pacuare, we started off with our routines and had lesson about Leatherbacks and even more ways to help them, I found this extremely interesting. Later that night we had our last patrol at Pacuare, at eight. It was really sad and we didn’t see any turtles, but it was still loads of fun. I went to sleep early that night, but it was, just like every other night, absolutely fantastic.
Day 10
Today we left Pacuare after having our last meals there and naturally everyone was really quite sad, it was a great place and I am definitely going to miss it. We then took at 3 hour bus ride to our next hotel “Bella Vista Ranch”. It’s a pretty cool place with great coffee and excellent views, but we didn’t really do much except eat roasted marshmallows after dinner. Tomorrow however, we are going rafting!
Day 11
Today we left Bella Vista at nine o clock and took a one and a half hour bus ride to the Pacuare River where we were to go rafting. After about thirty minutes of prep talk we got started. The river started our pretty calm, and it was nice. Soon there were huge rapids and on one class four rapid I fell out! It was so scary, but it got the adrenaline pumping and kicked the fight to survive instinct into gear. It was actually really fun as well. After two hours we stopped for lunch and the guides made delicious burritos. Then another 2 hours and we concluded our rafting trip with everyone no less than soaking. It was amazing. After that we went back to our original hotel and had our farewell dinner, shared memories and hung out with each other because it was our last night together.
I am definitely going to miss Costa Rica!
