Week 2 – turtles and more tanning

December 28th, 2008 by Zoe Methven

I’m back in San Jose and I have finished my first turtle project!!!! and… i’m brown and it’s not just dust this time!! Julia can verfiy this for me!

So… firstly I hope you all had a wonderful christmas and everyone was treated well by santa!

I had the most amazing weekend last weekend – weekend off! I went to a national park called Manuel Antonio and walked around all day… saw lots of monkeys, sloths, toucans, weird jumping kangaroo|wallaby|rat|mouse things… not sure what… laura??? any ideas?? then did lots of swimming in the crystal clear waters basically had a lovely time by myslef, and enjoying the fact that I wasn’t surrounded by people 24/7.

the beaches were very nice although quite busy…

then it was back to matapalo for another week, and I have to say, there is not alot to say about this week. the possy of germans had left and we were down to 15 volunteers which meant more work for all of us, but they stopped the night patrols as there were no more mother turtles coming up the beach at night to lay their eggs as it is the end of the season at this project. so lots of hatchery duty and usually at leaset 5 turtles per shift for me. some volunteers had hundreds hatching and making their way ‘to the sea!’

When I got back to the project I met a girl Izzy and we hung out all week together, english from oxford and is travelling for 10 months through central america! She’s only 18 but we got along really well and we were able to escape ‘crazy’ together.

Christmas eve was celebrated due to the fact that there were more europeans that celebrated then. ok for me though as it really co-incided with chirstmas in OZ as we are 17 hours ahead! We had Quentin cooking – rench guy, he made lots of rencgh entrees which were delicious, a couple of quiches and a chicken curry! I had a hatchery shift from 11pm – 1am so no drinking, just lots of food. it was a nice evening for all the volunteers.

Since then my days have consisted of sleeping, reading, hatchery shifts, swimming and sun bathing – oh and I went horseriding and saw crocodile tracks on the beach walkinh towards the river!!! scary!!!!!! we also went to the waterfall with a local, Hiro. Hiro was laways happy to show is around, help out carrying heavy sand bags and then on my last day he rescued 2 tourists from a rip!!! Hiro, the hero! a good guy to have around.

i’m back in san jose and tomorrow I am going to check out the city which looks less than inspiring before going to the airport at 10pm to pick up juliaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I can’t wait! I hope she realises that i will probably bombard her with stories as soon as I see her… sorry in advance…

also… we are off to the caribbean coast on tuesday morning at 6am… hope she can forgive me!!! This is where we will be sipping cocktails in hammocks getting ready for New Year’s eve…. its a free week of travelling for us… there is also the option of going across to Panama to a party island (Bocos del toro) for a couple of days… i’ll check with Julia and get back to you!

Next turtle project starts on 5th Jan… i’ll be in touch before then… but… i’ve been told. no electricity and kind of camping on the beach… these stories should be interesting!

Happy New Year!

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