day 17: baulamania!

to recap: what did hmc want to see most of all in costa rica? turtles. where do you go see turtles? tortuguero. when are the green sea turtles in tortuguero? not in the winter.

thus, we went back to the pacific side (that, and the fact that it’s actually warm and sunny over here, like vacations are supposed to be) to make a visit to playa grande and the parque nacional marino las baulas de guanacaste.

you have to make a reservation to see the turtles in advance, providing your passport number to make sure you’re real and not some sort of fictional anti-turtle terrorist. then depending on what time high tide is on the day of your appointment, you show up and wait and hope and pray for a leatherback turtle to come up and lay some eggs. in the meantime, you can watch a very cheery video detailing the myriad of ways that humans have cleverly tried to kill off as many leatherback turtles as possible through industrial fishing. since you can’t see the video, i’ll sum it up for you: if you’ve ever eaten fish, like fish, or even thought about fish, YOU’VE JUST KILLED A TURTLE! it’s pretty sad and horrifying: whereas something like 700 turtles would come and nest here 20 years ago, there were only 60 or so last year.

thus, the odds didn’t look good, especially since one had already come up last night. since the high tides were early in the morning today, we arrived around midnight to begin the possible five hour wait, as they nest anywhere between two hours before and after high tide.

however, we lucked out as we got the call within half an hour that a turtle had come up and started laying eggs! they shuffled us off towards the beach, single file and frequently counting us off like schoolchildren. the beach while open to the public during the day is closed at night and totally darkened, with no light from any man-made structures to ensure that the turtles are not alarmed by neon lights, or say, candy-ravers with glowsticks. during nesting season, the entire beach is staffed with spotters who watch for turtles coming out of the ocean, and they relay the spottings to the rangers and biologists who quickly descend upon the turtle to measure it and watch to see how many eggs are laid.

we finally reach the turtle after walking along the beach at night, and are allowed to circle around the back of the turtle, an arm’s length away. i could only think of two things: 1. this thing is HUGE! 1 1/2 meters long! 2. man, these leatherback turtles really look like gamera. i’m not kidding.

before we knew it, the turtle was already burying her eggs and we were being led back off the beach. apparently 60 days later, those little turtlets will pop out and try and make it to the beach, where they have a ONE IN ONE THOUSAND CHANCE of making it to adulthood.

but how are your fishsticks?

Posted at January 22, 2007 3:12 AM