In search of the extremely endangered Leatherback Sea Turtle

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It sounds wonderful doesn't it - helping to protect a critically endangered sea turtle on a Caribbean beach? We thought so too and were excited (though if truth be known, also a little nervous as we'd been warned that conditions would be quite tough) as we sat on the one hour boat trip from Tortuguero to Parisima the following morning. Parismina is an even smaller community than Tortuguero on a similar island between the river and the sea a bit further down the coast.

As you might imagine from the name, Tortuguero is famous for the turtles which nest on its beach, but mostly for the green turtles which are later in the year. However, Parismina in fact gets more turtles and April/May is peak nesting season for the Leatherback Turtle and a small community project has been set up there to patrol the beaches overnight to prevent poachers taking the eggs that the turtles lay on the beach. We were to help them for 3 nights - doesn't that sound exciting!

On arrival at the dock we had been told to ask for Doña Vicky. Her brother just happened to be seeing some people off at the dock so took us the short distance to her house but she sent us back to the project office near the dock and appeared a few minutes later. It was very hot and humid and much stiller than in Tortuguero and we were rather uncomfortable, praying that a breeze would start up.

After going through some of the details, she introduced us to Cindy who was to be our 'mentor'. They try to employ as many people as possible from the community to help with the project and use high school children to show visitors around and tell them a bit about the place. Cindy should have been at school but her teachers were on strike because they had not been paid. I was amazed that there was a high school in the tiny community which only has around 600 people in total.

We were staying with Irma, a lady in her 60s who had lived in San Jose for 30 years but moved back to Parismina about 13 years before leaving her grown children in the big city. She lived with her 'compañero', which we assume meant partner, Eslo, who was very shy and disappeared whenever we turned up.

The house was basic to say the least - wooden with a corrugated iron roof, with the few internal walls just pieces of plywood, with holes and sometimes door sized holes, just covered by curtains. We had a room with one double, one single and bunk beds but nothing else which, when beds are covered with mosquito nets leaves not much room to function in. And of course there was a rather basic bathroom with cold shower.

However, the kitchen was pretty well equipped - big cooker, fridge freezer, microwave and running water in the sink though when the water stops or the electricity is cut off then you can't do much with any of them. Actually, it seemed that Irma preferred cooking on the wood fire under the iron awning outside.

After having a juice, Cindy was supposed to come back to take us around the village but she didn't appear. It had started raining just before we arrived at the house and become quite heavy so we understood why but we were short of time as needed to have lunch before being taught how to dig holes like turtles do.....yes, that's what I said!

She did eventually appear about an hour late....that's Costa Rica time for you. We got soaked walking around the village and there wasn't really much to see. A couple of 'bars', one across the street from our house which was pumping out very loud music, a couple of tiendas, what she called a park but was hard to distinguish from the other grassy/sandy areas with a few plants that were around.

We had to stuff our faces with lunch in order to make our appointment for turtle hole digging lessons down at the beach. The project has a small shed near the beach where we were meeting some others. There were 3 other girls there who had all been in Parismina day or two and were also waiting for the training. And luckily the rain had stopped but we still waited over half an hour for the 'teacher' to appear.

Onto the beach, Richard, a large Afro Caribbean, demonstrated how turtles make holes to lay their eggs. They have very specific dimensions, stretching around 80 cm - sadly longer than my arm! We all watched then started scrabbling in our own bit of wet sand, eventually to the point where I had my head on the sand trying to reach down far enough to dig the hole out. Richard just approved all of our holes as the rain started again but I foolishly tried to wash some of the sand off in the sea and managed to get one of my boots....and my socks rather wet before we dashed back to the house where we started the never ending task of trying to get everything to dry.

Early evening we went to a talk by one of the local guys who had helped start the project 8 years ago who told us some of the background and a little about turtles and the current plight they are in. The biggest problem is still the fishing industry which catches them in their nets. However, it is not only net fishing but line fishing too which I hadn't realised. This probably means that we're going to have to stop eating tuna which will be hard but its a worthwhile sacrifice.

Poaching is really a secondary concern but if the eggs that are laid never get to hatch then there is no chance of the population being replaced. People don't actually eat leatherbacks (though they do eat green turtles, the ones that come later in the year) but they have eaten the eggs for hundreds of years so it's obviously a difficult thing for them to be told that they can't any more. Even after 8 years, there are still poachers in the area, in fact the local community know some of them, but while there are people on the beach they will not go out.

Back for dinner and then we got kitted out for our first patrol, from 8-12pm. Unfortunately we were putting on damp boots and wet jackets from earlier in the day but by the time we went out it had actually stopped again. It took a while for the guides to organise themselves but by 8.15pm we were sitting in the back of a truck bumping along the local runway to be dropped a few kilometres up the beach to start our patrol. Our guides were William and Margarita, both high school students and William had an exam in the morning. They often work 6 nights a week, some nights the midnight till 4am shift, and still go to school. But it's a good job for them and the whole project has a lot of support from the community.

As we set off along the beach, the sky was very cloudy and it took all concentration to just walk in a straight line and deal with the bumps and dips in the sand or miss the driftwood. You cannot use torches on the beach as this puts the turtles off from coming out of the sea, you can't even wear any light clothing. The sand was wet and heavy and, just like walking on any sand, it was a lot harder than walking on the road. We had only been going about 5 minutes when it start to drizzle - which wasn't too much of a problem as we were a bit damp already from earlier in the day. But then it got heavier and heavier. We trudged along behind the guides, heads down until we reached the end point of our patrol. William suggested a rest and headed for the trees at the edge of the beach. We sheltered under there for a while avoiding the worst of the rain but soon realised that the mosquitoes were sheltering there too and decided we were happier getting wet!

The rest of the night is a bit of a blur of rain, dark sand and aching legs. There was a bit of brightness - lightening, following by (luckily) distant thunder. I discovered fairly quickly that my waterproof trousers were not as waterproof as I'd hoped and was actually quite pleased I didn't have other ones on underneath so only my legs got wet. They were also slightly short so that the rain dripped off them straight into my socks and within half an hour I was paddling & squelching in my boots. William said that the turtles didn't like to come out when the sea was rough and I don't blame them - it takes a lot of effort to dig those holes and it'd not be much fun in the rain! So, no, we ended the night without the sight of a turtle, arriving home at almost midnight, soaked through to the skin. There weren't enough places to hang our things to dry and we eventually crawled under the mosquito net and lay there in the warm damp air listening to the increasing storm. On our return we both discovered that the mossies had gone for the only exposed areas - hands and face. I had 10 bites on my face including a swollen one on my eyelid. Better luck next time one of the guides had said.....

We were a little despondent when we woke next morning to find the rain still falling though there was variation from torrential to just a trickle over the first couple of hours. I have realised as I write this that I am going to run out of adjectives to describe rain so apologise for repeating myself. After breakfast it brightened up a little and we spent some time trying to sort out our soggy wardrobe then went off for a wander around the village but were caught out a couple of times by short showers. We bumped into one of the other volunteers and had a drink in a cafe but we soom realised that there was not too much to do in Parismina. Back at the house we had lunch listening to the rain that had started again and spent the afternoon watching birds in the garden. We had wanted to go out to the big event of the day, a craft fair in the project office, but were not prepared to get any of our clothes more wet so stayed away. We mooched around the house not knowing what to do with ourselves, reading, dozing, feeling hot and damp and concerned about the midnight to 4am shift ahead of us.

We did eventually pop out, and got a bit more wet, at around 6 to a show done by a group from the US that had been working with children at the local school and who were teaching everyone Caribbean dance when we left. It was great to see in this hot, damp, dirty place people still having a good time.....I have to admit that I was struggling with it by that stage.

Vicky had told Irma that if the weather was really bad at midnight we were under no compulsion to go as she was aware how wet we had got the night before. Working on the basis that we would go, we went to bed around 8.30pm to try to get some rest but both of us tossed and turned in the steamy room until the alarm went off at 11.30pm. Outside it had continued to rain but there had been moments when it stopped and it did not sound too heavy. And then it came down again in torrents and after staring at it for a while with Irma, we finally made the decision that we could not face our still soggy boots and dripping coats.

Tossing and turning through the night the rain had not seemed too heavy but I had no regrets about our decision. The next day turned out to be pretty much the same as the last with intermittent showers and torrential rain but there were glimpses of blue sky occasionally and it looked a little more hopeful. The minutes seemed to pass like hours as we watched the growing puddles outside the house (there are no streets or drainage, just sand paths). I think Irma got sick of our miserable faces in her house!

And then about 7.30pm it started again and was still raining pretty hard as we trekked to the little office by the beach. Luckily, after 2 days our boots were about dried out and I had fashioned makeshift gaiters out of plastic bags to try to prevent trench foot. The usual disorganisation meant we stood around for about 20 minutes listening to increasingly bad rain hammering on the roof getting more and more depressed. Some more volunteers appeared - to our amazement a family with 2 small girls, one to be carried in a sling. The 2 girls and mother had pathetic rain jackets which would be wet in seconds, ordinary trousers (jeans for the mother) and socks and sandals. The father was little better with just a large cape over his clothes. They were planning to walk for 4 hours with their girls on the beach in those conditions. One of the guides offered to let them stay at home and call them if they found a turtle - I said I was happy to do that but nobody was listening! The family said they still wanted to walk.

To our amazement the rain had stopped by the time we jumped in the back of the truck and we had all just got out on the beach when a message came through on the radio that the other guide had found a turtle back near the office. The families group were intending to walk in that direction but we were headed the other way and to our huge anger and frustration they rushed off towards the turtle while we turned away. This seemed particularly unfair, our guide could have let us go with them for the chance of seeing a turtle and it seemed that they were getting special treatment because they had children. That was really a low point and, unusually for him, Hugh sulked for the next half hour. When we stopped for a rest and talked to the guide, Sergio, however, we found out that the turtle had already laid its eggs and was covering them up. They had 2 km to walk to get to it and it was unlikely they would make it before it went back to sea. That calmed us down a bit and he said that there was still a good chance we would see one as there hadn't been any the last few nights.

With renewed excitement we set off behind the guides, every lump of wood looking like a heaving turtle in the dim light. On a couple of rest stops Sergio told us more about the turtles and the area and overall it was a much more pleasant evening than the first night. Most importantly, it didn't rain, at all....how lucky was that. But, I would've put up with rain if it'd meant seeing a turtle, but we didn't. At midnight, with aching bodies we dragged ourselves back to the hot, damp, uncomfortable house utterly disappointed and dreaming of power showers and air conditioning. Actually, just dry sheets would've been nice but with damp walls, what can you do.

Just one other point amazed me about the place - our 3 nights in Parismina were possibly the noisiest we have spent anywhere on this trip. There was the bar on one side that played unbelievably loud music all day until early evening, so loud that you couldn't hear someone next to you talking. There was the battering of rain on the tin roof. There was (painful) karaoke in the bar on the other corner till late one night. There were hollering frogs and screeching cicadas all night, which you could even hear over the rain. I was so desperate to get back to the peace and quiet of the capital!

And so, on our final morning we were so relieved to be leaving. We thanked Irma sincerely though - she had opened up her very simple house to us and fed us unexpectedly good meals (we had said we were vegetarian in the hope of actually getting some vegetables but were a bit embarassed when we discovered that fresh fruit and veg are pretty expensive there as they have to be brought in by boat) and we really appreciated everything she had done for us.

But how do people live in a place like that &, even more strangely, why would people who find it for the first time, choose to stay? The turtle project is fantastic and very important and at least we can say we contributed to it - just by paying we are enabling the guides that go out every night to be paid and it is making a difference. When (if!) they find a turtle, they collect up the eggs when they are finished laying and take them to a small fenced off area, near the office and rebury them (that's where the hole making comes in) so that they can watch them more carefully. By knowing when they were laid they have a rough idea of when they will hatch and can ensure that the process goes smoothly then too. And for all this they are getting a few more turtles on the beach each year which is great. Vicky had told us that over 3 nights at that time of year we should see at least one turtle. But I don't think I could do it again.....

I hope you're now all appreciating your lovely cool, dry, comfortable homes with hot water and no insects. Which reminds me, I didn't tell you about the frog which jumped on me when I was on the loo.....

Lots of love

S + H xx

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Photos

What we were hoping to see - Leatherback Sea Turtle
(we wouldn't have be able to take a picture - you need a special camera as flashes are not allowed)
Copy of photo in public domain (see http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:LeatherbackTurtle.jpg)

Comments

[anonymous]

Next time I'm offered the chance to go on turtle watch I'll try to cast my mind back to this.......

[Kelly]

Female Passerini Tanager actually Saltator
I happened upon your blog after a recent trip of my own to Costa Rica. I also went to Tortuguero and had a wonderful time there. There is a picture tagged as a female Passerini Tanager, but it is actually a buff-throated saltator. You can see the 'mad scientist' eyebrows, big grey beak, and buff color on the neck that distinguish it as a saltator.