Costa Rica 2013

Sunday10November

Heading towards the Pacific and the village of Ostional! The itinerary begins on route 142 and bypasses Lake Arenal.

Lunch break halfway in the town of Cahuita. 4 hours drive to reach Ostional from La Fortuna.

A casado with rice, black beans, and breaded chicken cutlet

4:00 PM. Here we are on Ostional beach facing the Pacific. Alas, the manager of the inn where we will spend the night tells us that the turtles will only come in 5 days! And what's more, the rain starts to fall, adding tragedy to this desert landscape...

So we won't see the "arribadas", these mass arrivals of thousands of olive ridley sea turtles that come to lay eggs on this beach. But if this dog and these vultures are still there looking for food, maybe a few solitary turtles will come tonight!

These vultures are black vultures (coragyps atratus), fine gourmets of turtles and their freshly laid eggs...

The houses by the beach

All the white dots on the sand are eggshells left by predators during the last arribada. But fortunately, this is compensated by the impressive number of turtles coming here. Up to 100,000 turtles will lay several million eggs here in a single night!!!  

Here's a video found on YouTube of this same beach in November 2010

Oh, but we're not alone! A surfer is going to brave the storm!  

And what would the vulture be without its dead tree under a dark and menacing sky??? Just ask! The bird of ill omen is there, watching for the slightest turtle on the horizon...

Ah, there it is! That's what we needed! An umbrella!  

Well, we've looked around, there are no turtles here. We can go home.

But on the way back, I catch our labrador companion with his nose buried in the sand amidst the shell debris...

I approach and surprise, at the bottom of the hole a perfectly intact egg! So there really are a million baby turtles gestating under our feet! Well, certainly far fewer because less than 10% will hatch...  

I will nevertheless cover the egg with sand, hoping the dog will go elsewhere, but no sooner had I turned my back than the vultures took its place... glurps.

Back at the hotel. We are the only guests... The landlady is very attentive to us, she offers us spaghetti bolognese and while we're regaining our strength, she plays a game of belote, keeping an eye on us.  

And if we're regaining our strength, it's not for nothing, because very quickly word got around that tourists had arrived! Without hesitation, a guide came to see us to suggest we go see the local volunteers who "welcome" the solitary turtles that arrive at night. Woohoo!

So here we are on the beach in the dark and rain, hoping a turtle will come to lay its whole little family. The tide is rising and carving ravines in the beach, revealing eggs that fall into the sea. Bad luck for the mother turtle who chose the wrong place to lay... Her eggs won't even reach the embryo stage...

And finally, we see headlamps lit on red in the distance, surely meaning a turtle has arrived! And indeed, she's there, digging a hole with her flippers! The volunteers are there, taking measurements and attaching tags to recognize the turtles during future arribadas.

The olive ridley sea turtle (lepidochelys olivacea) is endangered, hence the programs implemented by scientists to protect the species.

And while the volunteers are busy, Mrs. Turtle begins laying her eggs, which lasts between 20 and 40 minutes!

And there you have it. The laying is barely finished when she re-covers the sand hole and immediately turns around, heading for the ocean!

That's one good thing done! We've made the most of our stay in Ostional.   Tomorrow we leave to ascend in altitude and reach the cloud forest region in Monteverde!