The last few days we left Turtle Trax and came to Chachagua. Meeting the new family and eating with them has been a great experience. Seeing the difference in the towns going from very rural to a bigger touristy town makes it feel like a different place. Being so close to people and animals in…

Leaving Turtle Trax reminded me of saying goodbye to my senior friends on the last day of school. It’s sad to part but it doesn’t over shadow the memories made and the people you have met. The most admirable quality that I have observed in the people at Turtle Trax is their perseverance. You are…

I chose to reflect on compassion today because we have been with each other for a little over a week now and our compassion needs to grow as we progress. We have seen many leaders show compassion such as Jungle Mike when he started to care for and take interest in bugs. He took that…

Today we visited Jungle Mike who found success by dedicating  his career to insects. We visited his local open air butterfly farm home to many different species of butterflies. We learned about butterflies eye-spots and how they use them to scare prey. We also learned about the special toxins in the plants some butterflies eat…

Today is Friday the 25th and it was our day off. First we went to Oscar’s Farm, where we made our very own chorreada. They took us through the whole process including harvesting the corn, removing the husk, grinding the kernels, and frying it. Afterwards we headed to the beach to relax for a couple…

  Today we started our day by visiting a local elementary school and watched the children perform traditional songs and dances of Guanacaste. The children and faculty welcomed our group, gave us traditional food, and taught us about the history of Guanacaste. When thinking about the way our group was welcomed by the community, I…

Today we helped clean out debris from a turtle hatchery. We spent a few hours working and a little while playing in the sand and ocean. We learned how important turtle watchers are so that animals and poachers don’t steal the eggs. Then we had lunch and went to the other hatchery where we collected…

99 turtle eggs hanging from a flimsy string bag down to my stomach. 99 chances. 99 hatchlings. 99 turtles. It only took 3 hours, a couple blisters, and a thousand steps. I lost hope 30 minutes in, walking in pitch black not really knowing what to look for. That’s when I started to think &…

Had our first night patrol last night. Incredible. First group came across a turtle coming up the beach. Stella helped to record all of the data in the Turtle Trax journal, and Cici was the one catching the 94 eggs and placing them in a bag held by Allison to take back to the hatchery….

After arriving in San Jose last night, our Turtles II group headed out earlier this morning to continue our journey to San Miguel and Turtle Trax. We had a nice pizza lunch by the water as we waited for our ferry to take us across to the Nicoya Peninsula. Following a 1.5 hour ferry ride,…