Leatherback Turtles and Surfing Burns

Getting Prepared To Hunt For Turtles
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Been keeping really busy these last couple of days. Headed out to a protected wildlife sanctuary to watch some leatherback turtles lay their eggs. The bus picked us up at 6:30pm, it was already dark, and took us to the park. We had to take a small 12 person boat across the island to a small alcove where the leatherback turtles come. Imagine walking 2 kilometers, across the beach, in flip flops, in the dark, with lightning and rain to guide us.Quite the experience! we were completely soaked even though we had umbrellas and rain coats. Damn us for coming during the end of the wet season. We had to wait in a small beach hut for about an 45 mins before we got the call on the walkie talkie that a turtle had been spotted. Now when me and Jackie got there we were not at all prepared for the turtle. I imagined a small turtle that you can hug and kiss and touch and say how cute. This turtle was massive. It was 900lbs, and was the size of a small steer. It really was cool to watch it dig a whole with its flippers and lay 60-80 eggs. It was kinda sad though because the turtle had a broken fin and the guide thought that it wouln´t make it much longer. The turtle couldn´t even dig the hole deep enough for the eggs, so they were collected in a plastic bag and moved elsewhere. It was a long night but watching the lightning across the ocean made it all worth the wait.

Starting Out
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The next day, you guessed it, I took my first sufing lesson from a guy named Victor. So much fun, and not even as diffficult as I imagined. The lesson itself was 2hrs, with 5 minutes of instruction on the beach and the rest in the water. They just throw you in there and you learn as you go. I was able to get up on the board after the first try and ride the surfboard to the shore. Pretty impressive. I bought a disk of pictures from a guy with a camera on the beach. The pictures are amazing. You get the wipeouts, and get to see how intensely I was concentrating. It´s funny because in the pictures I look more like Trina. Only got hurt once and that was when a wave came and knocked me over. The fin on the board slammed against my back and leg. Almost leaves you breathless, but you learn pretty fast not to let that happen again. I´m pretty sore today, have some bruises on my lower rib cages, and burns like rug burn on my thighs and palms. It´s from getting up on the board so much but, it was worth it.  As an added bonus I met up with our Irish friends so I had them cheering me on.

Hanging On
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Anyways, heading out of Costa Rica today and are travelling across the border into Nicaragua. Next stop San Jan del Sur, another surfing town.