The Next Generation

After two months of hard work (and plenty of slacking off), I am finally the proud father of baby marine turtles. Me and Gredy (my costa rican friend pictured below), dug up some nests to see what was going on, and lo and behold there were little turtles making there way to the surface. After hatching, it takes the turtles about 5 days before they reach the surface and make their way to the ocean.

The majority of the 10 turtle nests I have will be hatching around May 20th, but I have to come back to the US on May 25th, so I will finish my report in Arizona before heading out to Colorado on June 14.

These are some cooked eggs that never developed:

This is my good friend and turtle expert, Gredy, and I doing work in my hatchery:

And last but not least, that little thing that looks like a clump of sand is a baby turtle!

I'm so proud....

I hope all is well wherever you may be, and that we may see each other soon,

Paul

Crunch time

I arrive at three weeks in Ostional a little tired, but hopeful that this project will work out. I now realize that this project would have been sufficient work for about five people, but I have been given a time extension and may stay an extra two weeks in Costa Rica. Luckily I am surrounded by beautiful people who are more tha willing to lend a helping hand with my project.

So, thus far I have constructed a hatchery (picture below) in which I will place turtle nests and hopefully grow some little turtles. I spent my 21st birthday building the structure with my pot-smoking host-padre, so it holds a special place in my heart to say the least (most of the hombres in Ostional are under some sort of influence throughout the day). Now, I have to move a couple tons of sand around and look for turtle eggs at night when they arrive to nest. I essentially spend most of my time listening to music and moving sand around on the beach, but if there is a more beautiful place to work all day, I would like to see it!

Anyway, this weekend the real fun begins: everyt town in Costa Rica has a festival during the day of their saint, and Ostional's just happens to be this weekend. The town will crown a queen, have a parade, and have a rodeo where anybody who is brave enough can hop up on the bull. Hopefully I will be able to steal away from this project for a little while to enjoy the fiesta, and I will post some pics in my next blog post.

Good things,

Pablo

Me in my temple: the hatchery

A howler monkey in the mango tree in my backyard.

The Ultimate Goal! This is a leatherback turtle from the town-run hatchery.

My little niece, Farchee, the future queen of Ostional

The hatchery in the morning light.

In the land of turtles

Two very friendly people from Holland stopped by Ostional for a couple days and gave me some of their pictures. There are beautiful sunsets every night....
This little kid was doing flips for about an hour in the surf.

This is what I do all day: rake the sand to remove egg shells, then I put it in a wheel barrow and move it about 70 yards to a black tarp where I cook it all day. Its tough work.

A local shredding the surf

So, after one week in Ostional (pop. 1,000), I have learned much about small-town Costa Rican life. This is a self-described "simple" people---people generally don't have any work to do, so they cruise around on motorcycles and bikes and pretty much hang out all day long. Then, when there is a turtle mass-nesting event they run to the beach and harvest as many eggs as they possibly can, and sell bags of 1,000 eggs each throughout Costa Rica for $10USD each.

As for my family, I live with Dona Yamileth (39), her husband Jeremiahs (42), and their daughter Paola (18), who also has a son, Etoo (3). Most girls around age 16 already have kids, so it's not strange that Dona Yamileth is a grandma at age 39. They're super nice although I think they have an exaggerated view of how much food american's eat. Every meal consists of gallo pinto (rice and beans mixed together with vegetables), and my first breakfast consisted of a 10" plate covered in 2" of gallo pinto topped with some eggs. I ate about half of it then muttered some nonsensical spanish, but they understood that it was too much. That's the thing about learning a foreign language--you will say something that you're not sure of, then two hours later you will realize what you actually said. Like the time I said I couldn't sleep because "the dogs were yelling," when I meant "the dogs were barking." People are very understanding though, which is nice.

Well, that's all i have to report for now. My field study is underway although nothing of significance has happened yet.

Good things,

Paul

Hello, America,

Here are some pictures of my trip to my study site (i'm having a little trouble with formatting so pictures come first):

Don't worry, America is well represented here
The Bridge of Friendship (built by Taiwan for Costa Rica for FREE) with friends Alex and Geoff

My study site: Playa Ostional

I write this after downing a cup of hot chocolate made from 70% pure cacao (@Peter K locally and organically grown, of course). Hopefully i can finish this post before i crash and burn.

This weekend, I made a pilgrimmage to the study site where I will be spending the next two months studying marine turtles. The town is called Ostional, and their main source of income is the selling of turtle eggs, which are believed to be an aphrodisiac in many latin american countries. Since the harvest of eggs here is still legal, I am hoping to find out a way to increase the hatching success of the nests (usually only about 20% of eggs actually hatch), so that the turtle population remains high and the local community can still benefit from the selling of eggs. Can you imagine a world in which turtles and humans live harmoniously?....

Be well,

Pablo

Pura Vida

Just one week in Costa Rica and already I'm telling myself that I never want to leave. It is said that this is the happiest country on earth, and I believe it. Less emphasis is placed on "getting stuff done" in this society--there are very few cell phones, most homes are just now getting internet, and most of the population doesn't even own a car. I'm living the pura vida ("the good life"--the national motto), and i'm loving it!

Right now I'm living in San Pedro with my host family (a mother and father, their daughter, and their granddaughter), and I can understand everyone when they speak except for my father. My Mom told me not to worry though, because even the locals can't understand what he's saying most of the time!


All in all, it has been quite the week: immersion into the spanish language almost 24/7, a small earthquake, and a great day at the beach.



Here are a few pictures of the ACM building where I take my classes. It's actually just an old house converted into one classroom and a small library.

This is the view looking into the classroom from the courtyard

The view looking out of the classroom

The courtyard

And last but not least, the famous "Gordita" and I in downtown San Jose.

Adios

It's official---I'm headed to Costa Rica. This realization finally set in after cutting my long hair back to what I was told is a "Matt Damon" style haircut. This may come as a shock to some of you (especially those of you who have never known me with short hair), but I'm actually pretty pleased with it. The flow will be back, though.

Now the good stuff: I'll be doing a homestay in San Jose (the capitol city) for 2 months, and sandwiched in between these two months I'll be researching the Olive Ridley sea turtle in the very northwestern corner of Costa Rica. For the most part I'll be keeping these blog posts short and sweet---I refuse to bore you all with the minutiae of my everyday life! Instead I'll post cool pictures, tell a quick story, or update you on the issues facing the Costa Rican environment (yeah!).

Lastly, I'll be posting the link to my blog on facebook whenever I make a new post, and feel free to leave comments and say what's up on the blog.

Be well, wherever you are,
Paul