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Published: April 17th 2007
The flight from Cancun to Panama City and then on to San Jose wasn’t too bad at all. The plane was pretty small and on both occasions we encountered a fair bit of turbulence but this just made things more interesting. We left Cancun at 1510, an hour later then we’d expected (not sure why) and arrived in San Jose at 7.30pm (8.30 pm Mexico time). After thinking that we’d lost our luggage, only to find it had been put to one side as it had ´priority´ over the other bags, we caught a taxi to Hostal Pangea which had been recommended to us by Volunteer Latin America (the organization that we’d arranged the Turtle Project with). On first impressions, San Jose didn’t look too sharp. The place seemed pretty scruffy and all the windows and doors were covered in bars…not exactly encouraging! Our hostel was no different; after gaining admittance over the intercom, you had to wait in a barred waiting area before passing through another door to the reception area….hmmm. The hostel was alright, with a kitchenette, sitting area with TV and free internet, though our room was pretty pokey and 30 dollars a night seemed a bit
steep. Nevertheless we were only going to be there for a night and we were just grateful that they had a room as we really didn’t fancy wondering the streets of San Jose at night looking for a place to stay.
The following morning we grabbed a taxi out to the Turtle Project Office (20 mins away), where we received a 5 minute induction (completely pointless) before rushing back to the bus station (which was only 2 minutes from our hostel) and jumping on a bus to Cahuita. The public buses out here are very basic but at only 3000 colonies each (3 quid) for a 4 hr journey, they’re good value. After leaving San Jose we were straight into very hilly terrain covered in thick rainforest for as far as the eye could see and some of the views were spectacular.
By 2pm we were in Cahuita, where we then grabbed a cab (random local with a car) to the National Park, the location of the turtle project. As we pulled up at the ranger station we were actually very pleased with what we thought was going to be our accommodation for the forthcoming weeks. As you
can see from the photo, it’s quite a smart, modern building which would suit us just fine! However, after a brief intro to the project by Andrey (the project leader) we were then taken round the back of the ranger station to what can only be described as a wooden shed. It would appear that only the patrol leaders were allowed to sleep in the station and us mere mortals were expected to rough it out the back. We were given a room to ourselves (though it afforded no extra privacy) at the rear of the shed and after clearing away all the rubbish from the floor we set about building our bunk and nabbing a few bug ridden mattresses from the neighboring chicken coup (dormitory). They could only have been twenty or thirty years old and so we couldn’t complain.
Later that day we met the rest of the guys on the project, about a dozen in all, who seemed nice enough. We then received a quick run through of how the project operated and what was expected from us before sitting down to dinner and then venturing out on patrol at 10pm.
A 7km stretch of
beach within Cahuita National Park, is monitored on a nightly basis for nesting turtles. At this time of year it’s primarily Leatherbacks nesting, then in May / June the Greens and Hawksbills arrive. There are three shifts each night, 8-12, 10-2, 12-4 and it generally takes an hr and a half to walk the 7km to the end of the beach and then the same again back. Patrols usually consist of 3 / 4 volunteers. The patrol leaders undertake all of the tagging and tissue sampling while the volunteers can expect to assist in taking measurements, recording data and helping to relocate the eggs if necessary. Poaching is a massive problem and as such there is a hatchery which is manned 24 hours a day. However for various reasons (which seemed to make little sense to us) only the Greens and the Hawksbill’s eggs are usually relocated to the hatchery, leaving most of the leatherback nests open to poaching. Admittedly efforts are made to disguise the nests or to relocate them to a safer area of the beach, but ultimately this does little to hinder the poachers and some 80% of nests are lost to poaching. Having been told this,
before even going on patrol, we felt enormously frustrated at the poor management of the project, not least because there appeared to be some very simple solutions to many of the problems. We (Dan) didn’t hold back in voicing his opinion and probably ruffled a few feathers but with time we came to realize that everybody else felt the same way, only more so. After all, most of them had spent night after night patrolling (which isn’t particularly fun), going to enormous lengths to disguise the nests, only to find nests poached a few days later, rendering their efforts completely futile. The organization running the project, also operates another larger project down the coast at Gandoca and from the impression we got from the guys, it appears that all of the resources and efforts are channeled into this project while the smaller project at Cahuita is largely overlooked.
Despite the shortfalls of the project, we still stuck it out for a week (we’d planned to do at least a couple) and we´re certainly glad we did. Being able to witness the turtles coming ashore and laying their eggs was an incredible experience. They’re absolutely enormous creatures (the carapace alone
is nearly 2 metres in length) and they have a distinctly prehistoric look about them. Despite their size, their flippers are surprisingly dexterous and to see them scoop the sand up and mould out an egg chamber (a metre below the surface) was very impressive. The experiences with the turtles went some way to compensating for the tireless walking of the beach and the horrendous insect bites that came with going on patrol. You’re not aloud to apply bug repellent, any less then 4 hours before going on patrol (turtles aren’t so keen on it) and as a result you generally get eaten alive by mozzies and sand flies (the latter being by far the worst!). After three days Dani had over 208 bites and Dan didn’t fare much better (with his 40!).
With regard to Cahuita National Park, it was absolutely teeming with wildlife and was the main reason we stayed as long as we did. There was an enormous array of different birds species (Costa Rica has over 800 species) which kept Dan happy, as well as a variety of different animals. Sightings of White Faced Capuchins and Mantled Howler Monkeys were a daily occurrence and you
couldn’t help but be entertained by the incredible noises that the latter made, which we both agreed, sounded like the bellowing of some kind of dinosaur or enormous beast. If you didn’t know what was making the noise you would undoubtedly be absolutely petrified! We also saw half a dozen different species of snake (including the Eyelash Viper and Bushmaster - both venomous), various different species of lizard (including the awesome Jesus Christ Lizard), Iguanas, Squirrels, Two-toed Sloth’s and the raccoon-like Coatis. Another creature to note was the Morpho Butterfly with its 15cm wingspan and stunning blue colouration. We tried in vain to get a photo of it with its wings spread, but to no avail, though as you can see, the underside of wings didn’t look too bad. We didn’t sleep too well at night, what with the bed bugs and humidity, sleeping was the last thing you wanted to do, and so more often then not, we were up at the crack of dawn in pursuit of wildlife.
We also hired a couple of bikes for the week, which made getting around easier and on several occasions we ventured into Cahuita for a bite to eat. Cahuita
town gets quite a good write up in the LP, but we didn’t find it to be anything special. In fact, it seemed to be full of crazy people, jabbering absolute rubbish, perhaps a consequence of a lifetime smoking pot which seems quite common practice out here amongst the Afro-Caribbean’s.
Spending only a week on the project must seen like quite a lame effort to you guys back home, but in all honesty it wasn’t much fun and while you could justify the hardships if it were beneficial for the Turtles, the reality is, that in its current form, the project is a waste of time. The problem with the poachers needs to be addressed urgently if any good is to come from everyone’s hard work. This criticism is founded entirely on what we saw and only relates to the leatherback turtles. The Greens and Hawksbills are afforded some protection through the hatchery and as such the project deserves some merit for this. It’s just the Conservation Plan relating to the Leatherbacks (the most endangered) that needs to be reviewed.
Some of the guys on the project were a good laugh, but for the most part, people just
slept all day and you’d only really see them at meal times. When we did have a chance to chat, we found out that several of them had been traveling around Costa Rica prior to joining the project and some of the places they’d visited sounded really interesting. This only fuelled our desire to leave and by the 16th we were definitely ready to move on. Not entirely sure of bus times and the like, we opted to spend the night in crazy town (Cahuita) before heading off to San Jose the next day.
We’d decided to travel down to the Corcovado National Park, on the Pacific Coast as we’d heard it was really beautiful. Unfortunately on returning to San Jose, we were too late to catch the bus we needed and so we spent the night in San Jose and headed out in the morning. On second impression, San Jose seemed a lot nicer (not least because we arrived in the day) and we stayed in a more centrally located Hostel (Tranquilo Backpackers) which also helped. Having said that, while in a taxi, we nearly ran over a chap who was being pursued by a man with a
gun. From what we could make out from the taxi driver, he’d stolen a watch from a passerby and was lucky not to have been shot by the policeman giving chase….all very entertaining! The rest of the day in San Jose was spent on the net, updating the blog. By 9pm we’d pretty much had enough and popped out for a bite to eat, stopping at the first place we came across and then grabbing a taxi home. It was only a short walk back to the hostel, but San Jose is definitely not a place for an evening stroll.
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Colin
non-member comment
Turtle Project
Well done for sticking the week at the project. Think we would hae left once we saw the shed. Good for you Dan, maybe your comments will encourage them to improve the protection.