Arriving back at Atlanta airport I nervously waited for my flight to Costa Rica, as everyone knows I'm pretty unlucky with flights and such so I expected something to go wrong....this happened in the form of a massive storm over the Caribbean. We lifted off in good time and headed west over Louisiana and south over New Orleans (I so so so want to go there!!!) into the Caribbean, the skies were clear overland, but I could see the cloud bank in the distance and flashes of thunder...my thoughts; at least we wont be going there! I didn't account for the strong winds and soon enough we were in the clouds, never in my life have I felt on a plane that I wasn't going to get off it, the plane was rocking to a point we near enough went over, we were dropping in air pockets and the plane I felt was going to be hit by lightning with how close it was to us! Too top it off, the stewardesses couldn't walk around the plane and I sat next to a woman who was petrified of flying, she kept grabbing hold of my arm and kept telling me to pray with her to God for our safe deliverance as she felt there were to many sinners on board =S But four and half hours later (which felt like days) we landed in Costa Rica after three attempts.
Now, when people (especially me) think of Costa Rica, you think of the bright sunshine, long white sandy beaches, almost Hawaiian with flowers and Palm beaches swaying in the wind....but when I finally exited the airport it was cold, pouring with rain, no vegetation in sight, thousands of people asking if I needed a taxi, and finally in the distance a small but very welcoming 'i-to-i' sign waving me over. Not exactly paradise but I was in San Jose so I cant expect much yet. Nicki was the i-to-i representative who took me to possibly the best hostel I have stayed in the whole of my travels (barring perhaps La Chimba in Chile), with very soft beds, four to a room, very hot showers and air conditioning, I was comfortable and I can frankly say I flaked withing seconds of hitting the pillow!
I arrived in Costa Rica early to meet others and to acclimatise to the hot (very funny!) climate. So the next morning I had a wee lie in and went down for some breakfast, pancakes and bananas yum yum, plus the best free coffee in the world woop woop =)! Whilst at breakfast two fellow volunteers came for their breakfast, Heidi who was going to do a Sloth Project, and Katherine who was with me for the Sea Turtle Conservation programme. That day we went to the centre of San Jose for some shopping and a look around, I must admit though that it certainly wasn't the best of cities I have been too, it doesn't help that it did not stop raining and that it had the appearance of Northumberland Street in the rain =( A good lunch, a party in the park and a few drinks in the hostel bar with other volunteers did help though (Alejuela Mudslides are to die for!). I-to-I were good for orientation, the day before the project we were taken to the Costa Rica headquarters and introduced to the team before being sat down and spoken to about the dangers, the highlights and the requirements of the project, I'm not ashamed in saying that I was so scared about the project; long night beach patrols, four hour hatchery watches in the dead night, Gallo Pinto for all meals, housework for an hour a day....I thought I was going to hate it so much!!!! They also touched upon insect bites, and how they can be a NUISANCE! (please see pics!!)
The Monday morning we got up at 5am!!! and took a mini bus to the local bus station (by this point we joined some fellow turtles Vivian and Matt), after being hit by a car, we got onto a 5 hour bus journey (nothing in comparison to Calama to Santiago haha!) to Playa Matapalo, out home for the next three weeks. Arriving here we finally got a glimpse of the paradise that Costa Rica is, the bright sunshine, the long white glorious beaches and the landscaped gardens of palms and other exotic plants in our home.
The house we stayed in was very basic, eight to a room, no air con, no windows, a death trap (all exits via windows barred up, one staircase wooden and varnished next to the kitchen and two doors out, to top it off, no smoke detector =O!) but the porch out front with a cover was where we spent most our time, in hammocks, sitting around the table eating, playing guitars, reading, drinking coffee etc. The first day we were introduced to everyone and were briefed on what we were there to do and such, shown how to dig a turtle nest in the hatchery and so forth. That night after dinner we went down the beach and took the infamous beach jump photos which I so love!
So, to give a rough time line of what we were doing when in Costa Rica;
7.30 am- get up
8.00 am- have breakfast, simple fair which usually was pancakes, scrambled egg, cold toast, sandwich, rice, cereal etc.
10.00 am- morning work, for example beach driftwood cleaning, hatchery work etc.
12.00 pm- Lunch; rice and bean based (Gallo Pinto)
2.00 pm- Afternoon work; usually hatchery digging, Turtle nests become contaminated so once fully hatched they are dug out and refilled with new sand from beach....possibly the hardest physical work I have done in my life! Sweating constantly and wet from the rain....best part was when it was finished we had a sense of achievement and also we were so wet and done in that the sea was beautiful....big waves to dive into and wash off (heaven!)
6.00 pm- Dinner, again rice and beans with some sort of accompaniment!
Now this is not taking into account our other duties;
Hatchery watch is a 24 hour job, we are chosen for either a three hour day shift or a four hour night shift (so dark and creepy!), I mainly did night eg. 6pm-10pm, 10pm-2am, 2am-6am (best part of this is seeing the sunrise and dolphins leaping out of the water on the horizon! One night, Kat was elected to do a 6pm-10pm, but it was particularly dark night as no moon was out, I helped her out as she got spooked though I must admit I was scared senseless, fireflies looked like torches, the sloth above sounded like a person creeping around, the waves themselves are spooky! I was glad to have finished that shift!
Hatchery work involves patrolling the nests every 10-15 minutes to observe any erupting nests, once turtles appear, the first 10 must be removed, measured and weighed to achieve an average for the nest, they are all then removed and counted before being released into the ocean....the most amazing natural sight ever! The collection of biometric data such as turtle size, nest size, hatchling numbers and nest temperatures are very important in the conservation field in order to see trends which are important for further work to help these amazing creatures!
Our day to day life was spent primarily on the beach and also in the house. The grounds had tables and chairs where in your free time you can sit and relax and soak up (haha!) the rare sun (we arrived in 'rainy' season, and they are not kidding!! at one point we had three days of continuous not letting up rain which left us cold and bitter!). One funny event occurred three days after we arrived, I was still adjusting to the harsh reality that this project was, and so went to relax under the Almond tree and was reading the 'lovely bones', as I was sitting there, the almond nuts kept hitting me on the head, I couldn't for the life of me work out how so many were falling so I assumed someone was playing a prank on me, looking around I couldn't see anyone, so I looked up and Charlie-the-cheeky-house-pet-Sloth was annoyed I was sitting in his patch so decided to frighten me away by chucking massive almonds off my head!!! When in Costa Rica! The house as mentioned before was basic, four bedrooms housing 23 people, had one kitchen, one porch, a gazebo for smokers and ONE BATHROOM!! With FREEZING cold water only! To begin with when it was hot, I took the 'its refreshing' stance, after a week it was the bain of my life, it took 30 minutes to pluck up the courage to give myself hypothermia!!! But the one positive it that I will never take hot water for granted! My favourite part of the house however was the constant good quality coffee available =D Yum Yum!
We got one 'day' off a week to spend at our pleasure, as I was there three weeks I got two days off, so on the first Vivian, Matt, Kat and myself went to the local town of Quepos for shopping and food, it was a good day but not much was available to do so we went back early to do some relaxing on the hammock and so forth. Our second day off Kat, Amanda, Hannes and myself went to local national park called Manuel Antonio, that was an incredibly fun day, seeing sloths, howler monkey, Jesus dragons and so forth in their natural habitats was an amazing privilege, plus the beach was amazing!
Another 'mini' break was that we were taken by a CHICKEN WAGGON to a local waterfall (the trip alone was a day out, bombing along tiny windy roads was so fun, then going 70mph on a motorway in a waggon which was creaking....so funny!) the waterfall was good fun as we swam and dove in the cold water and went flying down the rocks, dangerous again but in Tico land health and safety does not exist!
Luis joined as our new manager in my last week there, and things certainly cheered up. The rain was a continuous source of depression in camp, and my signature day for this was when it was day four of rain, we had 10am-12pm Beach clean, we had no enthusiasm at all, everyone dragging their feet while being told we had to work, then after lunch a beach dig from 1pm-3pm, we had no time to dry for lunch, my contacts had fallen out so I was as blind as a bat, wet from 10am till 3pm then obviously we had duties, the enthusiasm and morale had plummeted. Luis brought in the Matapalo games to cheer us up. So one afternoon which he gave us off, we got together in teams (Eric, Amanda, Katie and myself (bet they thought great, were going to lose!) got together to form 'Eagle Sauce'!). the first game was to walk up the beach on all fours as a turtle...ie shuffle, dig a nest, disguise it, and crawl back, tag the team member who then had to do it, the team opposite tried to cheat by throwing sand in my face! We lost that one, one point down, next game was too walk like a crab sideways up the beach and back (knackering, sore for days!), but we won, one point up. The next game was to run to a pole, spin around it 10 times and run back to tag next member, we won that again, three points up! Last thing as we were drawn, was to pick a stick, we won the game!!! Team eagle sauce for the win!! Woop Woop, first time I have ever won anything sports wise lol!
We had some very good times in Costa Rica, with pancake sessions, pretending to be Turtle Days, non-alcoholic drinking games, barbeque's for Kats birthday, etc etc. But there were some serious issues with the project which I deemed to be unacceptably dangerous. On day eight, India came running to house whilst we were eating breakfast announcing the hatchery was on fire! She had been on the 6am-9am shift alone, releasing hatchlings into the sea, she returned to find the fence on fire (the arsonist had watched her go to the sea and then crept out), but as there was no way to contact us back at the house without leaving the hatchery unattended she had to run! It was stupid and made me realise that on the nights that we were on four hour duties including that night with Kat where there was no moon, we were completely alone if we were attacked, no one would realise until the next morning when they came to take over. Similarly it was the same on beach patrols, the poachers make a massive living on the nests, we are there taking away their lively hoods, so they could have easily have attacked us to get the eggs and no one wold realise until the morning when we were missing in action so to speak! Another incident was when Hannes was stung multiple times by a (luckily) baby stingray, he had to hobble back to the house but no one knew how to take care of a sting ray bite, they are poisonous and had it of been an adult it would be touch and go whether we wold have been able to treat him, as it happened myself and Amy had some ideas to create a tourniquet with a belt then flush the poison out with hot water! It was ridiculous as the nearest hospital is an hour away so in reality there should have been some training on this. Another issue is mentioned above whereby the house was dangerous form a fire point view, no smoke alarms and no way out, this led to an amusing scenario where Luis gave us a number to which we had to evacuate, I had to get out first, then Lola, then Katie, then Kat etc etc, as if in a huge fire we would wait for someone else to go first!
Overall I enjoyed the project and it gave me a lot of life experience which is still serving me today, but I do have reservations about the effectiveness of our time there, which I will cover in another post about Atlanta and a general summary of the projects and the company.
