BIll in Tortuguero

Bill in tortuguero

6 days ago i received a visit from Bill, who id describe as that favorite easy going company some of us have the fortune to turn to.

He arrived to tortuguero, after over an 18 hour trajectory, flying, lay overing, bus to bus to shuttle, to boat.... Completely committed to get the intensive tortuga experience.  I am happy to report he got exactly that.

Because my hosting days didnt grant me the time to blog, i will share it all in one.  The week combo blog :).

First me and my fellow turtle family greeted and welcomed bill as one of the group, inviting him to stay for dinner, touring facilities, and  introduced him to our on site jungle pets: spotting our neighbir sloth who lives up on one of our trees, the jurasiclike juancho our largest of 4 royaltylike iguanas, our very own 24/7s - the leaf cutter ants who run an enormous operation all over our site, and a few vaslisk lizards, aka the jesus walking on water reptiles, running on back legs like jugglers at a street light.  

Once the introductions were over, on to business- learning turtle ropes, using our very attractive model turtle and the video at thenvisitor center, B learned about tortuguero, tourism, the nesting stages and what we do as RAs- aka what hed be participating in midnight (minus tagging).  Luckily we didnt loose him, still stoked.  And later that night he was able to sit through and observe cuatriflippers at work during middle stages, measure and check for abnormalites on 3 turtles, see us tag, and mark a nest from start to finish (72 eggs i believe).  Sweetness.  And thank you seh ling for staying 90 minutes more (thats 5:30am in human time) in order to make this happen!

Next couple days i took it easy, or i shuld say easiER on him, as we finalized the remaining turtle moments worth experiencing- excavating a .85 cm deep nest with 92 eggs, 76ish which happily hatched and about a dozen yummy rotten ones we had the fortune to pop open and pour juicyness only latexed hands.  Newfound appciation for science:  check!  

Next on thenlist, the ra gigi despedida dinner, bar time, and canopy tour just as important S the nesting phases, is to experience RAs as whole in all diffeent delirious stages.  Provoked by lack of sleep, unknown bites, colo locos or imperiales (local beer) or our time off destinatio: :dessert hunt and budda cafe.  All fun fun fun.  Nxt day, as mentioned, we all went to a canopy tour. About 7 thingys, abit crowded, slow and small,  sounding like a  bad review but quite the opposite....

On we return for a couple final 5 mile beach walks, one pre beach closing where we spotted over a dozen surfs up prepping hatchling heads bursying out oftheir nest, and later vanilla icing their way into the water..... Not to forget that during this trip we were offered by localings (little tortuguero children) small coconutlike fruits (pichos o think?),  that i monkely scratched my head and then hit them together not strongky enough, unknowing how to get to the good stuff.  The boy chuckled, took them both,and bam bam here you go enjoy.... Oura vida!

 And then the vip access quarter moon, very intricately and eternally camouflaging turtle we accompanied for over 90 minutes (record breaker) so that we could then walk beside her back to see (which was our only turtle on land action we hadnt covered).  Mission accomplished.

If interested in a gigi turte tour, my business cards are on the table.  ;)