A New Adventure in Costa Rica

My journey started when I began packing for my extended stay in Costa Rica. I had to fulfill the challenge of ten days in a single carry-on item. To do this, I used “Magic Bags.” This secret weapon required me to call for help to squeeze all the air out of the bags and flatten all the contents of my carry-on. The anticipation set in and I readied myself for bed since I would need to wake at 4:30 a.m. to prepare for my 6:40 a.m. departure from the Lubbock Preston-Smith International Airport. The TSA checkpoint had me in and out despite an unexpected pat down as a result of the random selection by the scanner. I decided to treat myself to three vanilla bean scones and a Starbucks coffee. Soon after, those of us departing from Lubbock waited near each other for our boarding call. We boarded an unusually small plane with no overhead compartments. Because of this, my bag left my side and went under the plane.

We departed and made our way to Houston. On arrival to the Houston Airport, getting the bags from under the plane took a long time, so we found ourselves running to the skyway to get to the other terminal and make our connecting flight to the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica. We barely made it on board. From here, we caught the international component of our flight where the Spanish immersion began. I had never flown alone internationally and felt overwhelmed by the sudden shift, but this was it! I discovered the passenger next to me was a Costa Rican local and found myself laughing because of how humored he was watching the movie Elf on board the plane. In conversation, I learned he had never heard of Playa Junquillal which made me realize the remoteness of the region.

Once we landed, customs took forever, but the awareness that this was really happening set in when a stamp was placed on my passport. Everyone met up after the customs process and went to exchange their American dollars to Colones. The temperature felt super-hot compared to the cool breezes of Lubbock. At this point, we met up with Jessica, the short-term volunteer coordinator from the Asociacion Cultural de Intercambio de Costa Rica (ACI-CR), and Kike, the driver from last year. Because the TTU group was arriving from various points in the United States, we waited for the remaining members and on their arrival, we headed to our bus and met Papi, this year’s driver for the duration of the trip. He transported us to Garita, Alajuela, Costa Rica where we would spend two days for Orientation in a gated community at a host family’s home to prepare us for the coming work with Verdiazul.

Tati, the resident cook, made a delicious dinner, and she would ultimately become one of the highlights for our group. During the program, we learned about all facets of Costa Rican life and participated in a brief wildlife survival training. After, we boarded the van as a group and headed to Playa Junquillal to the Hotel Tatanka five hours away. Here we would spend seven days doing the vast majority of our Sea Turtle Conservation efforts. On the first night after dinner, Valerie, the Verdiazul Biologist, invited us to go release the sea turtles that had hatched around the time of our arrival.

Following this awesome experience, we headed out for our first night patrol. On these excursions of approximately four or so overnight hours, you walk the beach in darkness searching for turtle tracks so the beds of eggs can be collected and transferred to the hatchery. We found a significantly sized batch of eggs and extracted about ten each from the sand. Back at the hatchery, we got the opportunity to name the nest which we decided to call “Shimmy-Shimmy” because of the way the turtles shimmied to cover their nests. We got lucky enough to see the turtle that lay the batch of eggs. On subsequent night patrols we would name other batches brought to the hatchery. Some of these names included “Fuzzy’s,” “Margarita,” and “Cutie’s.”

Returning from our night patrol, sand-covered and sweat drenched, my roommates and I decided to take turns using the shower. On my turn, I learned the hard way that there was no hot water, so I shivered my way through a cold shower and went straight to bed. I searched for an entire hour for my missing contact lens case and ended up having to create a makeshift one using a cup and a water bottle cap covered with toilet paper until the morning when I would wake. For breakfast, we enjoyed rice, beans, bread, and scrambled eggs. We took a quick two-minute walk to Verdiazul for a beach clean-up where some would collect micro trash and others would collect macro trash. Our garbage clean-up spanned the North and South sides of the beach. This activity was important because it aided the saving of the turtles by preventing trash from entering the ocean and contaminating it or exposing the turtles to other unnecessary dangers.

After lunch, we met up with Danny, the Director of Verdiazul, where we worked in the hatchery to remove contaminated eggshells from the nests. These eggshells get used to collect data as to why some hatched successfully while others didn’t to improve the survival rates of the turtles. While conducting these cleanings, we found some baby turtles that had not made it to the surface of the nest and remained hidden in the sand. We collected them in a bucket and after the hatchery work, we released them and continued with more night patrols. Throughout the course of the week, we would continue similar tasks in the hatchery and conduct more night patrols. Near the end of our stay, we would also help the community with composting.

Prior to that, it is worth mentioning that the partners at Verdiazul honored us with a BBQ complete with ice fixings for our beverages and yummy ice cream. Let me just say, this was a wonderfully big reward after all the hard work efforts. Finally, our stay came to an end and we would spend our last day in San Jose at the super cute Finca Escalante hostel. Here, we would have a closing dinner with Jessica from ACI-CR and receive recognition certificates for all the work from the past ten days.

- Krysta Gonzalez