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