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Published: September 27th 2017
Olive Ridley Marine Turtles & Us
Our whole trip was planned around getting to Ostional but oh what a journey we had to get here ... ...Well we did in the end arrive safely at the
Hotel Luna Azul in Ostional, but what a dreadful journey we had - even for us ‘seasoned’ travellers … …
We left Hotel Cerro Lodge near Tárcoles at 0840 hours with our ‘Greenpath’ transport driver who had GPS on his phone on the front windscreen. He said that the journey would take about 4 hours which seemed to concur with what we could make out on his phone. After dropping off our two new Munich friends in Puerto Arenas and picking up a few supplies we continued towards Limonal and all was well - we thought this is great we are making good time.
Alas that was not to last, our driver who did not speak very much English and I am afraid our Spanish is also not good, turned off the sealed road onto an unpaved road, which we had expected as we knew that many of the roads in CR are unsealed but thought we would have a few more miles before we left the tarmac! We continued for many bumpy miles which was not very
comfortable in a non 4WD small bus. The driver kept saying ‘no problem’ to us but was climbing up some very steep inclines with tight switchbacks which were very muddy and slippery. The unsealed road gradually got worse and just became a forest dirt track, strewn with large rocks. We could see where several landslides had tumbled down the hillsides, luckily they did not block our path and we could narrowly negotiate around them or we would have been in dire trouble.
Of course there were no signs as we were now completely ‘off road’, nothing to inform the driver which way to go so he just made his own decisions when the track divided into two and he doubled back several times losing his GPS signal - he was completely lost and of course so were we.
We continued climbing up the hillsides higher and higher and all we could see below us was deep forest and more and more hills. We passed a Mantled Howler Monkey sat on the side of the track, (I was by now holding on to the hand rail and did not dare take a photo) we were
now level with the clouds and the soaring vultures and the skies were darkening. We just prayed it did not start to rain and make these dreadful tracks even more difficult to negotiate..… Paul banged his head on the side of the vehicle and started holding on as well and we continued on and on … …. I must say that he was a careful driver but the vehicle was not built for this terrain and he had
lost communication with his GPS and did not know which way to go.
Finally ahead of us we could see a narrow ridge with a number of communication masts reaching up into the skies and no further track ahead - the route just disappeared over the mountainside. The driver then stopped, stared ahead and looked very confused ... ... We made a U-turn and started to head down yet another track that did not look safe when luckily we saw a couple on a motorbike appear from nowhere. The driver flagged them down and asked them for directions. They told him that he could not go any further the track was dangerous, so yes, you guessed it we had
to turn around and negotiate the whole awful route back down again - this in total took 3 wasted horrendous hours. He pulled out a piece of paper and drew us a picture telling us that he was trying to get to our hotel by the ‘quickest’ route but obviously not by the ‘safest’, which we had expected from the transfer company. We had paid a high fee to be delivered from one hotel to another in one piece!
We retraced our journey all the way back to the main road and continued on. It was not long before we realised from our location that the driver was actually trying to take us into Ostional from the south, which is not advisable, particularly without a 4WD in the ‘rainy season’ due to muddy roads, landslides and swollen river crossings. We could not understand why he had taken this route and not the one via the north, which is accessible into Ostional all year round and we would have been sitting in our hotel now enjoying a nightcap..... We as ‘visitors to the country’ were aware of which route we needed to take and would have thought that
a ‘local’ transport company were aware of this also. They would have looked up our destination before our trip as they had the code of our destination and the hotel’s website gives detailed instructions on how to get to them and advises which route to take as well.
We continued for a while and then had to detour off the road due to a landslide before heading back towards the coast. We then had to negotiate a river crossing in the vehicle and luckily got across but a while later came to yet another river crossing. Here the waters were flowing quite fast and our driver took a photo and started to message someone - not sure who. We were just about to call our hotel to come and ‘rescue’ us when luckily for us a vehicle came passed and crossed safety, so our driver followed his route across the swollen river. A short while later we saw the signs to our hotel and arrived there shortly afterwards - we were just so relieved to have made it at all.
The 4 hour journey had taken us twice as long - 8
Luna Azul Hotel
A big ray of sunshine hours in total and we were exhausted, thirsty, hungry and extremely angry with the transport company to say the least. We were concerned about our personal safety as well as the driver as he had been driving for 8 hours with just a take away coffee and bathroom break. A young worker at the hotel informed him that he must go back via the northern route which we hope he did. He did not stop for a break though just returned to his vehicle and drove off … …
HOTEL LUNA AZUL - a little heaven in the middle of nowhere Rolf the owner of our hotel soon delivered us to our room and we were able to relax at last. We had come to a tranquil haven at the end of an exhausting day and were now going to look forward to 12 days doing absolutely nothing - well that was the idea … … Our room, the Pacifico, was an individual bungalow with a huge bed which faced the forest canopy, a sitting area with sofa, table and chairs and a small fridge but sadly no coffee machine. We had
an en-suite shower room open to the elements which led to a large balcony that circled around to french doors with a beautiful view of the forest and ocean. It was strange having an open shower being watched by the forest animals particularly when one was showering and it was raining as well which it did a lot during our stay - of course its the ‘rainy season’ here. The balcony was great, really large with a couple of rocking chairs where we could sit each evening and have a sundowner!!
The owners of the hotel, Rolf and Andreas were originally from Switzerland but hated the cold weather in their home country so decided to move to a much warmer climate in Costa Rica about 14 years ago. A Zoologist and a Homeopathic Doctor they spent a year looking for some suitable land to build a small boutique hotel. They met other Swiss nationals living in Costa Rica at that time and Rolf said that they answered the ‘700’ questions they had mulling around in the minds about settling in the country. This of course made it much easier for them when they found the perfect plot
Howler walking the high rope
Rolf put up the rope after they had to remove some trees that the monkeys used after a storm damaged them - the monkeys now use it but were very wary at first ... .. of land just north of the village of Ostional to build on.
When they bought the property located on a hillside overlooking the ocean, it had been cleared of its primary forest and the previous occupant had been raising cattle. So much of Costa Rica had been cleared to raise cattle or for agriculture at that time removing vast areas of primary forest. Now much of the area is returning to secondary forests and wildlife have also returned to inhabit it.
The building of their seven room hotel took nine months with 50 local workers and they hired a recommended local architect with whom they 'blended' their own vision for the property - it certainly worked as it really is a stunning property, extremely tranquil and everything blends together and it was a delight to walk around the huge plot . At the time of building the hotel it was really difficult to reach the area in the raining season (and still is from the south) and much time was wasted with builders and supplies being ‘trapped’ on the wrong side of the rivers. In the end though they built this beautiful haven nestled
beside a forest reserve overlooking the ocean and about one kilometre from Ostional beach - Pura Vida.
If you have read our previous Blogs you will know that we had been to Ostional once before on a day trip from
Samara when we were here in 2012 to see the Arribada and this was the reason we had come again to experience this
amazing natural wonder once more. This time though we planned to stay close to the area so that we would be around when the Arribada started and appreciate it so much more.
On our first day Rolf said he was not sure whether the Arribada had started yet as he had not heard from anyone in the village. Paul had hurt his foot so I wandered off for a hike down the muddy uneven road which bordered a forest reserve and straight away I spotted a few birds including a
Turquoise-browed Motmot and a
Black-headed Trogan - I love the colourful Trogons so was really pleased to spot one. A couple of locals stopped and asked me if I wanted a lift into the village - I declined (my father always
Dinner at Luna Azul
Always fresh and tasty taught me to never except a lift from a stranger), although the people were really friendly here.
Back at the hotel we had a cooling dip in the infinity pool which overlooks the ocean and spotted more Trogans in the gardens as well as a couple of
Cinnamon Hummingbirds and those small green and brown
Lizards that we had seen all around the country and of course the
Howlers were great to watch in the tree canopy. It really is a peaceful hotel and area and we were glad that we had a long time to relax before we headed off to Nicaragua in a couple of weeks.
It was the 'rainy season' so there were not many guests staying at the hotel when we arrived just one other couple, a group of three teenage girls and Sybille from Munich who was travelling alone. She said she had been awoken really early by the
Mantled Howler Monkeys dropping fruit on to the tin roof of her bungalow. We were lucky as our bungalow faced the ocean and we did not have any tall trees above us just the forest reserve in front of our
large balcony and the ocean in the distance.
TRYING TO FIND A TURTLE The next day I joined Sybille who had a hire car to see if we could see what was happening on the beach. To get there we had to cross the swollen river that Paul and I had crossed in our transport on the way here. Sybille had been sensible and had arrived at the hotel from the north so did not know about the deep river crossing to get into the village. I got out of the car and crossed via the wobbly bridge whilst she assessed the situation - I do not think the footbridge will last much longer and will probably be lost in the next heavy rains. It is not only used by walkers but also by motorcyclist and there are a lot of them as well as a few lovely hired ATVs. Sybille said she was used to driving 'off road' at home but was unsure of the depth of the vast flowing water and of course she was in a hire car even though it was a 4WD. Luckily she got across and
I jumped back in and we continued into the village without any hitches. We parked up opposite the local school and made our way onto the beach where we were approached by one of the Official Guides who said that we could not go any further because the Arribada had started, although we could not see any turtles. He informed us that we could pay a fee and join up with a guide to see the turtles laying further along the beach. We had no money on us so we hung around for a bit before heading back to the hotel for breakfast.
On the way back we were passing a friendly local guy and he waved us into his garden and said we could walk through to the beach from his garden. We had to cross a very narrow wobbly
home made bridge (just planks really) but managed to do so and were standing about midway along the beach towards the northern end. We soon spotted a couple of shells sticking out of the sand and approached another couple who were alone taking photos - a little too close we thought to a large
Olive Ridley Playa Ostional
Village from the north entrance Turtle. We watched the female lay her eggs and spotted another one a little further off but they were the only two that we could see - this was definitely not an Arribada. It was great to see a turtle again though and I was really pleased for Sybille as she got to see one nesting. She had never seen one before and was moving on the next day into the Central Valley where we had come from.
OSTIONAL VILLAGE The next morning we said goodbye to Sybille and headed into the village, it was an extremely long walk of about two and half miles along the unpaved potholed road but in the heat and humidity it was exhausting and took quite a long time. On the way though we spotted both the
Black-headed and the Violaceous Trogans - beautiful birds hiding in the shade of the trees. We were quite relieved when we finally saw the Ostional Village sign but it was still a long walk to the village centre where we stopped for a drink in one of the small Soda Bars.
Ostional village was much the
Local Children
Ostional Village same as on our last visit although we had only seen it at dusk then. It is a small isolated place with an estimated population of around 500 people, most are related to just a few families. There are three small shops that sell groceries and a couple of fast food (soda bars). There is no bank, hospital, doctor or clinic, Nosara being the closest. The small local school was next to the football ground as it is in most of the villages. Some teachers commute from outside the village and of course during the wet season the roads can been cut off and they cannot get to the school at all - I expect the 'kids' love that.
Many of the villagers live in rundown homes with poor sanitation stretched out along the beach front and the road with runs along parallel with the beach. Although no-one is supposed to be able to build/live within 200 metres of the high tide line, somehow in the past families were permitted to occupy this area and of course now it is a problem that cannot be readily solved without evicting all these households. Many of the homes had
leaking roofs, chickens roaming in and out of the houses and some even had pigs in the yard - lots were strewn with plastic rubbish, rusting metal and debris from the sea and overhead trees.
Before a couple of bridges were built in the north in 2011 the whole village would be cut off but now there is always access via the north although the roads are not that good so it takes ages to get anywhere. All are unsurfaced, really rough and potholed and when it rains they turn into sticky brown mud as we found out on our arrival … .. Motorbikes seem to be the favoured form of transport for the locals and definitely the easiest way to get around, we often saw whole families riding pillion. Everyone seemed relaxed though and friendly and most would wave out to us as we hiked around the area, I think they probably thought we were mad as we never did see anyone else hiking. Mad dogs and Englishmen comes to mind - but we never did hike during the midday sun - the temperatures were in the high 20s but with the humidity at
95 percent it was difficult to walk too far ……
OSTIONAL BEACH After our refreshing drink we walked along the beach back towards our hotel hoping it would be quicker and that we could get all the way along to the north end. The black sand covering thousands of unmarked nests is soft and makes walking on the beach a little difficult unless you walk near the tide line that is but it was cooler than walking on the road with the sea breeze.
We soon spotted rows and rows of tracks coming from the ocean into the sand dunes at the back of the beach, there had definitely been a lot of turtle activity overnight in the centre of the vast beach. No turtles in sight though and it was now mid morning so they had all returned to the sea and we needed to get back to our hotel before the midday sun! After walking through a few streams dispersing into the ocean we were able to get back on to the road right at the north end of the beach via a small grassed area that
we could clamber through.
All other access to and from the beach was blocked by the villager's properties on the beach border or the terrain was just impossible to cross. We then had to cross the river which was flowing over the road quite deep now by the footbridge and then we had a long uphill hike back to our hotel, so we arrived back extremely hot and were so glad that the hotel had a cooling pool. The hike down to the village was great but the hike back was more uphill so we decided that we probably not do this hike again it was just to far - but of course we did!
OSTIONAL NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE Ostional National Wildlife Refuge covers nine miles of coastline in the Guanacaste Province protecting marine turtle species, such as the
Olive Ridley (Lora) and the
Leatherback (Baula). Marine turtle species normally nest on a suitable beach individually but the Olive Ridley and their close relative the Kemp's Sea Turtle
congregate en masse at sea and then swarm the beaches like marching battalions of solders, synchronising their nesting ‘en
This turtle decided to do a u-turn
back to the ocean without laying her eggs, not sure why! mass’ which is called an
‘Arribada’ which in Spanish means the arrival. These mass arrivals usually occur on very dark nights that precede a new moon and we had planned our visit with Rolf for the most suitable time in for the September Arribada.
Arribada’s at Ostional are considered to be the largest in the world and actual occur every month of the year. The larger ones occur during the ‘rainy season’ when the number of nesting Olive Ridley Turtles can be
tens of thousands. Although other turtles have been known to nest in groups, no other turtles have been observed nesting in such mass numbers and synchrony.
The largest recorded mass nesting took place in 1995 when it was calculated that 500,000 turtles came ashore but on average it is around 150,000 each month. In the summer months the sand is dry and it is difficult for the turtles to make a nest but in the rainy season the rain helps compact the sand so this is probably why the numbers are higher in these months ... ...
It has been observed that so many turtles come onto
the Ostional beach in such a short time span that most of the eggs deposited in the first nights are destroyed by subsequent turtles arriving - so killing their own species. The turtles have no idea what is under the sand and once they arrive at what they think is a suitable place they will start to dig their own nest even if it is on top of others that have preceded them. Any eggs in the vicinity will be dislodged by the turtle and the eggs already laid thrown across the sand and this even dislodges newly developing hatchlings that cannot survive - nature/evolution hasn't quite got the process right yet!
STILL A CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE In 1987 in an attempt to alleviate the problem of so many eggs being destroyed by other turtles a government project was initiated to allow local people the right to collect and sell a percentage of the eggs from the first days of each Arribada. This apparently is the only place in the world where it is legal to harvest turtle eggs and there are strict controls surrounding this process. The eggs have to be sold for human consumption in bags properly identified with the logos and seals of the Ostional Development Association.
In return for the profit gained, the villagers protect the turtles, clean debris from the beaches and patrol day and night for poachers. The local School and the local Guide Station in Ostional were both funded by the scheme which in turn helps the community survive in this poor area of Costa Rica and hopefully also helping the survival of this particular marine turtle. That being said the beach is so vast that it is really hard to police and some people say it actually legalises poaching - but poachers will always find a way to ‘steal’ if they can make a profit even without any such project. Two decades on from the start of the project that led to the Government legally permitting an exemption to the official ban on harvesting turtle eggs it still remains a very controversial issue and the debate still continues and will do for a long time to come. PREDATORS The poor turtle has to contend with a great number of predators including the environment, themselves, people, dogs and other animals and birds. So their chances of survival are really limited and that’s before they reach the ocean and all the predators they have to face once they dive into the deep. Once large adults they are luckily as they have a few predators but not nearly so many as in their early lives, mainly sharks and orca.
Environment - the environment that the turtles lay their eggs can cause loss due to high tides and swollen rivers, especially during the wet season when there is natural erosion of the beach which exposes those nests that are near to the river banks.
Themselves - as mentioned above they destroy other nests when they lay their own and also if they place their eggs near an old nest with dead eggs they will contaminate their own clutch with bacteria and fungus. Some turtles will build their nest below the high tide line and these can be destroyed straight away with the oncoming tide.
People - poachers are always a problem and always will be.
Dogs/Birds - Dogs
owned by the local community are allowed to roam free on the beach and
A nest destroyed
by dogs and birds often do so in packs and their owners do not appear to stop them - this to us was a big problem at Ostional. Digging at will, they are a menace to the nests which they leave open and then
Birds of prey have easy access to the freshly dug up nests and join the dogs to eat the eggs. Dogs and birds wandering the beach at all times disappearing down a hole they had dug, we nearly walked on a Black Vulture that was so deep in the nest hole you could not see it from the surface. Something really needs to be done about the dogs, they are not starving, most we saw were very well fed but they need to be kept off the beach during the Arribada and probably off the beach completely.
TURTLES ARE ARRIVING The next morning we got up early, really early 4am and headed down to the beach hoping to see some turtles. It was pitch black so with our head torches on we walked down the middle of the road and never saw another person. As we had noticed on our walk before
the beach at the north end could only be accessed through one small gap in the vegetation which was about three quarters of a mile from our hotel. However today this gap was blocked by a string of yellow tape -
Entrada prohibida.
It would take us far too long to walk all the way to the village by the road and by that time the turtles would probably have gone back to the ocean. We did not want to cross over the tape so we hung around hoping someone would turn up. Luckily after a while a small group of people arrived in a vehicle and we asked whether we could join the tour which had arrived with an ‘Official’ guide.
Rolf, the hotel owner had told us that there had been some serious problems in 2014 when so many Ticos (locals) from the Central Valley descend on the area to experience an Arribada. This caused total chaos and the beach was so crowded the turtles could not get in to lay their eggs. Before that time not many people knew about their mass arrival and were also unable to get to such
an isolated spot for the short period of time when the turtles arrive. However with easy access to the media the news got out really quickly that the arrival has started and chaos was about to happen. Coinciding with this 2014 had also been an extremely dry year and the rivers around the village were passable even by non 4WD vehicles. So it made headlines around the world and caused environmental concerns. Something had to be done to stop this happening again so now it is more heavily policed although still difficult to achieve the correct balance. The beach is actually closed down for the days of an Arribada and the public can only enter with an ‘official’ or ‘local’ guide. The official guides charge $10 and the local guides $8 and they accompany small groups of 9 people to the beach to see the turtles.
Once we hitched up with a group we hiked across the volcanic beach for about 15 minutes, which is black sand and littered everywhere with white eggshell debris as well as huge chunks of driftwood. As we crossed the river we had walked across the day before we spotted the hard
backs of the turtles sticking out of the sand and we wandered around the hundred or so turtles in various stages of laying their eggs with the guide explaining the process.
We watched for ages this amazing sight and were again flabbergasted with what we were watching. Although not thousands there were a few hundred on the beach and as we walked back towards our hotel we spotted two
tiny hatchlings making their way out of the black sand and finally arriving at the waters edge only to be washed back in several times with the waves but in the end they disappeared into the deep - we do hope they made it … …
BACK AT LUNA AZUL Over the next few days we chilled and hiked around the area and walked to the beach several times and even in the daylight spotted quite a few nesting turtles. Most days we spotted the cute
Coatis roaming the forest reserve that bordered the grounds. One day we watched three of them fighting making an awful noise. They actually woke the Mantled Howler Monkeys sleeping in the trees above them
and the male started to howl as though he was telling them to ‘shut up’ … … We also saw a couple of
Agouti in the gardens and in the forest, Rolf told us that they had only just started coming around the hotel and last year had several young.
THUMBS UP FROM A LOCAL - MORE TURTLES Chatting to Rolf about the turtles he said that the Arribada was taking quite a different pattern to normal this month and that although there were many turtles arriving it was not as big as previous Septembers, and strangely they were arriving throughout the daytime when they usually come only at dusk, during the night and early morning.
The next morning as we arrived for breakfast Rolf said that one of his young workers who lived on the beachfront had seen many turtles coming up in the early hours and he said he would drive us down to see them. At the girl’s home we chatted to her great grandfather who was sat in the yard, he lived there with many generations of the family. He had a wonderful face -
a face that had lived a good hard life and although we could not communicate much with him he kept smiling at us, genuinely pleased which made us feel most welcome and not intruding on his home. We wandered through his yard which led directly to the beach following the chickens which were scratching around the piles of sand on the edge of their land. All around them and the three of us were dozens of turtles in the nesting process - many more than we had seen so far and of course the usual feral dogs and vultures were near by. Another few feet and the turtles would be in their garden with the family and the chickens. During some Arribadas turtles can actually crawl right into the village and one year they even dug nests on the football pitch … Of course most of the beachside village homes were built on land where maybe the turtles would have nested in previous years.
We were really lucky as we had this opportunity to enjoy the scene with the whole beachfront and no-one else around, just Paul, Rolf and me and of course so many turtles -
magic moments. We walked around the turtles and down to the waterfront just as the sun came out and we watched as more turtles heaved themselves out of the surf and made their way up the beach - such
awesome reflections in the water and they were still coming even with the sun coming up.
On our way back through the garden we chatted to the grandfather again and Rolf said that he had lived all his life in the village and had seen many Arribadas over the years. He and just a handful of other older men from the area had recorded their memories - all their lives they had seen turtles coming to nest but it was not until 1959 that the Arribadas started with thousands coming ashore at the same time. All these older generations villagers agreed that it was definitely the year 1959 when it started. Who knows how long it will go on for though nature has a way of usually gradually changing but it could also stop at once - so we were grateful that we had been able to enjoy such an amazing spectacle once again.
As
we walked back to Rolf’s car we said hello to his great granddaughter who sat outside with her computer in the middle of the yard whilst next to her was a large washing machine churning away - not sure where it was draining though! Quite bizarre seeing such modern technology items right next to some really rundown living conditions. By the dangling wires there was electricity but the home with the tin roof did not look very inviting, there appeared to be cold water running water but not sure where it was coming from and there did not look like much drainage of anything either! That being said the family was very welcoming to us and laughter seemed high on their priority list together with a laid back lifestyle - just different to ours.
OUT ON THE PACIFIC OCEAN Later that same day Rolf arranged for a couple of local guys to take us out on the Pacific Ocean in their fishing boat to see the turtles congregating along the coast. We drove to the next small village of
San Juanillo, crossing several bridges that were built in 2011 before
that the road would be impassable during heavy rains isolating Ostional from its neighbouring villages. The village had two small shops, one of which looked like a hardware store and a small fish market, as well as a church and school with the usual football field next to it. Several schoolchildren were making their way into their classes or playing in the playground under the shade of the trees. A couple of small guesthouses led down to the beach offering accommodation but all of which were closed for the season. On the beach a thatched hut advertised massages and in another hut several fishermen were mending their nets or preparing bait for their next catch. Rolf said they go out mainly at night to fish the waters in the area - we enjoyed some wonderful fish at Luna Azul which had been caught in the sea here so very fresh.
The beach was very different to Ostional Beach as the sand was white, formed from the coral reef off shore, you could see chunks of coral and broken shells all along the beach. There were in fact three beach two of which would merge during high tides
leaving a little island peninsula behind. We met
Gacchi and Alan on the waterfront and piled into their small boat and we were thankful it had a sun shade. The sea was quite rough until we motored out passed the rocks that formed the natural harbour in the bay and the sea became smooth.
We motored back toward Ostional bay and we could make out the large rock that formed the north end of the beach and the large Rio Ostional at the other end of the village. The black sand beach then stretching on for as far as the eyes could see. As we neared the bay turtles started bobbing their heads above the water, coming up to breathe whilst others were joined together in mating rituals bobbing along together on the waves. We spent a couple of hours out on the water and spotted so many turtles it was unreal - the turtles were definitely congregating en masse to breed and swarm the beach.
The guys asked us whether we wanted to swim with them but the water was a bit too rough and we decided we would just leave the turtles
in peace and watch them instead. We also saw many birds diving for fish including large
Brown Pelicans and some
Magnificent Frigatebirds and saw shoals of tuna and sardines. As we made our way back towards the harbour we spotted a huge
Humpback Whale with her Calf - another magic moment and a nice ending to a delightful day. Back on shore we said goodbye to the guys and they called Rolf who arrived and transported us back to the hotel - again we were very grateful to be able to see more of the area which we could not have done on foot.
The next day we decided to hike back down to the north end of the beach and again spotted about 50 turtles and we were the only ones around so we watched them for a while from the road as we did not want to cross the yellow tape which was still strung across the gap to the beach - although no guides were around! A couple of local workers and a family turned up all stopping to gaze at the turtles before taking a few photographs and wandering back to
A great time on the
Pacific Ocean watching Turtles & Humpback Whales their vehicle, some ventured on to the beach to take close ups climbing over the ‘no entry’ tape .. … We chatted to a local man from
Nosara village who said he had brought his wife here to see them but he was happy to wait for her and just watch them from the roadside.
THE ARRIBADA HAS STARTED That same evening about 1600 hours as we were chilling in our room Rolf called by and said that the Arribada had ‘
really’ started. … … Everyone had thought that it was a small one and was ending but he said right now thousands and thousands were coming up the beach right at the north end where we had walked that morning and luckily was the nearest access from our hotel.
Even though we had been amazed with the hundreds of turtles we had seen already on this very beach and those we had seen in the 2012 October we were still totally shocked when Rolf dropped us on the roadside next to the beach. - the black sand was literally covered in turtles and there was hardly
anyone else around. This time we jumped over the ‘no access tape’ and approached one of four young local guides who were stood around. A young girl who was from another village told us the usual things that we had to abide by; no flash photography and not to stand in front of the turtles coming up from the tideline which we of course knew and respected. She said she was a local guide and not an official guide and the fee would be $8 - a lot cheaper that the $20 we had paid the official guides previously. She said she would walk around with us and she was pleasant to chat to whilst observing the turtles. Rolf told us later that the official guides charge more as they are more knowledgeable about the turtles and can all speak English where as most of the local guides are volunteers and their English was not so good - better than our Spanish though.
Watching a large Arribada is an amazing sight - you first see heads bobbing in the sea and then with a small wave several would arrived on the shoreline. Used to a life in the ocean, these females turtles had to then drag their heavy bodies over the black gritty sand until they get over the high tide line stopping for a rest every now and again.
Some were lucky and had an easy journey to their ‘spot’ whilst others had to clamber over big chunks of driftwood and even over the tops of each other, some came up near a river mouth and were swept out to sea again, totally confused … … Most though when they reached an obstacle would slide around the side - some gazed eye to eye for a while with each other before deciding who was going to move first … … Nests were being dug on top of other nests which in turn had probably been dug on top of another one … there were just too many turtles and not enough spare sand around. Some built right on the edge of the beach near the thick green vegetation which bordered the ‘main’ road between Ostional and San Juanillo whilst other laid far to close to the incoming sea. Once they had found their ‘spot’ they started digging with their hind flippers, spraying clouds of sand everywhere, including over us as we watched, as well as any fellow turtles nearby. They dig a large hole first with their hind flippers to burrow into and then dig another smaller but deeper hole scooping out the sand with each flipper in turn, using it like a spade. Once satisfied it was deep enough they proceeded to lay their eggs into the deeper hole. Some of them dug so deep they were nearly buried whilst others stayed horizontal on the sand.
We watched as several deposited around 80 - 100 soft-shelled, white eggs, the size of a ping pong ball, each one individually dropping into the deep hole. After which they covered up the hole with sand, again using the hind flippers and then started thumping the ground with their heavy bodies patting down the sand over the nest. You could hear and feel the pounding as you watched. Once this was achieved they circled the area round and round so it looked like nothing had happened and then with a last sweep would head back to the sea disappearing into the waves without a second glance - the last they would see of their offspring . ……
As we watched these thousands of turtles throwing sand literally everywhere there were yet more still emerging from the sea and crawling up the beach to find a spare bit of sand to dig their nest and lay their eggs. At the same time others were returning to the ocean leaving their own individual ‘tram lines’ across the sand in most of the areas it looked like a plough had been moving up and down the beach there was no smooth sand left. They all seemed oblivious of each other as they concentrated on finding a spot for themselves but there were not many spots left to find.
Although we knew about the ‘cycle of life’ for turtles we listened to our young guide as she told us that the young turtles will hatch within 45 to 54 days, depending on incubation temperatures, which will also determine if they will become male or female.
She said that locals from the community of Ostional accompany the hatchlings as they clamber toward the sea, protecting them from dogs and birds. As many as a million eggs are laid on the beach nesting areas each year,
it is not really known how many survive to adulthood but it must be a very small percentage with all their known predators waiting in the wings . … …
We were so lucky to experience an Arribada for the second time and were really grateful to Rolf without whom we would have had some very hot hikes indeed to get to see them. As we walked up from the beach the sun started to set and the clouds rolled in and within minutes the rain hammered down on us. We put up our
Umbrellas and walked back to the road to await Rolf who arrived early to pick us up as he knew we would get very wet waiting with no shelter anywhere - when it rains here you cannot avoid getting drenched ….… The few other people that were on the beach also headed off back to their vehicles and the turtles were left alone with just four very wet local guides who donned large ponchos to try and keep dry and start their night shift.
We do not know how many turtles came in that night but it must have been thousands and thousands. They
are monitored and it will be interesting to find out once the numbers are published whether it was more than the average 150,000 … … We will remember it for a very long time to come it was just awesome.
I felt so sorry for all these female turtles having to make that journey so often. The males have an easy time, as once a male hatchling reaches the ocean he
never again sets foot on land. Whereas the poor female has to drag her body up the black sand many times in her lifetime to lay the eggs of future generations and long may she do so……..
The good news is that the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle is the only one of the seven sea turtle species that is not on the endangered list. They are also the only turtle that congregate to nest, all the other species do so individually - so maybe survival of the species has something to do with safety in numbers … … ENJOYING OUR TIME IN OSTIONAL We really enjoyed our time at Luna Azul it was so calm and peaceful with lovely surroundings and really nice
people. Rolf was a ‘real gem’ ferrying us around as we did not have a car, in fact the only guests without one - although I think it would be much easier getting around here with a motorbike.
As mentioned above Rolf was once a Zoologist and he knew John Knowles of Marwell Zoo in Winchester when he spent some time their on a project, so he knew our home town area well and was an interesting and knowledgeable guy to chat to about all sorts of different subjects. It was interesting hearing his vibe on world politics in these changing times we live in.
The hotel did not serve lunch but the breakfast and dinners were so big you never really needed anything else. However the restaurant was closed on Tuesdays and as there was nothing else around within miles and all the other hotels had closed for the rainy season he prepared a packed dinner for us. Rolf said he used to close for some of the rainy season also but decided to remain open as he and his partner were always around anyway as they usually holidayed earlier in the year.
We
spent a lot of our time at the hotel alone so had the whole place to ourselves with just a couple of guests arriving for just a day or two - we were so lucky we had more time to spare. As the hotel also had a renowned restaurant a few locals would come for dinner - the food was so good we could see why. We enjoyed many meals watching the wonderful view and enjoying the ambience and restfulness. Breakfasts were huge and Paul really loved the Gallo Pinto made by the chef, although I had enough of rice and beans so only had it once. Paul said it was the best R&Bs he had eaten in CR. It will be strange to go home to our usually bowl of porridge … …
It was great to have ‘proper’ european style homemade bread, the bread here is so sweet and doughy. The
homemade jam was also superb made with six fruits - they had tried lots of combinations to find the perfect one and it was certainly very tasty indeed. The cook hated making the jam as it took so long and she usually put a tape of
her favourite music on whilst she stirred and stirred - it was certainly delicious but think we would have a problem trying to reconstruct it at home! Rolf also cooked himself and made a brilliant Chicken with Dijon sauce which I hope I can ‘pinch’ the recipe of … … Paul liked the Yucca chips but I preferred the Potato ones and we had lots of mixed vegetables which was great - did not see too many veggies in CR and they were cooked to perfection.
In the grounds we were visited by the
Mantled Howler Monkeys above our heads on most days and they would wake you in the morning and howl into the night but we became used to them and the patter of rain on the tin roof.
When not watching the turtles or hiking we would chill by the pool or out on our balcony that overlooked the forest reserve. We saw many new birds in the area including a
Striped Cuckoo. Rolf spotted it first and did not know what it was and could not find it in his bird guide book. It returned the next day and I managed to get a
photograph and we were able to identify it from this. It was great to watch it raise it black crest as part of its display and it had these abnormally large dark feathers under its wings as well which it would keep ‘flashing’ - not sure if it was part of a mating ritual (although we couldn't see any others) or it was trying to frighten its insect prey. I read about them later and found out they were called ‘alulas which is a joint in the middle of the bird's wing, giving it the common name ‘
four-winged cuckoo’ (quite apt). Rolf realised later why he could not identify the bird from his guidebook as the guide said that the Striped Cuckoo was found nowhere in the area!!
I also spotted a
Squirrel Cuckoo and several
Long-tailed Manakins which were difficult to photograph and a pair of
Yellow throated Euphonia who visited the trees near the pool most days. We saw two types of
Trogans mentioned above as well as the funny looking
Lineated Woodpecker with its bright red hair style … .. Costa Rica has many birds over 850 varieties but they do not have so many mammals
only about 200 recorded. We were hoping to see
Kinkajous which are found in the tropical forests of Central and South America, where they spend most of their time in the trees Rolf had spotted them around the hotel but we were not so lucky, although did see plenty of colourful
Variegated Squirrels - they
used to compete with the Howlers dropping fruits on the tin roof of the rooms … …
As we enjoyed our evening meal overlooking the infinity pool, forest and ocean a large
Cane Toad would come out watching the pool lights for any insects to grab. He would parade up and down the pool whilst several large frogs would jump in and swim around. In the day time the bright yellow breasted,
Great Kiskadees would also hunt for insects, splashing the water as they grabbed their fill. Sitting on our balcony one day we noticed a large
Green Frog asleep on the leg of one of the chairs where he remained all day only to hop away when the sun went down - he had such beautiful golden eyes and was completely green.
Talking of green I also had a shock one day,
Green Lizard
This one joined me at the pool for a swim ... ... I had just got out of the pool from a cooling down dip when I looked behind me to see a massive
Green Iguana and when I say massive it was at least 4 feet long they can grow apparently to 5 feet and one was recorded at over 6 foot. Costa Rica’s rarer and most impressive lizard it slid into the pool, swam half way and then climbed back out over the side, looked at me and then slowly strolled along the path and disappeared back into the forest … …
I had another fright when I found a not so pretty large
Frog down the loo one day - this happened to me in Australia as well! We could not get it out so tried to flush it down the loo without success. In the end we just shut the lid and left it and when we returned it was sat on top! We just could not understand how it got out through the closed lid - perhaps it was another one ..…
Paul managed to get hold of the frog but it stuck to his fingers, so he tried to put it on to a
bush outside the open shower only for it to become stuck on the railings …. we laughed so much we cried…… A little while later guess what, the loo was blocked, so we assumed the frog had got back inside and was stuck in the drainpipe. One of the gardeners managed to ‘flush’ him out but said he would probably return - we really hoped not and were very wary of the loo after that …..
We loved watching the
Butterflies some as big as the palm of your hand and all colours of the rainbow. There were extremely large
Crickets in the garden which were really pretty when you got close up, although not so nice when they buzzed past you - they would also swim in the pool at night. Not to keen on most of the other insects though, particularly the Mosquitoes and even worse the
Black Ants - one day we watched a massive trail of them circling the side of the building and thankfully we heard Rolf with the ‘ant spay’ - he said it was a constant chore ensuring that they did not get inside. Although he said some locals ‘leave home’ and
invite them in as they clean up any debris left on the floor - not sure whether he was ‘pulling our leg’ as you could never tell with him! If you stopped too long in the gardens, as I did to take photos of the flora and fauna your feet would get bitten by them and I had several nasty bites on my feet and legs.
What’s really funny is as I write this my screen has little sugar ants all over it - I think they live inside my computer - luckily they do not bite but they are really hard to catch!
HIKES AROUND OUR HOTEL Just up from our hotel the unsealed road continued up into the mountainside and one day we walked up to the very top, again another uphill climb but were rewarded with a lovely view over
Ostional Beach and the Guanacaste Peninsula. It was a hot hike as most of our hikes were, with temperatures averaging high 20s and the humidity hitting 95 percent but parts of the hike was in the shade.
One day Rolf drove into San Juanillo to buy fish for our dinner from
Green Frog
lovely golden eyes the local fishermen and kindly gave us a lift. We chilled and wandered around the beautiful white sand beaches completely alone apart from a few locals and Paul managed to pick up yet
another stray dog. Rolf kindly came back for us a couple of hours later as it was much too far to walk - you do not meet many hotel owners like that around the world .… if you are ever this way we would throughly recommend this hotel and it great owners to anyone.
Even though we said we wouldn’t do it again we did decide to walk back into Ostional village again. On the way we passed a few locals but no tourist, the season had definitely ended. Local children were riding their bikes along the ‘main road’, whilst others were swimming in the rivers all having lots of fun.
We had to carry an umbrella on all our hikes as the rain would suddenly appear from nowhere and you would be soaked within minutes before the sun came out again and you were roasting. The rain was sometimes very welcome as it cooled you down and we could take shelter under
the trees if it was too heavy, although the monkeys had a habit of dropping down discarded fruit and other things on ones head …… After the downpours the rivers would raise rapidly and you could see how easy it was to get cut off by them. When we reached the small village supermercado we were only going to pick up a few snacks and although we had run out of wine supplies we were not expecting to see any. However the shop was really well stocked and they even had some lovely Chilean Carménère wine - although only boxed it was jolly good! We found this great tasting red wine on our last South American journey and have enjoyed it when we can locate it ever since, luckily the hotel had a good supply. We would sit in the rocking chairs and have a little tipple on our balcony overlooking the forest before walking up to dinner each evening chatting about our day - lovely days.
Across from the store was the Local Guides Association building so we stopped to ask whether we could walk back along the beach to our hotel now that the Arribada
Just hatched
and heading out through the sand to reach the sea had ended we were hopeful that the beach had opened up again. We think the lady said we could, although she had no English and of course we had not much Spanish. We headed down the track and there was no tape here so we walked along to where the
Rio Ostional meets the sea as Rolf had said it was good for seeing birds. There was a sign to watch for the
Crocodiles so we were quite wary but we saw three beautiful
Roseate Spoonbills further up the river so started walking towards them. There were also several other wading birds including the
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron and
Great Egrets but we decided we had probably walked far enough and quickly returned to the beach. We then walked along the vast beach passing the village towards our hotel watching several large flocks of small wading birds that we could not name.
LIFE AND DEATH ON THE BEACH We did not see anyone else on the vast beach apart from dogs and birds of course. Suddenly we spotted a small turtle coming out of the surf and started to heave herself up the sand
only to get a few metres and start building her nest too near the ocean and in the wet sand. We thought, oh dear but could not do anything so continued along the beach only to spot another come out in front of us. This one was so big that we thought it might have been a Green Turtle but when we got close we could see that it was just a much bigger Olive Ridley. This one was ‘wise’ though and pulled herself up to the sand beyond the tideline and built her nest in a much safer spot - we wondered if they learned as they got older the safer places but as they could not possibly know whether their eggs ever reached the ocean we could not reason this out .. …
We spotted a lone local guide who was sat in a little hut and he waved out to us as we continued along the beach only sadly to spot several bodies of turtles on the beach and one in the ocean. This one had probably hit the rocks out at sea - all of them were being eaten by the huge number
of Black Vultures, Turkey Vultures and Crested Caracara - nature’s clean up guys.
As we passed one of the small river outlets we watched the banks of sand shifting and dogs digging in the changing bank as the river washed it down. We were still not happy with all the dogs on the beach, something really needed to be done about them - we spotted several of the same ones again and again. Turtle eggs were coming out of the banks and being washed down to the river into the ocean and you could see the yellow yokes inside - the birds would go after these before they vanished back into the sea.
As we got near to the end of the beach we were approached by two official guides and we tried to explain to them that the lady in the local guide office had said we could walk back to our hotel but they did not understand and so we asked whether we could get off the beach here and they escorted us over the yellow tape that was still strung out along the beach … whoops …. something was lost in
translation somewhere.
MOVING ON Back at the hotel we asked Rolf to call our transport company (a different one to the one we had arrived with) to check that they would be coming for us and also that they were coming from the north not the south as we did not want to experience the problems we had coming here. We had booked and paid for this transfer at home after we had a problem with our booked flight being cancelled from Liberia Airport to Managua before we set off to Costa Rica.
Rolf was shocked and said they were indeed coming from the south and he had told them that this would be extremely difficult with the swollen rivers, if not impossible - they said they would call him back. A little while later we got an email from the transport company saying that they could not carry out the transfer at all … … We were so glad we called otherwise we would have had more problems with no-one arriving to collect us. Luckily for us Rolf managed to find a local driver who for the same fee said he would take us
back to San Jose via the north so luckily we were not stuck on the Guanacaste peninsula and would be able to continue our journey.
On our last full day it rained and rained, ‘cats and dogs and stones and boulders’, literally all day long and we were so glad we had done everything we wanted to do in the area and that our transport was not coming from the south, the rivers would be raging by now…… Rolf said it was an affect of
Hurricane Maria that was hitting the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, the weather there always linked to what was happening on this side of the coast. That day the temperature in the hotel was
24 degrees (cold) but with 97 degrees humidity … …
On our last evening in the hotel we enjoyed yet another delightful meal but we were still so full from breakfast that we shared a starter and a main course between us - of course the main course was the Chicken with Dijon sauce we both loved. We had a few drops of red Carménère wine left in a bottle from the night before but our waiter said that
Black Vulture
Also enjoying the Pool Rolf insisted on presenting us with another bottle to celebrate our last night in the hotel - wow how kind is that.
We thanked Rolf for the gift and asked him what the six fruits were that he put into the tasty jam we had for breakfast, we thought
Pineapple, Papaya, Passion Fruit, Plantain, Lemon and Star Fruit. He said we had got ‘one wrong’ and that the jam usually contained Mango not Star Fruit. However the cook had just made a fresh batch and she included Star Fruit this time as Mangos were out of season - another of life ‘strange but true coincidences’. Rolf even gave us a pot of the freshly made jam and we hope we manage to get it home in one piece.
Before I sign off on this ever so long blog you might be interested to know that the transport company that brought us to Ostional finally did reply to our ‘complaint email’ and we got an apology from them and they offered to transport us to San Jose ‘free of charge’, but we could not risk going with them again and would rather pay the local guy recommended by Rolf
and have a safer and speedier transfer.
At dinner Rolf came across and told us that he had checked with the guy and he was ‘all set’ to take us to San Jose after breakfast in the morning - in fact he was a close neighbour of our friendly waiter who had served us each evening so we had no worries at all and had a peaceful sleep, particularly with the extra bottle of red wine.
We shall really miss the ‘home comforts’ and friendliness of the owners and staff of the
Hotel Luna Azul and of course the
Turtles as well but we had to get back to San Jose for our next adventure, leaving Costa Rica but going onwards into Nicaragua, a new country for us - so see you there.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Nature
I really enjoyed reading of your adventures and turtle experiences... it sounds like an ideal place to chill out and be close to nature. I was somewhat sad to read about the legalised gathering and selling of turtle eggs, and while I understand that sometimes conservation efforts need to be unconventional to bring local communities onside, it still made me sad. When we eventually make it to Costa Rica, I will have to reference this blog for details on this area. Thanks for sharing and your photos are fabulous! :)