7 seconds apart or less

Went from one clear lit sky to a thunder storm adventure.

Andy, abelardo and i went to Boca at 12:05 am, and at 12:20 the thunder roars began.
Aberlardo is our latest RA addition, sent to ease some work off the crew now that nestor leaves tomorrow and i leave in 12 days. He's from an indigenous tribe in Panama, the first in his family to work turtles, 7 siblings, supee quite.... But im happy to say i broke the awkward silence patrol last night and even caught a couple smiles.

Still, it was pouring cats and dogs last night. Luckily i had my poncho, and my shunken long sleeve shirt turned mosquito robber mask. We worked 6 mamas in the muddy sand, one which laid and laid and laid for over 35 min and then i started working her and she left w/out covering, later to find out she only laid a dozen eggs. Odd. We covered for her.... Im getting pretty good at playing both ra and turtle now :).

My fellow scientist tell me that such an occurence can be due to ingesting plastic and that obstructing the exitting process. That once they found a turtle expunge 5 meters of stomached thru plastic while laying a nest. Now thats what i call a stomach made of stone.

While working that mystery mama, the rain went from a small indie rock band, to a full fletched bethoveen symphony. Lots of emotion coming from mother nature. Tortuguero needed the rain, and we were bound to experience this. But let me just say, tagging with muddy pliers, mosquitoes finding their way in ur poncho made roof lit by red head lamp, openning chunky sand filled calipers to measure scl, and notetaking during this concerto was a bit of a challenge. Mud faced laughter most of the time, this felt like i was in the army, so hardcore.

Moments in, Lightning flash, then 1, 2, 3 bang, repeat Lf 1, 2, 3, 4 bang. Lf 1 bang. Andy was the official thunder light counter of the night. The rule is, if lightining and thunder are less than 7 seconds apart, thats our cue to head back to center.... Unless we feel like toast.
Andy: "time to head back." gigi, the new record holder turned greedy haha: "maybe after we finish working this one, lets give it 2 more minutes, abelardo what do u think?" Abe, indegenous macho never admitting fear or lack of knowledge about anything: "we can stay." we stay, that particular turtle as ive already given away doesnt cooperate, BUT the storm settles and 30 min later, pocket of stars appear. Good call.

New ingredients: hardcore and patience.