Pura Vida - life is damn good

The Costa Rica trip was AMAZING! Nine days with 18 awesome students, my sister and my favorite co-worker. This magical trip has re-energized my passion for keeping education in my life in some form. These 18 self selected students showed great passion, energy, compassion, strength, appropriate stubbornness, and optimism. The trip was filled with intense moments of frustration, exhaustion, elation and the kids kept their spirits high, as long as we provided them with regular intervals of food (you know teenagers).

Having my sister with me on this trip was incredibly special and a memory I am going to cherish forever. You know that I think she's the most amazing person ever. Kind, caring, honest, positive, but this trip allowed her positivity to shine bright. Here I was dragging her into spider infested jungles, cold showers, no electricity, bunk beds with bat poo covering the mattresses and she endured the trip with all smiles, and humor. I loved having her along. I am truly grateful we were able to share this moment.

The trip started in the jungle at the La Suerte biological research station. This secondary forest is filled with exactly the wildlife you expect when you visit Costa Rica. In between team building activities we collected some data on different animal species and walked through the jungle, not only in daylight, but at night as well. We were there just as the moon was getting full, so the darkness wasn't as intense as I've experienced before, but eerily chilling just the same. 

Here are some animal we saw...

Strawberry dart frog, or the Blue Jeans Frog

Crested Owl

Baby tarantulas!

Toucanettes

and of course Howler monkeys

We left the jungle and headed towards the east coast. The drive on the bumpy dirt roads passed through acres and acres of pineapple and banana farms. 

The road ended at the "dock" to the canal. From here we boated through the jungle.

This white faced capuchin was not happy that our boat was passing by so close.

Can you find the caiman? 

The boat dropped us off at the WIDECAST station near the mouth of the Pacuare River. Here is where the turtle part of the trip began. 

Here we learned how to take measurements of the mother leatherbacks that come on the beach to lay her eggs. Costa Rica has a poacher problem. The locals eat the raw turtle eggs to get some sort of aphrodisiac affect. The illegal poaching can earn $1 per turtle eggs and although that doesn't sound worth it to you and I, a turtle can lay up to 100 eggs at a time. The night of poaching can be pretty lucrative. Our group was to patrol the beach trying to get to the mothers before the poachers. The goal: to have the turtle lay her eggs in a large plastic bag and then transfer the eggs to the guarded nursery. 

Sometimes I am a rule follower, especially when it comes to nature and the environment. We were asked not to photograph or film any of the turtles on night patrol, so I didn't. You'll just have to volunteer a few days to see for yourself. 

The beach location was the toughest. No electricity, not much water, rice and beans for 3 meals a day, late night patrols, super intense heat followed by monsoons rains. The high of seeing the turtles kept the kids going each night, but we were sure glad that we didn't sign a 5 month contract...

After three long nights we piled into the boat again and headed back inland to prepare for our rafting trip. The water levels were super low, so we spent a lot of time paddling. The views through the forest were amazing.

Life in Costa Rica is truly Pura Vida.