pictures speak

writing everyday is conditioning me to really think about what i am going thru here.
today, my brain is a bit fried, and my schedule is pretty booked
So, heres a collage upping you to date.  i'll let the photos talk for themselved this time

12-4:00am midnight patrol
4-5:00 am, photoshoot
5:30-9:30am: sleep
10-2pm (now): interview, lunch
2-6pmpainting mile markers on beach
6-7 dinner and defry
8-12am: patrol.

and we start again on thursday..., sacre bleu!

CCC to the Rescue

Participating everyday in these 4-10mile days of patrols, I was begiiiining to feel as tho the experience may get monotonous, or that our service whas one of going thru the motions solely for science's accuracy's sake (which is of value).  but the last couple days have taught me that we are also here to protect these animals to a much higher degree than expected.

On monday morning two of my fellow RA's- Delfina, la ssshhhica de argentina, and Andy, adventure boy from whales- went out to the morning patrol on the national park side.  The scientific purpose of patrolling the entire beach everymorning is to get an accurate number of turtles who came up to nest the previous night, as well as the number of nests that were successfully laid (about half), and thus further analize populatiom numbers in the region.; As they approached the townside of the beach (usually the part we supervise with more care the previous night, because the shameless poachers simply come out to their "back yard" and grab turtle for dinner), and they found an usual track.  This track turned from a flipper movement to a clean tunnel slide.... this means the 300 pounder was flipped on its back (cooperates better) and then dragged to the end of the beach, where she was butchered to pieces... :(  leaving behind the top carapace and a high mess of yolk from the eggs she was coming to lay. SOBs  (don't worry this story does have a happy ending)

A bit distraught they continue on, and very closely they find another one, still intact on her back... possibly awaiting the poacher's return.  It wasn't until a minute or so that they saw movement.  This poor roasting under the sun turtle was still alive! Between the both of them and newfound hulkhogen strength, they flipped her over, broken flipper and all and helped her to the water.  She was extremely exhausted and struggling from her injury, but the worst was over, and in the water she'd expectedly receive a smooth recovery.

tan tan

Second rescue story was this morning, during patrol at Boca. Nestor, the Colombian super tracker (a poacher himself turned conservationish and activist),  and I began at mile -2/8, and carried on with our usual bus.  The first half of this tracking is usually tight to walk through, waves washing up to the vegetation line, so tracks and/or nests are usually unsuccessful intents.  Anyhow, my role was nest counter and surveyer, while Nestor was marking tracks.  climbing thru, We both notice a peculiar track, identifying an indecisive and determined turtle swerving thru branches and old nests, to find her perfect spot. no return track nor dragged poached track was found... so we decided to investigate further. after some time and seconds away from writing it off as tho it shared a back track with another turtle, Nestor spotted a piece of shell (less than 5 inches) peaking out from under a pile of tipped vegetation. Notably, she began escavating at the edge of the sand cliff above her, and escavted to the point of tipping the branches on top of her. stuck but not harmed, we started moving branches out of the way.  branches were swarmed with fiscious beach biting ants (im not kidding, a couple dozen on one arm brings about a killer burning sensation).  She was moving quite a bit, which was a good sign, meaning she wasn't overly fatigued by the heat and the long stressful night on land.   Finally Nestor managed to free her by pulling the right side of her carapace. and without saying thank you of goodbye, mama toodled her way back to sea.
it was a good patrol day!

I would like to add that after having the one on one encounter with the nesting mama and her 160 eggs, i feel like a have a connection with them.  like they are "part of me."  and i get what they're going thru. i know im being cheesey, but really, now when i go on my rounds, and i see a funny track or a turtle who's "loqueando" (meaning acting crazy because she keeps starting nests but not finishing them, and making a messy battlfield), i chuckle as if it were my buddy who just made a funny.  or when i see an ambushed nest, taken over by dogs, voltures or crabs and the hatchlings coming out surfs up mentality unknowing they're coming out to their doom.... and i see the remaining empty baby shells, i determingly try and find the bursted nest to see if there are still a few ones i can safely piggy back to sea (today i did to two more hatchlings).  ... They are becoming my family, and anybody who messes with my family should watch out!!

poacher stories to come haha.

closing thoughts:  our role is important, and hunches during these heatwave patrol days should not be ignored, there could be a dragged turtle int he jungle, or poachers that could be confronted, or who knows... No lazies allowed

I tagged tonight

Just got back from an wonderful night patrol with Nestor and Carolyn in Boca from 12-4am.
What a different experience this can be when u have the energy, and the turtles to work with! We we able to work 5 turtles, and only the last one was fidgety.

Not only that, as my giveaway title says: i tagged one of the sweet tortugas- no notch, no reaction, perfect location, no frowny face. Oh that felt so good. I was chanting in mynhead the entire 20 seconds while i prepping and trying to guess her rhythm, and i did it! Hurray.

Still not sure its a duty that i will be eagerly jumping in for, but its nice to know i can perform if needed, especially under the right stage.

So five turtles, four shooting stars, three champion RAs, countless mosquitoe bites, and one very happy tagger!

Turtles on holiday

The last few nights, we've noticed a significant drop in turtles coming upmto nest. From counts of 130-200 turtles per park (we cover two areas), to now 20-90 the last few night, i cant help wonder what the cause is.

My theory, no moon and/or hot weather (nk rain until this morning). Some scientists agree. But who knows. Either way im hoping turtle nu,bers will bounce back, as we arent nearly as close to last years nesting numbers (17big ones), also... Night patrols are torturously long w/ out turtles, fighting for the handful with the greedy tourguides. (- i am getting pretty good at talking to them tho)

We have however, been getting plenty of other visits from some exotic and dangerous creatures:
- 4 scorpion visits in our dorm building (one which stung urs truly, and another one in a friends shoe today... She didnt get stung tho)
- 2 snakes, one in shower, one on its way to our dorm.
- 1 howler monkey who was showing us who's boss the other night.
- bats sleeping on our ceiling
- gekos also, and leaving friendly gifts on our beds
- and lets not forget the shark bitten horse (no horses in torutguero tho) nor the lost sloth on the beach

The funny thing is, altho i write it as an unusual occurence, here it really isnt.
"how'd it go tonight?" the possible answers could be:
" eh, not much happened, saw a dead turtle and fought with a spotter, and on the way back caught a poacher sealing a nest"
"found a ____(something that cld bite) in my ____ (something you use everyday)
- super slow. Altho mile 2 we found a poached nest, jaguar footprints, and a couple lingering hatchling, including a hawksbill (rare), and hekped them into sea, afterward greeted by a tropical storm with camera inhand and no nearby shelter (that was me today)

Also today, i had the first shift at the visitor center. A small interested group came in. What i like here is that a tourist who comes to Tortuguero is most likely to be curious about what we apr doing and conservation in general - than not. So listening and particiation is much more noticeabke. ... I also thinj that tapping into this curiousity is an oppurtunuty that ccc/ or stc has speciall access and should expand on.... hopefully i will have time to help in this department.

Point being for this blog, even a slow day is an interesting and freaky day... But here, its justanother day in Tortuguero.

Wish me luck on my midnight patrol tonight -3rd shift today!

Park 49 - My turtle mama's nest

Nest: Park 49
Location: 3 5/8
Date: Aug. 26
Observers: Gigi, Borja, Bjorn
Rf: 122212 lf:122213
Measuemrents:
Egg count: 160

This is my mama turtle, the one who laid 160 eggs on my hand and behaved spectacularly well during the entire measuring and marking process during my last midnight patrol.

Went out for our first patrol without Emma or Cata, and wo better to go with than the sloth savior Bjorn, and my spanish compa Borja. 12-4am shift is also sensa tourists, sppotters, and guides. (but not poachers nor jags). Night started discouragingly slow, identifying a limited amount of only full pairs of tracks, meaning oly about 60 turtles on our 3 mile stretch wo had already gone thru the motions.

We reach our patroling limit at mile 5, also then limit to the public acces to the national park. On this final 1/8 of a mile, there are 3 freshly killed turtle mamas. 2 by jags (u can tell by the jugular attack, the emptying out of its insides -sometimes pieces of vertabrae are beside it- and its flippers still intact) and 1 by poacher (giveaway is missing flippers). All three carrying a fowl pertified smell- which when we reached, Borja and I simultaneously suggested to head back, not wanting to be mistaken for the jaguar's next snack.

Lucky we did so, because we spotted a track that led to this maginificent mama, that we were ale to work with from oviposition stage to camou (the whole thing, about 8-10 steps) all o ournown. And we did so in a professional, calm, and nondisturbing manner. I was so proud ofour team, and so honored that then turtle allowed (possibly unknowingly) me to be part of her labour.

We waited patientky for about 15 minutes as she prepped egga chamber, out of her eye preceptn (?), then i put on my glove on thenright, clicker on thenleft, and began crawling towrds her. Dug my arm tunnel to reach into the egg chamber and under her shell & cloaca, marked my elbow spot for mynleft to then handle the measuring tape and flag the nest. And waited an additional 5-7 min for her to perfect her egg chamber. Being thisnclose to her, seeing her oush up and carefully dig out withing a foot distance, was INCREDiBLE and so intimate. Then i sensed pulsations start, digging persits, and her baclknflpper situate like seal's flippers do, tightly together. Thats thensign. Takes a bit of more digging on my part to go past her new barrier... And the counter clicking begins, as i feel this golf size balls are gentky released in sets of 2-4 in my hand then egg chamber.

All is safe now, once she starts, we cannot (or highly unusual) scare her off, so incall my mates and they hand me the measuring tape on my clicker hand. Mark flags and high tide line under our given oviposition stage, my hand getting closer andncloser to her body and she fills up the nest to its top! And i begin to feel a slower rhythm, time to wrap up and set up for tagging a measuring.... Wile she closes the eggchamber nonaggresively and still in trance mode. Check check check, measurments.... 107.3 m i believe. And we send her off to the ocean.

Walked back to center, or rather floated. Still on cloud nine.

Now in 30min starting my 8-12am patrol, w tourists and all. And then 6-10 am patrol. More stories to come!

Toto, i dont think we're in Kansas anymore.

Many things have pointed me in the direction of feeling out of my element. Starting by being the only RA w/o a science background, my blackberry not working, no cars, no privacy, and midnight shifts.... There are also a lot of things going on around us that have alluded to the obvious - i am in the wild.

Most recent occurence would be my getting stung twice by a snuggly litte fucker, haha, a blonde scorpion hidden in my bath towel, patiently awaiting my post yoga shower. It stung me twice first on my second finger (not index, theother second). It felt like i got an electric shock so i immediately thought it had to do w wet and shower... I flipped the towel to see wth, and it bitmme again on my pinky, then came out to say surprise! (i eventually surprised it in return, w the back of me flip flop - a few times!)

Needless to say, i freaked, shouting for the brave sloth heroes in the next dorm- and nothing. Came out half dressed, found Borja, a sweet spanish City RA (hes in my out of our element team) and he collected the crew to examine the scene of attack and my fingers. Google in the end, as always, came to save the day.

Not a big deal, Besides the initial "this cld get really bad," and hearing emmas "civilizatn is 3 hrs away by boat" warning in the back of my head, my fingers simpy pulsated for a cpl hours, then got tingly.... And then all was ok. I did wake up missing the tips of both, but pretty painless altogether. Guess no more piano career for me Hahaha.

Jokes aside, im beginning to feel more dundee by the minute. aka so feeling OOME is a good thing!

The evening continued w a movie night, watching 180 degrees south which i highly recommend. Some kinks to make it less of an incomplete eco-ed film, and the inspired "dirtbag" (in the film meaning adventure man lives on the road) doesnt have the narration voice to make it a full on motivator (lacking some Morgan Freeman, or Johnny Cash ;) ) also he forces some inspirational quotes... BUT Yvon Chounaird (owner of Patagonia) and Doug st (northface)'s involvement, as they recount their climbing and surf adventures was Inspiring, as well as the cool cinematography and the pick-me-up soundtrack make it worthwhile. I related w a few statements : From the dirtbag "starting to feel less attached to his [my] life duties back home, and focusing more on whats around me" and Yvon also says, "when everything goes wrong [or makes an unexpected turn], thats when adventure starts."

Well the advenutres continue. Hopefully scorpionless for the rest of the ride.

PS
Many more anomalies to share, like turtles attacked by jags, a dead horse w shark bites in our very own bermuda triangle, and more... but i guess i already got bitten to make this blog more interesting, so ill have to save my juicy stories for another time!

Tourists & Tortuguero

Today I was invited to join the organization's Eco Volunteer’s tour, primarily as the group’s interpreter.  We rode on an electrically powered boat (nondisturbing) through the different river canals of the Tortuguero National Park.

We spotted over 10 white-face monkeys, a couple caimans (one which had her babys resting on a log), a bunch of different colorful birds, and were accompanied by howler monkeys moans and alpha male macho calls during most of the journey.  It was a fun and effortless ride.

Then I snuck, breaking the coordinator’s orders, into our neighbor hotel, to break free from the heat and have a pina colada by the pool (although technically, breaking the rules would’ve been getting iiiinto the pool ) w a cpuple of the girls).  Came back to some scenario plays, practicing how to deal with guides, tourists, turtles and poachers….  As well as removing and finalizing unfinished tags.

After my failed encounter with the tagger and the not hed flipper, I’ve sort of kindly bowed out of the tagging competition during our big groups patrols; my assistance has been on spotting, tracking, measuring tape and calipers, body checks, and removing a tag for the last few nights (which is basically everything else)…. now that i know we are being released in groups of 2-3, I will confront the tagging monster and once and for all get it under control.

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A little history on Tortuguero and Tourism:

T was declared a national park in 1975, all along working closely with Archie Carr the founder of CCC (or now called Sea Turtle Conservancy), the organization I’m here with.  Toursim here has grown over the past decades significantly, reaching its max in ’08 of over 115,000 tourists!  This national park is recognized at #4 in the country, aand top 3 green sea turtle nesting beaches (5 miles stretch is the reserve) in the world.

The big improvement on tourism happened in ’03, when they integrated the spotter program, placing tour guides and their 10 person/max per shift (10 guides X 10 touriste X 5 sector= 500 toursist max per shift… I can explain if you’re interested) on the dirt path behind the vegetation, waiting for the spotter signals of when they’ve located a turtle in prime viewing stage (post scarying off, AKA after having dug the egg chamber and initiation oviposition)… VERSUS having all 500 tourist walking frankensteinly on the beach looking for their turtle, and practically scaring them all away.  Very successful modification.  And spotters work closely with CCC researcher (moi) as well.  Tour guides not so much… I’ve been pegged the PR girl of the team and have already butted heads with a couple smarty pant guides.

More background lessons to come on poachers and abnormalities we’ve encountered (including our own Bermuda triangle).  Off to perform our final test excavation (or maybe second to last).

Excavation

I had the a Lovely night and morning off. Went into town to my recently spotted relax chamber ( a salon that gives $35 bux massages), walked back swervung the jamican tikos hissing mamacitas and more, joined the other night offers who were watching seven y ya. Morning came and it was our first overcast day. Aaah, the delight continues. a bit of reading, collaging, and yoga.

We then met as a group to witness our first excavation. The nest was one (like all) that had been monitored for 60-65 days, until we found depradation and turtle hatchling prints. Purpose of excavation is seeing the success ofnthat particlar nest.

Results, 83 perfectly hatched eggs. 7 didnt eveolve into an embryo. One that did but incompleteky, 2 yolkless egges and one livehatching, ready to surf. Very interesting day.
The nest wasnover a meter deep, and only one person should dig making a cup shape w one hand. Rook a while, and things got dirty....andone egg inparticular verysmelly and maggotty.

Now just got back and next on schedle: 8-12am patrol, and 6am canala tour with the eco volunteers. Feeling like i can take the heat now that i got my knots worked on :) hehe.

Days off are just what we need. Saludos del plato favorito de losn mosquitos! (im being eaten alive!, while inalso od on vitamin b, off, eco friendly spray and bracelets!)

Unsupervised morning tracking

After our 8-12:30am patrol with Emma, our awesome Director, we rushed to rinse off the turtles brush-offs, and sleep, because at 5:50am three of us were heading out by boat unsupervised to start the boca tracking run and nesting survey.

Boca stands for the place where the river and the ocean meat, making a boca (or mouth) shape, also known as one of the pophlar poaching and killing spots. We are about 3 miles south from here. Today, We surveyed and measured more than 25 nests, counted about 150 pairs of turtle tracks, of which aporx 1/3 loked like succesful nests (need to check on my guesstimates) and only about 5-10 were poached or attempts to poach.

Im not gonna lie, felt kinda cool to be going out on our owm, and seeing how much we've already grown.

One thing i am noticing i personallh will have a hard time with are being mean and shooing the town dogs. They come up so friendly and googly eyed, and we are bei g trained as seeing them as manipulating enemies of the cause, because the ultimately dig uo nests and sometimes attack turtles. I cant, and today i had a nice dog follow me for about a mle before i asked my teammate to be mean for me. My theory is if theyre fed and given water, they wont need to eat the nests. Temptation is too big. Hmmm, che un promblema cui. Dont be surprised if i come back with 4 manolo lookalikes.

Come back drenched in sweat and starving at 10am, quick breaky, flwd by escavation presentation (tomorrow we will do our firtst) - these only happen after the 65 day marj of a nest weve been monitoring, to see the success of the nest, measuring shells, piped shelled, embrios, and complete embryos. Weve been warned to go on an empty stomach just in case...

Didnt retain much info at prestatn and wish i had telepathy w my ipad because my mind is kiccuping between excitment and lots of ixeas of what to write, then spasing because it needs some rest.

Attempt to nap for 45 min in our dorm/ aka inferno, before the next presenation on stc.

Go go go

Today has been all about finalizing training, and setting us free to patrol unsupervised.
We came back from midnight patrolling, our team split in two, and this night experienced a lot of vegetation nesting (in the jungle, very hard to reach- measure, tag and perform body check), and also many feisty new-to- conservation turtles.

It hasnt rained in a few days so tracking is becoming trickier, and the moonlight is dimishing as well...

During the day we started with
11am - nest practice, which consisted of measuring flagged coordinates and finding our teammates cocunut nest.
2-4am - turtles, tortuguero, and toursim presntation

Then had an awesome one on one with our director who is in town for a few days.
Went to the frog enclosurenopat our friendly neighbor hotel Mawamba
Dinner, and now off to my 8-12am patrol w the director.

So, another 12hrs+ workday.... thinkim getting used to this rythym.... Tonight will be the test as i have another patrol at 6am.

Pura vida.

Supervised Night Patrol - the real deal

Today is a regrouping day.

After a very productive, as successful-for practically-everyone-but me midnight-5am tagging session last night, we get the day to rest, meet with Emma, the Director, and have our first weekly meeting. 

Last night: it was a wonderfully star and 1/2 moonlit patrol, warm breezes reminding us of our tropic location, and 9 freshly trained RA's ready to apply and conquer.

Cata, our maestra, was shadowing our steps this night, instead of dictating them, to see how much we've understood.  golden stars for all!

s0 we start by walking on the high tide line: identify track type & direction, and see if the return track to sea is also visible (if not, then it means we've found treasure).  then follow path to nest, carefully and nondisturbingly observe and identify the stage the turtle is in:
1) arriving to nest spot
2) Cleaning / prepping bodypit -23 min
3) Digging egg chamber - 23 min
4) Laying Eggs (enters in trance, and this is where nest marking begins) - 15 min.
5) Covering egg Chamber with back flippers (my favorite).  allso the time to do all the remaining turtle duties. - 12 min.
6) Camouflaging (regaining energy, working here can get messy and painful) - 43min
7) back to sea

Last night i tried tagging a 1.09cm mama, one that was behaving phenomenously... yet i managed to F it up.  i did however, gain a better understanding as to the works of the pliers on flesh, the movement f the turtle when prepping to camouflage and how the tagger needs to move with it as to not notch the skin (which i did, - ouch).  now all i have to do it transfer brain understanding to my actions and presto.  sufices to say i was sort of blue from then on.  happy to see all the progress we did as a whole and how many turtles in prime positions we found in only 1/2 of a mile, but still kind of holding back tears because i hurt mine, which was my biggest fear. 

there's always next time :). 
overall, i know i was being hard on myself... but i just felt terrible that my amateur mistakes hurt this innocent trusting mother new to conservation research.  thankfully, Kata was there to ameliorate the sich/

We were able to mark 2 nests (one of which laid a stunning 164 healthy eggs!), and follow full protocol.  :) hurray for team tortuguero.
bueno, that was my evening. Thank you for reading and virtually joining me in this experience.
TTYL.  Altho.... for there to be a conversation, usually the other side needs to say something back :).  hint hint (comment!, ask questions.... poke fun).

Nesting & Namaste

7AM: Woken up by the heat and humidity after only 5 hours of sleep (courtesy of CCC of giving us the night off, the entire crew went out dancing as a farewell to the june-august crew of RA's), we start the day leisurely and slightly hung over-dly.  heat is melting us...  melll t i n n n g g.

previous night: had dinner at Buddha Cafe, a surprsingly chic in the middle-of-nowhere restaurant with some very impressive woodfire pizza's (also a potential new site for my yoga classes).  then @ La Taberna, a riverside dirty disco, playing reggaetton and salsa, surrounded by locals who only stare and from their seats yell out sweet annoying nothings to th chicas, and don't even dance.  and then the 18 of us RA's dancing the night away (the girls at least).  i also discovered drinking es mucho affordable here.  (9 drinks = 20bux -not all for me.)

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Today's lesson: Nest Marking, and how to prep for the egg count.

We practiced by splitting into teams of two, creating a nest, and  then:

Person A remains laying face down behind the 300-400 pound momma, one hand on the egg counter and the end of the measuring tape, and the other stretched underneath the turtle, carefully handling the eggs before they drop into the egg chamber, taking count as well as identifying the yolkless ones (smaller and lighter).

Person B: first identifies 3 viable nest marking flag points (solid vegetation), all 3 spots North Sound and Vegetation markers (middle point), flags them, measures the distances and jots down on the handy dandy nesting book.  Finally Person B measures the high tide line (about 40m).  then he/she draws a map and specifies identifyers.

A & B need to work efficiently and carefully, attentive to the turtles nesting stage.  there is only a 15min window to complete all steps, after which turtle goes into trance mode, begins to cover eggs chamber with back flippers (this is becoming more and more the cutest part for me to watch).  she is more at peace here (also tired), so easier to work on all the remaining turtle duties: tagging, body check for unusual gowths, removals of ingrown tags, and 2 measurements.    this second window is of 12 minutes, followed by a 43 minute camouflaging stage, where the momma turtle is sometimes agressively camouflaging its entire nest with front (and back maybe) flippers.  Person A or B may still be able to measure during camou stage, but they should expect some sandy business on their entire beings.

after measuring, we namaste the turtle to the ocean.  this today, with our coconut egg, and our invisible turtle in broad daylight wend very smooothly.  tonight, during our midnight run, we shall see how it goes. :)

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After lesson:  Gigi's sunset riverfront yoga class.
im getting pretty good at and enjoying teaching yoga here, on our deck, with my music, my favorite flows, and some very eager to learn pupils. second class today, i mixed in a little bootcamp.  fun fun.  dead well bad sweat (recently learned british expression meaning awesome haha). side proffesion, es posible?

having the time of my life... :)

i touched a dinosaur today

I measured my first live turtle during our midnight patrolling (97.3 cm).  Amazement as a spectator is one thing, having the actual contact with this creature, which has just underwent a laborous 2 hours of egg laying prep, is completely another level of awesomeness.  who needs sleep, when you've got the green turtle contact red bull.

here is a picture collage.  will be back after cleaning duties and yoga to explain a bit about what i've learned. :)  enjoy!  oh, and no photos allowed dring night patrols, so stay tuned for the written description .

What i signed up for

Absence of Text these past couple days does not mean the absence of stories to tell.

Picture this: walking as if blindfolded from research site into beach, having to wait 5 min to actually acclimate eyes to darkness and be able to see your hands (barely), accompanied by starlit skies, over 500 tourists starving for action, as we try to get our first ever tagging groove on. Thats only a bit of what happened last night.... And i havent even talked about the sloth we fount disoriented crawling like "my precious" from lord of the rings, on his way for a midnight surf and our "hero" teamsmen attempting to carry it too safety and getting visciously attacked (or at least thats what us winggirls will tell the chicas as la disco. They have nice battlewounds to prove it :))in return.

And i also havent talked about our 5 hour day tracking madrugada under 95 degrees, building a taxi driver tan by the minute and accumulating tons of sand in yournshoes, while making the most educated guesses as to new and old tracks, what species it pertains to, if its nest was highjacked, if it only got to cleaning or builging eggchamber stage but no tamale.... Or if it laid a healthy nest ready to emerge aprox 60 days from then. That was the morning before todays. Ending the 5hr beach walk, sunstuck like never before and -excuse the embarrasing comparison- like Aimes(one of my fav contestors from the last bachelorette haha) after he got hit in thenboxing ring- completely knocked out.

TODAY, also around 5:44 AmM we were deposited VIP style at the Boca of the river, and right away encoungered to sea turtle corpses, bottom shell and all flippers removed (by one of ourn own) ... and started the archie carr park portion of the tracking... This time more officially and confidently.

And now (very rushingly bringing up up to speed)

Worked 13hrs plus today, starting at 5:30 am, and now have a 4.5 hr break before our midnight patrolling (and first ever tagging session).

Tagged my first cardboard box moments ago haha. Also measured a 119 m sea turtle model. Both It stod still most of the time, and i hooe it didnt hurt too much :P. I get to do the real deal, with a freshky post labor one duringour midnight-4am patrol (hopefully!).

Completely exhausted, bit simultaneously envigorated. My permanent resting posture here is on my top bunk w my legs propped against the wall, daining poor and abused palpitating feet, as my ipad provides the remaining r&r.

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Internalizing-

This is definitely what i signed uo for : anxiety and excitement twd the unknown, curiosity to try and improve on something new, challenging, significant and inspiring. As well as the grownup stuff: discipline, hardwork, patience, preserverance, and teamwork. :)

"test to my person.". Aka, can i dig it?

Also, female turtles, this magnicent beast nomading their way around the world, i seemed to find quite some similarities bw their behavior in mine or femlalesin general(roll w me)...
- determined
- tempermental
- hardworking
- indecisive
- confusing and confused
- making things more complicated at times
- cautious
- planned
- independant
- travellers

Its me ina turtle shell, haha. And im surenill find more similarities in a few hrs...
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I know this is jumbled up. Pero la siesta es ahora o nunca. Ill give u a turtle lesson blog tomorrow, w a photo collage. Only if more people actuakly FOLLOw my blog. Feeling mighty lonely now.

welcome to the jungle

A few images of my first couple days here...

i have some amazing stories to share, including my first night with mama turtles, tracking and other trainings... but im too exhausted to think. or move.  so here's a photo collage.  

parece que va llover

woke up today after tossing and turning for 10 hours on my top bunk, feeling like i wanted to do yoga on our inviting (but very wet) lakefront property.  So first mission of the day (after a plentiful breakfast, i am learning rice is a part of every meal, as well as platano macho -yum): was to walk into town, see what yoga mat type of supplies i could find.

the sleeping part of the night however, brought back my stressful spider nightmares, which some have been prevy to experience firsthand or have at least heard of.   oh goody.  this time it was only one spider i was looking for, i big tarantula type.  than after i woke up, i started thinking about the bats that are said to be sleeping on our ceiling and the thunderstorms that were presently accompanying that nights sea turtle patrolers.  everything is getting much more real by th eminute.  and tho it sounds like im freaking out a bit (and i am) im also doing it carrying a frantic smile.  

Anyhow, walk the short 1 k-ish trail to the village, encounter a local sweeping him front dirt area saying "parece q' va llover," i look bewildered thinking "its already raining!" haha i keep walking and he says, "i was kidding." haha ha.  but i guess an average San Diego raindrop is like a tickle to them.  now (3 hours later) i can see the difference between pretend rain and real rain (cuernavaca style).

Not much to see in the town, souvenier shops everywhere...and everything overpriced, as warned.  bought a calling card (next mission figure out calling sich), a coupe postcards (to which i've requested and have yet received no - ADDRESSES) and an extra towel. no ATMs in town, and of course no yoga mats.

About to buy two minnie winnie the pooh bath mats to substitute as yoga mats, when after converting came out to a stunning 36bux.  so i think i will go the trash back route somehow...

barely 11 am here, feeling a pre gilligan's island fever.  next part of orientation is in 3 minutes.

G
next blog will be about patrolling, in -7hrs!

t o r t u g u e r o

Just got settled in to our research center in Tortuguero, after over 6 hours travelling in 2 different public buses to Cariari, and a boat that took us from Pavola to Tortuguero.

I am intrigued by the complete absence of cars in this town ~ thus no paved road ~ thus a reaaaaal struggle lugging my 2 overpacked duffle bags into the research center; i was a site to gawk & sympathetically laugh at haha.  (turns our im staying 1/2 the time as everyone else and packed twice as much!  and the weather is teaching me this is nooo place for 1/2 my items haha) grr.

Tortuguero is a small toursity village that provides tourists with an eco-tooth a chance to savour in-person the wonders of sea turtle nesting, as over thousands of turtle nests are layed in this 8 mile natural reserve.

it is accessible only by boat (or mini flights) thru one of the back rivers, which requires savy conductors, swerving tree trunks and crocodiles (we saw 2 today!).  I felt like i was on the amazon ride in disney, however no one told us "permanece sentados por favor" (i keep pairing experiences with fake ones when it should be the other way around! kudos to Disney).  Saw a banana plantation and the intricate process of ropes and cables the farmers use to pull in these nicely wrapped in blue plantains.  visibly a hardcore job.  also heard that the life expectancy of a plantain farmer is very short due too the pesticides and snake bites.

aaaaand the vegetation is sooo lush and gorgeous it eats you up.  and i don't wanna ginx it, but seems like my Vitamin B supply has been working to fend off mosquitoes :). 

and the Sea Turtle Conservancy Center facilities are nice.  ktichen, cook, weekly cleaner, and clean bathrooms, hot water and internet (most of the time).  mush feel eveywhere, i feel as if im in constant state of post corepower yoga.  i suppose my skin will be much healthier/humectada by the end of the trip.

sharing the room in bunk style with 5 super friendly, smart and tough young ladies, and in total we are 9 researchers ready begin our orientation (about 2 weeks) and kick some conservation booty.

as the lead of the crew recommended today, i shall go rest up... as she warns "todays practically the only day we get to do so."

PS
fyi on the travelling to Tortguero:  there is a more convenient way, via small aircrafts for about $65, which to me isn't that bad considering the hassle of switching 3 times and making numerous pit stops along the way via ground and water; however if you choose the other route for exploratory and wallet coscious reasons, no need to take the private tour buses (up to $50), when the public transport ones cover just about the same time (maybe 40 min more) and costs less than $10. 

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San Jose, Costa Rica

i'll start by informing you the showers are kosher. :)  no electric shocks in this one.

woken up bright and early by my mini home's tragaluz, then greeted by pancakes and hostelee bonding,  during which time i met Andrew, one of the awesome super tortugueros of my crew, and some other interesting folk (including a couple that has been travelling by bus since LA for 4 months and have 11 months more to go all the way to the end of the world!).    no sleep, but a good start.

I headed to downtown, imitating the tiko walk, but unable to conceal my lonely planet and large Canon around my neck.  City center has an intended to be cute pedestrian area- but not; however, the city does show a glimpse of maybe a once picturesque place, with amusing architecture (turned gray) and freckled vegetated parks - but now overall looks a bit dumpy.  the day was still enjoyable, with not anticipated blue skies, more friendly strangers, and the visit to the national museum  (the only one open on this national mothers day holiday weekend).

@ the museum while tuned into a fabulous new playlist, i zoned out photographing butterflies.  can't wait to see the morpho (which i just learnt about) free as a bird.  i also spoke to a nice old floridian sculptor who came to reinstall a piece he brought via USPS in 36 different 70 pound boxes.  quite the puzzle.  very nice man. then walked out to a mini concerto, celebrating moms dancing w their pollos. aww. then needing more mellow time, i audrey hepburned my the afternoon @ the stylish plaza cafe.




* the  brilliant encompassing vegetation surrounding the capital proves that the highlighted jem is out there & definitely not here. oh so close.  so not to diss this city, but one day is san jose is probably one day too many.

@ cafe, winds change foretelling probable wetness, got lost on my walk back to Tranquilo's.  found my way just in time before the tropical thunder storm... napped. woke. and went to dinner with the newly acquianted fantastic 6 (out of 8) STC tortugueros...

Looks like we are an awesome bunch.  not only our multiculturalness (from Sweden, Wales, Spain, Argentina, El Salvador, Mexico/US, Malaysia, and Canada), but all seem like pretty good people.  of course, we love sea turtles.  here's where we'll be: http://www.conserveturtles.org/costarica.php?page=research

as of tomorrow!   hasta entonces!

arriving to Costa Rica

8/13/11

Day 1 in Costa

After 10 hours of travelling, I am greeted by a friendly cabman in musky San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.  He is seemingly fascinated by our convo, as I notice he slows his driving as to extend our chat(and I suspect “maria” time too).  He knows the area well, is a lover of nature, and has pride in his country. 

Chat continues (the only conversation I’ve had all day- im feeling chatty).  He kindly soothed my concerns over the insects here (oh, one of my repellents broke in my duffle bag of course, which isn’t all bad… I will smell of bug’s worst nightmare from a mile away! ), shared my excitment for what Tortuguero & Arenal/Fortuna have to offer. talked about how CR seemingly changes visitors into more conscious beings – to which I said : I am ready for the transformation! –and gave me quick local do’s and don’ts. 

He educated me on “sodas” known in mexico as “fondas,” which are the local cheap yet home style meal you can get in the Tikan Hole-in-the-walls.  He also pointed out the Coca-Cola area, which is the nickname for the region for the busses to the whole country.   Finally he shared his dislike of the illegal Dominican immigration in the country (longer than I cared for) And let me know that my new neighborhood is a favorite night spot of the transvestites and burglars.   Thus, his big don’t of the evening, don’t go out for a walk in the city at night.  I obeyed.

So, bienvenida a Tranquilo Backpackers Hostel.  I am shown by the friendly Belgian girl and her kitty to my $17bux/night private 1.5 m X 3 m room (I measured it, my arms literally can reach wall to wall on the tight end).  It is painted with clouds from head to toe, adding to the heavenly feel in case it wasn’t already obvious, and has chatty hardwood floors.   the hostel's juvenile cat lingers outside my door (also outside my door - softball-sized hole in te ground into the unknown.  i crushingly reject its seducing meows (or rather some odd "ohs and ous") in attempt to avoid my not so fun allergy attacks. so no new le chat amie pour moi. Pardon.

Another thing I am trying to avoid (and my mom would think this is normal of me but its noooot) is showering haha. Sticky as you can imagine, I am slowly mustering up the strength to take potentially a “suicide shower" these thrifty hostels are known for. Wish me luck :)

Alright- an overly long recount of what could of just been expressed as a sticky long airplane day into a sticky tiny private dorm room in costa rica.  ** I can very fascinatingly and gigglingly say: I am feeling the adventure.  Not only that, but the amicable Tiko raza.
Tika tika tika.  Read on as this tortuguera continues…