For the Turtles

For some time I had wanted to see and help sea turtles. In Costa Rica there are many efforts to protect them and their eggs from poachers. As it turns out, many of us gringos were excited to help in this effort!

This past weekend 8 of us made the trek to a place called Ostional in Guanacaste. It is a truly interesting story. We were a little put off after we found out they harvested some of the eggs to eat. After finding out more about how their community works made us more comfortable, though. They only harvest in a small section of the beach and they use the proceeds to help the community. Many of their buildings are there because of the profit from selling the eggs. Families native to Ostional also get benefits from the proceeds. It is a unique program that obviously works because the turtle population there is ever increasing! And pretty much everywhere else the turtle population is decreasing.

It was a little bit of work to get there with figuring out transportation and the journey but it was sooo worth it! The food we got fed was amazing, we met new friends from Australia....and we got to see baby turtles and help them into the ocean! I personally saved two babies from the jaws of vultures! Granted we had to get up and walk the beach at 4 on Sunday morning to see them. But saving turtles while watching the sun rise was worth it! The only problem? We didn't have our cameras...ugh. Good thing we met a girl who took our pictures for us and will hopefully remember to email us the pictures! They're SO cute and tiny!

While the weekend was tiring, it was so worth being tired to see and hold baby turtles! As well as bond with friends over the weekend :) Oh, and the bio-luminescence! Gorgeous!
Also, you wouldn't think that walking the beach down and back three times would make you sore..but it does!

Unfortunately I was unable to upload the picture of our little friend...or the scorpion that stung poor Jordan! Needless to say after that we were hesitant to go into our room. Even though we killed it before we went to sleep that night, it didn't stop another one from getting stuck in our sink..ugh. Bad experiences with scorpions!
Other than that though, it was a fantastic weekend!

Olive juice amor, xo :)

Allie