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Volunteering in Costa Rica

Monday March 23, 2009 - Turtle Prep
by Pokin Y. (in Gandoca on Mar 23, 09)
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Get up early.  Think I missed my wakeup call.  Check alarm frantically and realize it’s only 6:30am.  Loving open windows.  Fall back asleep.

8:30am
Decide to take a shower to wake up.  Bad idea as in my grogginess I had forgotten there was no warm water.  Dipped my head in as fast as possible and tried to take a quick shower as memories of my stint with pneumonia in Tanzania were resurfacing quickly.

9:00am
Ready for breakfast.  Realize that we’re on Latin American time so Michelle is the only person at the breakfast table.  We have these fried pastries with pineapple jam (and peanut butter) plus granola and milk for breakfast.  I’m disappointed – where are the rice and beans?  Nonetheless eat my breakfast food.

This is a light week for the volunteers, so nothing is scheduled until 2:00pm.  With that much time the team decides to trek into the “village” to buy some phone cards.  Turns out they only have one phone card so Melody, Dan (from Seventeen magazine) and I share it.  Afterwards Dan and I decide to survey the beach in the daylight to look for things that we might be tripping on come evening.

12:00am
It’s lunch time and they serve us some mashed potatoes.  I think because there are two vegetarians we are no longer going to be served any meat.  Again, I’m dismayed that we are getting ‘North American’ food.  Decide to drown my sorrows by sharing chocolate cookies that I had brought with the gang.

2:00pm
Our first volunteer work session.  We are to be digging holes to house relocated turtle eggs.

A note on hole digging --

Actually a number of things crossed my mind as I was digging my hole.

Why didn’t we use any tools?

How do I not make this thing collapse?

How big? How deep?

Why are we doing this and how are we not going to tramp over the tonight during our patrols?

Wow it’s going to be quite the exercise getting all of this sand off me afterwards

Of course I find out after we’re done digging that these are only our practice holes.  We were supposed to be building a nursery during this time instead but our permit hadn’t arrived yet so practice holes it was. 

Since this was only a practice session, we were done at 3:00pm, at which point we proceeded straight to the bar.

Priorities, ya know?

Second turtle patrol
My roommate Melody and I were assigned the 12:00am to 4:00am shift in Sector A.  The beach was divided into Sector A, B and C with two shifts each evening, a 8:00pm to 12:00am patrol and the 12:00am to 4:00.  Normally, the best chances of sea turtle sightings are between 10:00pm and 2:00pm.

To get to Sector A, you first need to walk all the way through Sector B.  You know you’re at the boundary between Sector A and B when you have to cross this river.  We get there, I’m hoping for a bridge and of course there’s none.

And of course as luck would have it a giant wave came while I was in the middle of crossing.

So yeah, I started my 4 hour shift with sopping wet runners and squishy socks that went squeak squeak squeak as I walked for the next 3 hours and 50 minutes
That afternoon, the team had talked and Nicki mentioned that there were high hopes for turtles in Sector A.  We also went with Erick, a local guide (and Andrey’s brother) who was known as a “Turtle Whisperer” for his knack for spotting turtles.  So I started the evening pretty optimistically – aside from the wet feet.  We marched in silence in the night just listening to the waves crash, eyes peeled on the person in immediately in front of us while scanning the breaking surf for the outline of turtles. 

Twenty minutes pass.

Nothing.

We get to the end of Sector A and Erick has us sit down
and rest.  Turtles are pretty slow to move – nesting turtles can take up to two hours to get up to shore and lay their eggs so there is no sense in patrolling back and forth non stop as you might scare a turtle.

Forty minutes of waiting later, we head back across Sector A looking for turtle tracks.

Nothing.

Back and forth we trek in silence, stopping at each end.  Wordlessly each time, we watched for Erick’s signal to sit down and wait, and again when it’s time to get up and patrol.  In silence, we sit and patrol, free completely to our thoughts.

After four sweeps back and forth and 4 pensive breaks later, Erick signals we are done for the night and that we are free to head back to our room.

Down the gravel road I go, through the gates, up the stairs.  I crawl into the bunk bed and fall asleep.

Turtle sightings: Still 0.
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