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

Guess I'll Try This Again!

Something weird happened with one of my previous posts, "Algunas Cosas." We're going to try this again because that one had a lot of pictures and info about my November adventures. (It also involved about 3 hours of work, but you know, that's whatever...ha)

Entonces, here is what I have done since my last SUPER long post...

~Went out to try Hooters in Costa Rica...best burger I'd had in a while!

~Had my house decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving..that was interesting to say the least!

~Visited the Huetiri Tribe (Indigenous of Costa Rica) with my Tropical Medicine class

~Fuimos a Punta Uva with the same class! Sand massages on the beach anyone? Relaxing.

~Took a trip to a school for blind and deaf students...very interesting!

~Helped my mama tica celebrate her birthday..complete with a surprise mariachi band!

~Went to my favorite place in Costa Rica...MONTEZUMA. This place was beautiful..

~Visited the children's museum with my Basic Spanish Conversation class

~Spent my first Thanksgiving away from home...that was a little rough!

~Visited a snake sanctuary (which had HUGE spiders everywhere..gross) and ate too much sushi with my class!

~Visited the Basilica and Ruins of Cartago

~Spent time with my host sisters and friends from church, ate at MickyDs for the first time here, and visited  Hospital Catolica.

I suppose that's enough for this post..just so many things happening and trying to get them all into one post is like impossible!

As of right now I have 11 days left here. It is so crazy how these 4 months flew by. Now I'm just trying to make sure I have all my gifts purchased for people back home and cherish this last bit of time in Costa Rica.

Now that I have seen so many sights and explored, I am ready to go home to my collection of sweats, my dog, my family & friends, and THE SNOW. I didn't realize how much I loved where I live until now. 

I talked about how I spent Thanksgiving here. Most of the gringos were depressed that day because we were away from our families (some for the first time ever) and didn't get our typical food. Plus it was rainy and icky that day! BOO! However, now (at least I am) we're ready for Christmas and much more cheery! For me though, it's hard to imagine a Christmas without snow. Hence, I'm actually looking forward to it! And all of the Christmas-y things I get to do at home.

However, living here for 4 months and then just all of the sudden going home, is something I can't really fathom. It will be odd but at least I have a family here if it gets to the point where reverse culture shock is too strong ;)

Olive juice amor, xo :)

Allie

Esta Vez-Video!

Tonight, decided to try video :)

Don't mind my "brainfarts" I was camera shy! Ha first time..just call me Jenna Marbles...

Allie :)