Costa Rica day 13 Jan. 21

Finally found access to the internet. The previous blogs need to be touched up but I did them at night as a draft and have just copied and pasted to the blogs. The dates are in order but may appear as wrong dates. Have to run & download the pics to facebook. Internet is for custormers only so before I drink too many beer I'll try and get this done plus check my emails

We woke up this morning when the chicken bus left for the only run of the day at 5 a.m. Going back to sleep we woke up to the 7 a.m. chicken outside. We walked down to Oscars soda where we had a breakfast of scrambled eggs, rice, black beans and a round fried thing that resembled a pancake but could be opened up and filled with the other ingredients.
Coming back to the unit we prepared for our day on the beach. Camera, bathing suits and a liter of water. This turned out to be not nearly enough and I got so dehydrated I was spitting dust. We got to the beach and I got a shot of all the turtle egg shells that litter the beach. We headed North away from the sun so I could get better pictures and came across two sets of turtle tracks where they had come up during the night. Lots of vultures today and several flocks of pelicans. We made it as far as we could go on the beach and got some great shots of the waves crashing onto the rocks. Not many shells on this beach but Jo found a few sand dollars. The beach is black sand and pretty easy to walk on. The surf is a killer and not designed for swimming. I went in a little way just to cool off but you really had to watch the undertow.
Jo figures we waked about 7 miles today. She's a walker and I'm not so I'll take her word for it.
On our way back at 5 to 11 I heard Jo say "there's one"! Wow and it was a green turtle heading inland. Boy that got the blood pumping! It was about 150' from the water which was at low tide. I ran up to a large piece of driftwood as it continued for another 25-50' and then when it began starting to dig I got up behind it. I didn't want to disrupt it and I don't think it was aware of me. It began digging mainly with it's front flippers but the actual hole was done by the big rear flippers which also contain a toenail. It stopped using the front ones after just a few minutes. The sand kicked up by the rear ones flew right over it's head with some landing on it's head. She also dug up some what appeared to be fertile eggs along with the sand. We've been told that they allow some of the people to recover eggs for eating at the peak of the egg laying in Nov. as there are so many eggs being laid that the first ones from the previous turtles are destroyed by the turtles following them. Having seen the picture Oscar showed us last night it's easy to believe
When it reached the maximum depth it could achieve the hole was completely covered by the shell. It kind of backed into it towards where I was standing. This made it impossible to get a shot of the eggs but you could tell she was depositing them as she'd raise her head and almost as if she was inhaling and then exhale. This was repeated for about 10 minutes. The hole also took about 10 minutes. When she was done she began filling and tamping down the sand into the hole. As the hole filled up she rocked back and forth applying her weight to the sand to further compact it. When it was pretty much completely filled she began moving in a clockwise motion still spreading sand and completely camaflouging the nest. Once she'd finished that she was in a position to continue on to the water.
She was pretty exhausted at this point. For the first 20' she really moved but then began stopping for a breather ever 10' or so. Even when the waves were almost three feet away she paused once again to have a final rest. Watching her disappear into the surf was a sight neither of us will ever forget. It made us wonder how many years it's been since her mother did the same thing and 45 days later out of all the other eggs, she had survived to repeat the process.
It's hard to believe our good fortune over the last 12 days to have seen some of the things we have.
I couldn't wait to get back here to download the pics and videos to see what we'd captured. I was completely dehydrated by that time as the single bottle of water didn't come close to providing what I needed let alone the both of us.
Everything here is closed today as it's Sunday. We're hoping Oscar opens up his soda again so we can eat supper but if not no problem. Eating down here isn't a priority for some reason and even after not eating all day we're still good to go. We're now sitting outside the unit. Jo is working on her journal and I'm editing pictures and typing. I've found a thing on my camera that I thought was a burst which saves the last picture but this one saves all the pictures as long as you hold the button down. It's really great as it's almost like a video but I can correct the horizontal on the seascape pictures (and I've got the ocean running off the map on every picture) It also enabled me to catch more of the action in photos as the turtle dug the nest rather than using all video.
While sitting out here Jo again spotted a 3' bluish iguana in the shrubs. This was followed up by a beautiful green one . I got some great shots as the big one feasted on the leaves of the shrubs and they will be downloaded later tonight. Right now it's time to head back to Oscars to see if he's open. Just as we left the beach from taking sunset pictures Oscar and his family drove up and asked us if we'd like supper. He said come back in 10 minutes which we did with enthusiasm as we thought we'd go to bed w/o any. Everything here is closed on Sunday and if we'd arrived today instead of yesterday we'd have slept standing up.
Oscar made us a cheeseburg and a taco with a huge salad of cole slaw. We washed that down with tamarindo juice. We asked him about the large fruit hanging off the leafless tree out back. It's called a hickora tree and the fruit is inedible except in Nicaragua. He showed us a strainer/collindor that was made from the nut. It looked like a regular wooden bowl only thinner and had countless holes punched into it.
We brought up the subject of hitching a ride to Nasara so we wouldn't have to go all the way back to Santa Cruz. He said "I'm also a taxi driver" He then gave us his prices to Nasara and onward to Sanara. It's cheaper than a regular cab and will save us a whole day so it's a go. We'll go there for breakfast and then strike out to Nasara and possibly Sanara. We think both places have internet so I'm hoping I can copy these drafts and paste them right into the blog.
Yesterday (I'm typing this on the morning of the 21st) I took well over 500 pics which brought the total count up around 1500 so before turning in I burned a dvd of 1044 pics incl. vids.
One more thing to note the roads are very dusty so people living along them keep their windows closed during the day. In the evening we've seen people out watering down the road so they can leave their windows open during the night.
Another great day. This trip is full of surprises and all of them are great!
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26226&l=6935c&id=680056043
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26227&l=0fe6d&id=680056043
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26228&l=b982a&id=680056043
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26230&l=860e5&id=680056043


Al Cotton

We had a quick breakfast and Stu called us a cab which was going to take a half an hour (9a.m.) Jo went next door to see if we could get someone faster only to find that this cab was the only one servicing Playa Grande. He got there pretty quick and Jo, Soleiha and I headed out the road to Huaca where he dropped us off at the bus stop. The first bus along said Santa Cruz and we thought we were supposed to catch a different one to Berlin but taking a chance we got on and had a great ride to Santa Cruz which took about an hour and a half. Santa Cruz was just beginning a celebration of some kind and the bus terminal is right next to the fresh air market. We took turns wandering through the market taking pictures and seeing all the people in town doing their weekly shopping.
After waiting for a couple of hours the bus showed up at 12:30. I took the big bags to where the side of the bus would take the bags into the lower compartment while Jo kept our place in line. She was around 10th in line and there was a pile of people waiting. When the bus pulled in both of the doors opened front and back and the security guy told me to take the bags on board. Well you talk about a mad scramble! We didn't even get a seat. There were 100# bags of rice, plastic cases of bottled pop, big white bags of groceries the same size as the 100# of rice. Stuff piled everywhere! Jo was given a seat and I stayed over the wheel well on one side where they'd taken out two rows of seats to make room for baggage. The upper windows slid open so I was able to get a breeze. The bus was an old 4 or 5 speed and no one paid. Turns out you pay when you get off. If you can't get to the front of the bus you leave by the back and walk to the front door to pay him. He's a patient driver and waits until you've got all your bags off when your supposed to give him a wave in the rear view mirror so he can close the door.
Some sat on the floor most were standing elbow to elbow. The roads began pretty good for the first hour and then they started to deteriorate. For those of you from Kelowna I would compare it to driving an old bus up Bear Creek Rd. The last 45 minutes would be like getting off Bear Lake Rd onto something rougher and with rocks. The dust was about the same as one of our logging roads but the breeze was more important than getting dirty.
We drove through 3 creeks which are sometimes impassable in the rainy season. I don't know what they do in that case. Jo got a seat near a young boy, Jonathon. He was explaining to Jo what the words were for what she was seeing. Nice little guy. With people getting off I got a seat for the last half hour. Strangely enough both Jo and I loved it! It's all part of the adventure. A guy about mid 20's from Maryland was sitting near us on the bus and he walked us from the bus stop to a bar with "cabina's" but they were booked. We'd tried to book yesterday but couldn't get through. Within minutes though they'd found us this place next door owned by "Melvin". Brian, the guy on the bus then told us how to find the beach, where to eat, and where to find him if we needed any help. I was wondering what he was doing hiding out down here. He said he had two more years to go.
We then walked a few hundred feet down the road for supper and a beer but this soda (the term for bar/grill, restaurant etc.) didn't sell beer. Oscar the owner fixed us up with a great supper of fried plantain (bananas) rice and black beans, a veggie salad and pork. We'd asked for beef but he couldn't find any. Jo also had a large glass of cold papaya juice and I had two pints of tamarinda juice. These are the seeds that fall off the huge tamarind trees and it was excellent. Oscar showed us some pictures taken of the green turtles in Nov. and there had to be 4 or 5 hundred just in the picture and it was taken at 9 a.m. He said they take about 45 days to hatch.
After supper we walked to the beach and right where the path enters the beach are several empty tortuga nests with shells all over the place. Tomorrow I'll get some pictures of them. We're going to try and hit the beach early with the hopes to see some of the turtles or the young getting back to the water.
It looks like we'll be here for at least two nights as on Sundays (tomorrow) the only bus is at 5 a.m. Our trip here took from 12:30 to 4 pm. On Monday there's one at 5, 7,9 and a couple more after those. If we can catch a ride with someone to Nasara which is only 7 km away we can catch a bus to Punta Islita our next stop. If not we'll have to spend another 4 hours going back to Santa Cruz to catch a bus. Our packs are far to heavy to carry 7 km. We are carrying two back packs and a large 3rd bag. The 3rd bag is empty so we've got one of the backpacks in it. Thanks to a remote acquaintance of Jo's we're going to leave the large 3rd bag with everything we won't need for a while at their house. They're in Hawaii but we've been give the name of a driver who will drive us across a creek to their house. We'll leave most of our clothes their as well as our snorkeling gear.
All we need down here is thongs (for the feet I mean) two shirts, and a couple of pairs of shorts or swim trunks so our loads hopefully will be about 1/3 as heavy as they currently are. 20-25 # for each bagis what we're shooting for including our books, computer, camera's etc.
Don't know when we'll be able to update the blog as there's no internet in Ostianol. I'm writing this and saving it as a draft so I don't forget anything.
A couple of notes... Allow a day to travel no matter the distance. Our banyo has a sign saying to put all toilet paper in the garbage can not in the toilet. Todays expenses for the two of us are $20-25 each incl. the lodging and meals. We're eating two meals a day. Breakfast around 7 am and supper around 6 and this is all we seem to require. The banyo at the Santa Cruz bus stop is a couple of outhouses behind the station. Jo went to check them out. One was 150c and the deluxe was 200c. She thinks the cheaper one didn't have a door that closed. The 2nd one that everyone was using had the "overflow" coming out under the walls. ( Jo waited)

Costa Rica day 10 Jan. 18

No internet since after breakfast so I'll fill you in. We walked back to the PGI (Playa Grande Inn) from Kikes where the internet was, which was about a 15-20 minute walk. Jo sat in the pool and I got right in. It was fresh water and a perfect cooler temp. While in the pool Soleiha pulled up round 12:30 p.m She had come to join us for the nightly turtle tour. Unfortunately we couldn't contact her at Del Sol to tell her the tours were filled for the whole w/end. We figured she'd love the place anyway. Then the 3 of us headed to the beach which was about a 3-4 minute walk. We headed back towards the big rock and found some "treasures" in the tidal pools. We also saw 2 trails through the sand where a couple of females had come in during the night to deposit their eggs. I think they patrol the beach in the early mornings to count the trails and thus know how many deposited during the night. After about 1 1/2 -2 hours we began heading back. We found bits of white coral on the beach and Jo and Soleiha found two brittle stars in the tidal pools. I found a small octopus and just as I went to get a picture a wave came in and that's the last we saw of it.
When we got up near the turtle hatchery we came across one of the biologists and some volunteers digging a hole in the beach. They were burying egg fragments from the hatchery and filling it with the sand the eggs had hatched out in. This sand was considered contaminated. I asked (Sara was her name from Indiana) when they would have more babies and she said right away!!!! Wow we were pumped!!! The three of us followed her and the helpers back to the hatchery. We weren't allowed in but could stand at the fence as observers . One of the things we noticed was a pup tent in the compound. From 4 pm on there is someone standing guard all night to keep predators such as coons out Sara showed us which nest they would excavate and said this one was special as she'd personally buried these eggs last Nov. The gestation period taking approx. 63-65 days
The eggs they recover to take to the hatchery are one's that have been deposited below the high water line. This particular nest contained 57 eggs. Most 45 of them had emerged from 3' down 2 days prior. Sara began digging out the next while the helpers screened the sand and got water to pour into the nest to try and stop it from caving in as she dug. She'd gone down about a foot when she came across two babies making their way to the surface. That was an unbelievable experience for us. She put them into a bucket with sand in it and covered it with a towel. The hole caved in several times which then had to be dug out again. All the shell casings were set aside to be counted. Several were undersized and not hatched. One of the large ones that was still intact came up and it began chipping it's way out of the shell as we watched. Sara said tis one was a "special needs" baby as it probably wouldn't have made it had it not been for the extra help. Altogether she got 8 turtles before it caved in again ans Sara gave up. By this time the hole was 3' deep and she felt that nothing more was to be gained by continuing. The total that survived the incubation and made it out alive was 53 out of 57 eggs. She was so proud as these where her little godchildren. She told us that the average survival is 50% and to get over 90% was unheard of. Congratulations Sara!!!!!
These nests all contain a thermometer so they can determine how many females there are as the sex is determined by the temp. They are only concerned with females as they are the future for the leatherbacks 20 years down the road.
Unfortunately we couldn't witness them returning to the water as it's done at dusk for the safety of the young and cameras are prohibited due to some people using flash cameras. ( I could have done it w/o a flash w/ this Sony). A special permit is req'd to have a camera on the beach.
Soleiha was really beat from our walk and extremely excited over what we had witnessed so missing the tour late that night wasn't a hardship. We returned, changed and went to Rip Jacks down the street for supper. We had planned to watch the sunset as there had been a few clouds during the day but on the way to the beach we could see the fiery fall about half way down. I ran ahead but got there too late. (Remember I've been on my butt since bringing the boat home so I'm still learning to walk again let alone running!) We met a couple from Lake Country near Kelowna who highly recommended Rip Jacks. It really was a fantastic meal. From upstairs on the deck we were overlooking the ocean (we should have gone there first and seen the sunset at the same time). The ladies had chicken and it was the most tender chicken I've ever eaten. It seemed to melt in your mouth. I had white marlin baked in banana leaves over rice with shrimp. We also tried a drink made from the sugar cane and mixed with Fresca. Not a bad drink but I think I'd like to try it straight to see what it really tastes like.
After supper we went back to our place, had a beer and called it a night. We were in bed (make that two beds) by 9:30 Our room had a double and a single so Soleiha used the single as there was no extra charge for the 3 person.v
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26222&l=83c22&id=680056043

Costa Rica day 8 Playa Grande

We got an early start after breakfast at del Sol. The cab picked us up at 7:30 and dropped us off 5 minutes later at the bus station in Coco Beach. We found out our bus wouldn't get here until around 9:45. It was a pretty decent bus and took us to Filadephia an hour away. We then waited for 2 hours to catch the bus to Playa Grande. We had a very small room there for $65 a night. After checking in with Carlos we headed to the beach to sign up for the turtle tour for the following night (Fri.) when our friend Soleiha was going to join us. The informed us they were booked solid for the whole w/end and try as we might we couldn't reach her to tell her. We did sign up for that nights tour as there was only 4 spots left. They cap the number at 60 and charge $20 each. We were told to show up at 6 pm. They took our passport numbers and names when we first signed up and then when we came back at 6 they gave us small wooden fobs with our numbers 57 and 58 on them. This turned out to be significant as they then took us into an auditorium where we were given a slide show and video on the leatherbacks. The numbers are pretty depressing for their future. We then went outside to wait while the biologists were watching the beach in the dark looking for turtles. At 5 to 8 via walkie talkie we were informed they'd found one. Great! They then take the numbers 1-30 and take their money as they're now assured of seeing a turtle. Off they go while we wait on the concrete I'm asking why we didn't get to go in our group and I'm told they're looking for another turtle. The first group got back at 9 pm having seen the turtle digging, laying her eggs and covering them up. We would have stayed till the cows came home but fortunately our call came at 10:30. A lot of people had left so others who had come later got to fill their spots.
The latest turtle was quite a ways off so we went by van & then walked through a breach in the trees leading to the beach. There are several rules from here on in. No cameras. If your caught taking a picture they take away your camera to be claimed in the morning. Remain quiet, no cell phones, videos, anything that might disrupt the turtle. The guides use red flashlights and you must stay behind them. Any cars in town are supposed to use parking lights only as the light will cause the turtle to abort the trip ashore. It's the lights of the houses on shore that have destroyed much of the nesting sites.
Approaching the leatherback several hundred feet down the beach we are divided into two groups of 15. We're in group 1 and watch her digging while group two stand off. The biologist aids in packing the hole and scooping the sand away from it because if it caves in on itself the turtle will abort the dig. They pack all around the edge of the hole while she digs with her rear flippers which are about a foot across. First she buried her right rear foot and twisted it around to loosen up the sand. She then flips the loose sand out with first her right flipper and then her left until her flipper won't reach any further down which is about 3' deep. Next she begins letting the eggs out. A few at a time. During this time the biologist is laying on her stomach with a red light headband on and a counter. She's also put into the bottom of the nest a temp guage so they can monitor the temp of the nest over the next 65 days. The temp is critical in determining the sex of the turtle. The eggs are slightly smaller than a tennis ball, soft shelled and completely round. When she was nearly depleted the eggs became much smaller until they were about the size of a ping pong ball. This turtle layed 91 eggs. The norm is around 55. These covered the rest of the good eggs. When she was finished she began refilling the nest with sand and tamping it down using all her weight. This turtle was over 5 feet long at the shell which isn't really a shell but leather. She weighed between 700 and 800 lbs! It was an awe inspiring site and well worth the 4 hour wait, the sore butt, and the $20.
While we waited to go, there was a tent set up at the park headquarters and several elderly lady volunteers built a fire and had rice, & food available to eat along with coffee and cold drinks. The price was quite reasonable and we shared a dish prior to leaving.
This was another great day and so far everything is better than we could have asked for. The food is good. The water is great, the people are the friendliest you could ever meet and go out of their way to help you. Language hasn't been a problem as there's always someone who can assist you. Our nights have cost about $60/night and have been pretty good. The price per night will continue to fall after we leave here as we'll be off the beaten path and are expecting to be paying about $15-$20 a night for the two of us.The beds are comfortable, there's toilet paper (although we've brought our own), and our stomaches have remained on an even keel. We are truly happy campers and looking forward to the next 10 weeks. If the money holds out I'm sure we'll make it.