14th september- Independence, kindness and the joy of dancing

Today was my day off and independence day in Costa Rica. 

Still I worked th 9-12 shift despite only getting to bed at 4:30am. Exhausted! Felt drunk and dizzy

No hatchlings this morning. 

I cleared the beach of driftwood a little until it started raining. I was almost falling asleep while in the shelter. 

Irvin came along to say hi, and maybe he was still feeling bad about the branch incident as he brought me a bottle of juice and some crisps. Such kindness and care. 

I went home and slept from 1:30-2:20 and by 3pm was at the dock for our lagoon boat trip with Jason. Me, Ilse, Sarah and Eric.

It was great- We saw much the same as I saw on the cano negro,monkeys,birds,lizards and caimen but closer and in a smaller boat which we got to row as a team! great fun! Jason pulled us up close to an overhanging tree, where we found these fuzzy little pods.

fuzzy little fruit- guava seed pod

we love pink!

coasting along the river

do you see him? a basalisk lizard

taking a break from rowing

view from parismina dock

We arrived back to the village just in time to see all the chilren come out of the school with their fabulously colourful independance day lanterns ready to do a parade around the village. I walked home and was ready to see them come around again. There was so much energy, shouting, singing, drumming and excitment filled the air.

Dinner tonight was heavenly! Small and recognisably simple. A hamburger! Yippee! Ate it all and it was good! Tummy was vvvv happy to not be so full.

Around 8:30 I went to the bar to go dancing. Since it was such a special day for the village I wanted to join in the fun.

It was a little intimidating walking in alone, but I ordered a beer and sat down alone until Randy called me over to his table. I sat with him and some of his family and danced a while with one of them.

Later Jerry came to talk to me. We talked about the project, about Scotland, cultural things and a little about what I do. He was so supportive and said he would  help me on Sunday if I wanted to work with the children and show them some jewellery making ideas. As long as i keep it simple it'll be perfectly fine. 

Jerry asked me to dance as I'd said I don’t get to dance enough in Scotland.

IT WAS GREAT FUN!  We danced solo and salsa! I love salsa! Soooooo dizzy but fun. Apparently I dance well! YEAH!

Stayed out dancing until just after 11pm, and then Jerry kindly walked me most of the way home. 

I could have danced some more but I was very tired, and it was another very happy day in Parismina.

13th September - yeah tortuga mama and good luck!

Tonight I saw my first green turtle mama laying her eggs while on patrol with Alberto, Irvin and Ilse and I helped 3 leatherback tortugitas make their way to the sea, while on duty at the hatchery, the last leatherback hatchlings of the season.

 The leatherbacks nest- covered up to stop animals digging

We got to Tortuga mama as she was finishing her digging of the nest. A mesmerising process where she uses her back flippers to dig down to the full length of her flipper and makes a bulb shape at the bottom of the hole. It looked like really hard work. This makes as much space as possible for her eggs. Turtles can lay anywhere between 40-150 eggs per nest.

Over 70 eggs tonight.

I helped to collect and count the eggs. It was incredible, even though I got amniotic fluid on my arm! 

Ilse and Alberto headed back to the hatchery to rebury the eggs in safety, while me and Irvin waited for mama to fill in her nest and cover it up. 

It took a surprisingly long time. She was very diligent to make sure it was hard for predators to figure out where her eggs were laid. After she was done kicking sand at us- we had to stand further and further away- and off back into the ocean, Irvin and I carried on with the patrol. 

I spoke a little Spanish with Irvin. He said I am learning well. I said to learn is good! 

We got rained on a while but I was well prepared- head to toe waterproofs are the best! I could sit in the sand without getting wet and any sand in my pants!

At one point Irvin pulled a big branch out of the path, off the sand so we wouldn't trip in the dark. He let go and it smacked me on the side of the face! It took me a second to realise what had happened, quite a sting. No blood though and my eye closed fast. I felt sorrier for Irvin; he kept checking that I was ok and saying sorry. Sweet. I felt taken care of. :)

When we got to the Rio mouth we sat a while until Irvin noticed more rain clouds forming.

Correr! RUN! Rapido! Quickly!

The fast walk back was fairly uneventful until we found a nest that had obviously been poached, and the poachers had left one egg behind. 

a solo O

It was sad, but I hoped all the more for the long lives of the eggs that we collected earlier in the evening.

Buena Suerte!