Save the turtles!

One of my fondest memories throughout the whole program was the night that was spent with the endangered sea turtles at Puerto Quepos. After the class was debriefed by the ongoing turtle poaching crisis, we headed out to the beach to help local volunteers with their nocturnal watch and marine research. It was important to only use infrared flashlights at night because regular white light would disorient the hatchlings. 🔦 

The class was able to witness the entire egg-laying process live! The female turtles would make their way from the ocean to a soft spot in the beach and start digging out sand with their hind flippers. After creating a foot-long hole, she would lay over 100+ eggs and cover her nest with sand. Lastly, she would pat the whole area smoothly with her body (as to not leave a trace) and crawl back into the ocean. Once the turtle left, the class extracted the eggs and reburied them in a nearby turtle nursery reserve (under metallic nets to ward off natural predators). I enjoyed releasing baby turtles with my own hand into the ocean. They scuttled to and fro on the wet sand, eventually whisked away by the tide. 🐢