Turtles and the twin peaks, Costa Rica, June/July 2009

Well ive been in Costa Rica the last 3 weeks, first thing that hits you is how much more developed it is, they even do recycling here! The other thing that hits you is the rain! it has rained here everyday ive been here at some point the weather is so predictable sun in the morning rain in the afternoon and when i say rain i man torrential. Infact just came in now from the rain its weird its a national pastime here to shetler from the rain im getting very good at it now weird thing is despite the fact you can guarnatee it will rain nobody seems to take a jacket my theory is its an excuse to get out of work, i mean go out from the office and get caught for 2 hours and when boss complains you just point to the sky!

What else have i noticed here? they like a fag and a drink the smoke in the bars can burn your eyes out!

So what have i been doing? lots of walking. Spent my first week in San Jose,Liberia and Monterverde. I then went to the Caribean coast to do a conservation project with turtles. Amazing Costa Rica has more species of turtles than any country in the world i saw a leatherback and green turtles. Some of them are 2 meters huge. Basically what i had to do was patrol the beach at night walk up and down for 4 hours with a guide looking for turtles coming up to lay eggs then we would hide let the turtle dig a hole and start laying eggs and the guide would then transfer the eggs into a bag we would then carry them to a hatchery were we would dig another hole and bury them until the turtles come up 50 days or so later. Why do we do this? well on the beach there are load of poachers who steal the turtle eggs, and kill the turtles for meat or their shells to sell so its better to take the eggs to an area where they cant get them. Its quite frustrating watching the poachers taking the eggs and your not allowed to get into a confrontration with them probabaly best to be honest if you knew the history of some of these guys.

Apart from patroling the beach i had to work in the hatchery where you would wait for the babay turtles to come out their nest, weigh them and then release them in the sea, also had to guard buildings from the poachers who were known to break in and steal things. so basically i was a turtle security guard for a week! Loved the walking sometimes would do double shifts and the eggs weighed a tonne so you had to be careful not to drop them. One night i worked with a costan rican coastguard and we caught a poacher with a turtle however because he was off duty and working with our ´non confrontational´charity poodles! we couldnt do anything however i did like the way he appeared to make a mental note of who the poacher was im sure the necessary will be given at a later date.

I loved the project however a mention has to be given to the group i worked with. I arrived at the bus station where i spotted 15 or so rather large americans in their late teens early 20s in team turtle t shirts, i made a quick prayer that we werent going to the same destination. Unfortunately this wasnt answered that was it i was lumbered with ´team turtle´´i honestly thought i had turned up on an adult obesity programme and i was their to whip their lard arses into shape. Now the first night i was picked to walk with this girl who in the few hours i had known her had done the following. Looked like she wasnt going to cry when getting in the boat, wore a life jacket for the whole journey despite the water ben less than a metre honestly having a bath would be more dangerous. When we arrived at camp the question was asked does anyone have any allergies, bad move her hand was up in an instant and she spent a few mins reeling off every allergy she had, soya products, salad cream, nuts honestly i thought all they ate was burgers anyways.

Then came the walk off we went im not kidding but within 100 metres she was behind me muttering about how she was a borderline diabetic, and that she suffered from chronic sciatic i was desperatley trying to block it out i mean ive come to see turtles not listen to this hyprochondriac shite. Then she started wimpering like a dog i just kept going with the walk trying to block it out. Then it came ouch "ive broken my ankle", mmm didnt look broken to me and lets face in my job i should know. Anways we carried on but eventually we had to stop she couldnt go on, we had done all of a mile pathetic. Anyways we had to abort the walk and go back to camp with the guide supporting her i just walked ahead thinking maybe i was a bad physio chosen the wrong profession not sympathetic etc but i was right as i thought the next day no swelling no brusing no limping just alot of whinging about how she couldnt do beach patrol and could she go on kitchen duty. 19 years of age and a walking corpse.

Anyways throughout the week i was given a first hand insight into the mind of american youth. Starbucks was described as having the best coffeee in the world, they mistook the sea for a waterfall! and generally tried to avoid any task that involved physical exertion. I did not know it was possible to be this unfit by the age of 20 it must take years of training, it was incredible, huge out of breath within a 100 metres legs caved in due to excessive weight. Guys of 20 would say i cant walk tonight ive got tendinits and then would play volleyball all so they could fill their faces on kitchen duty!


They also complained about the number of insects! we were in the bloody jungle! They also only did anything in groups of at least 3 they never walked alone with the guides due the paranoia they had that the costa rican guides wanted to attack them. Honestly talk about high opinion. Team meetings were held reguarly but everyone else was excluded and i even think they had a team motto!. Oh and wales is in france!


Used to go out in my kayak for an hour or two to escape the "softmore" "freshman" crack looking for caimen so wild loved it.

Great project though.


What else, have to mention the women of San Jose. All i can say is im struggling to think of a place where ive seen so many attractive women and they have a particular physical trait work it out guys. Dangerous in a place where it rains so much. Honestly i could walk around for hours, the girl in the supermarket before incredible.

The national parks arent quite as wild as i thought they would be, lots of american tour groups walking around with plastic bags from the supermarket trying to feed "wild deer" and taking flash photos of the monkeys in the daylight! The parks also have portaloos! However tommorrow im going 8 hours on the bus to what is described as latin americas last remaining wilderness corcovardo. There you have to walk shed loads in swampy conditions so hopefully will lose the tour groups.


yours in walking and obesity management

Ross

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