23rd July 2010
I'm scheduled to escort Patrick back to San Jose today as it is the end of his two weeks with us. We leave nice and early and would be getting to Cano Blanco for the six am bus if it wasn't for the fact that the boat breaks on the way. Its the cooling system. This leaves us little choice but to grab the canoe from the Rangers Station and paddle back over to the river mouth. Its kind of fun and jokes about encountering one of the huge crocodiles that live here or being swept out to sea by the current are laughed off – despite both of them being a very real possibility.
Plan B is to get a taxi from base up to Tortuguero and go out of the National Park using the northern route through La Pavona and Cariari. It's a really hot day and there are numerous raptors soaring including a fantastic King Vulture, a magnificently ugly bird. Sadly, a fast taxi ride is not the best time to get prolonged or even good views. Its a pretty hard bird to mistake though. Sadly, a hawk seen soon afterwards is impossible to identify at this speed.
The rest of the journey is uneventful and we meet Stephen, the country director at La Pavona. He has had business in the GVI Community Project, which is sadly closing down. At his prompting I try some local chicharrones – fried bits of fatty looking pork with a bit of boiled yucca as an accompaniment. It looks decidedly unappetizing but actually proves to be really really good with a very rich flavour.
Upon arrival in San Jose we conduct some errands and then head to Gaudys. I meet up with Paula, our newest two week turtle volunteer. She is 18, German and quite quiet. Patrick and I take her out to eat and find a cool local soda sandwiched amongst the Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and other fast food joint of the nearby main avenue. We have a delicious casado for the knockout price of 1900 colones. That's a full meal of rice, beans, meat of your choice (Steak mmmmmm....), mashed potato, salad and some nacho chips for somewhere in the region of £3 at most. Nice.
24th July 2010
Back to Tortuguero this morning. Its a very smooth trip and we are back at base by mid afternoon. It's still really hot in Tort which is a direct contrast to the cool and rainy air of San Jose in the central valley of Costa Rica.
I have a turtle walk this evening. My mission is to mark two nests only due to a shortage of tags for the turtles. We also need to walk a bit further in order to start getting more of a spread of nest along the beach. Its a beautiful night with a near full moon which gives excellent visibility. It doesn't take long for us to start seeing turtles making their way up the beach. There are plenty about tonight but we have to ignore them and give them a respectful birth in order not to disturb them. Finally, we reach our designated area of beach and start searching for a turtle that is digging the nest chamber. That's our cue to stop and get ready for it to start laying its eggs when it finishes digging. Something like the fourth turtle that I investigate is at this stage and we go about out business efficiently – and discover that the sandflies are out in force. Let me describe the sandflies for you. Firstly, you can barely see them. You can't feel them land on you. All you can feel is the bite coming out of nowhere – and the thing is it doesn't so much hurt exactly, like a fly or mosquito bite for example, it creates this horrific itchy sensation that is impossible to ignore, and when several are biting you at once or in quick succession it is simply unbearable. The closest I've come before is the sandflies of New Zealand or the midges of the Scottish summer. But these guys are worse. Much worse. The egg counters get it the worst as they have to remain immobile for maybe 30 minutes and the flies seem drawn to the warmth and sticky fluids of the egg-laying process. Poor Karen B's face in the morning is covered in swollen bites from these little buggers. I myself am sat next to the egg counter and have to hold a tape measure in the same position whilst the others triangulate the nest. I get bitten on the lip (that one actually hurt!), in the ears and on the eyes!!! Even worse, it has rained a bit so we are covered in wet sand that is impossible to clean off and so every time you involuntarily scratch at one of the bites you are rubbing coarse sand all over your face. Needless to say, by the end of the second nest which is even worse than the first one for flies, I am a seething mass of itching, sand covered bites. I feel absolutely rotten and just want to throw myself into the sea and roll about. Except then I would just get covered in sand as soon as I got out of the water. Thankfully, once you get on the move again the flies don't seem to follow and the itch goes away. The sand doesn't though. I am writing this a couple of days later and I still have sand in my ears (I have showered a few times as well). Still we accomplished our mission of two turtles and we did it very well given the circumstances. Well done Karen B, Karen L and Sam. On an interesting note, on our way back through my tiredness and hideous itching, I suddenly notice that there are very very fresh Jaguar tracks at my feet leading back the way we have come from. I wonder where exactly the Jag decided to cut up to the forest and away from us? Would I have noticed it if I was more on the ball after our ordeal? The visibility was certainly the best it could be tonight. Damn flies and sneaky jags! Still cool to work the turtles though.
25th July 2010
It rains a lot today. It was blazing hot yesterday. Lots of weather extremes at the moment.
Not a lot on today apart from a walk down the beach with Edouard, from France to recover some lost equipment (not from out shift I hasten to add!).
The boat is still out of action which means Jag-walk can't happen and nor can bird surveys , which is rubbish quite frankly. So there are lots of forest walks at the moment, and sadly Andres uses this to establish a probably unassailable lead of around 20 species in our spotting contest.
I restart our grand tradition of forest night walks tonight because they are fun, and also because I need to up my species count quick! Its actually a pretty good walk turning up 3 snake species, a frog and numerous lizards. Coolest spot is a Common Blunthead treesnake eating an Anole lizard. Frustratingly, I can hear many more frogs than we actually see but I can't see any of them.
26th July 2010
Nest check this morning reveals a total of 25 poached nests. This is pretty awful, the worst I've seen and despite increased presence by the MINAE rangers patrolling and recent captures and arrests, the poachers are still plenty active. It's pretty s8y to be quite frank. There is a slightly brighter side to our morning however. We come across a hatchling in the sand, and its not just any hatchling, its a critically endangered Hawksbill hatchling. He even has a little black beak and an simply exquisite ridged shell that will grow into the famous carapace that is worth a large amount of money on the black market. It's way too hot and the sand too dry and ridged at the edge of the beach for him to make it on his own. Well, of course we can't just leave him there so we busy ourselves smoothing out the sand and giving him strategic little nudges in the right direction, as well as providing a bodyguard service in case of any marauding crabs or vultures. We also provide him with some water at regular intervals to keep him (her?) cool. We can't just simply carry him down to the sea. The turtle must make the journey in order to have the imprint on it's remarkable little brain that somehow allows him to make this journey back when he is old enough to breed, assuming he survives his perilous first years of existence. We just give him a little helping hand. Although, when he reaches the smooth sand at the tide line, he suddenly turns on the speed and needs no more help from us. The waves crash over him knocking him back a couple of times before finally he disappears from us forever. Talk about getting the 'warm and fuzzies'. It's a sight that never fails to put a big grin on my face! Plus, now I've seen adults and hatchlings of all the turtles that regularly use this beach. There is still the Loggerhead which is not really a breeding species here anyway and you can go to other places, in Mexico for example, and see hundreds of them.
It's another really hot day and an afternoon forest walk is fairly sparse on the old wildlife front apart from the ever-present Spider Monkeys which seem exceptionally bolshy today, and also both species of sloth. The Three-toed sloth is actually moving about which is always cool to see.
27th July 2010
The boat needs fixing badly. Luckily, Marta our Spanish colleague met a local mechanic whilst out at the football match the other week. He has been looking at the boat and determined what we need to fix the engine and should be able to do it today. I have been volunteered to accompany Marta this afternoon to watch the mechanic do his thing. A helpful local helps us to get our boat down the canal to Parismina where Mili the Mechanic (sounds like a cartoon character right?), who turns out to be a friendly and efficient chap fixes the boat. His place is right on the river so I spend 40 minutes or so wandering about with binoculars spotting some birds that you don't see up by Jalova so much if at all. Then its off to nearby Cano Blanco to fill up on gasoline and get some supplies from the shop. I treat myself to a Snickers and a bottle of Bavaria Dark, my favourite Tico beer and the third brand to be named in a Germanic fashion (Imperial, Pilsen and Bavaria) presumably to imply some sort of quality, which they all certainly possess. I'll have it with tea when I get back. I am also quite overjoyed to find a hummingbird nest in the Heliconia flowers that have been planted around the car park. Even better, its a Bronzy Hermit, quite an uncommon species and one that is new for my spotting contest. I also manage to get some cracking photos which pleases me even more. We should head back to base now but Marta has other plans. She wants to take Mili for a drink in Parismina and also visit a Spanish lady who is working in Parismina as a turtle biologist. This ends up taking some time as when Marta gets talking she doesn't like to stop. To be fair its actually quite pleasant as Parismina is a pretty enough little town and the biologist lady is nice and I am able to get into the conversation a little. Time is getting on when we finally leave Parismina and luckily our helpful local friend is on hand to be able to drive us back to the ranger station in the dark, towing his little boat along for him to get back on. We then end up chatting with the rangers for a bit. Eduardo, a friendly round-faced chap wants to learn more English and with Marta acting as an intermediate we agree that it would be cool to get together and exchange some language sometime. We also talk to the leader of a tour group going up to view the turtles tonight. He is expressing some concerns about the high tide at certain points on the beach. He is concerned about using the trail which would bypass this section because they saw a coralsnake a few days ago. I react excitedly about this and explain to him (he speaks some English) that coralsnakes are perfectly safe as long as you don't pick them up as they are docile and their mouth is too small to bite. He looks at me like I'm crazy. He then repeats the oft-quoted myth that there are two kinds of coralsnake and one is not poisonous and you have to look at the combination of bands to find which it is. I want to say that actually there are three species of coralsnake here and also several snakes that are not actually coralsnakes but instead mimic them, and also the bands rule is not true, but he probably thinks I'm mad anyway so I decide to nod and agree. Generally, tour guides don't like to be corrected.
We do eventually get back and have a very nice if cold dinner with my lovely Bavaria Dark.
4th July 2010
It's the Wimbledon Final today. There are possibilities that we may be able to stream it from the internet using a projector, but given that it is at 06:00am and I didn't get to bed until 04:00am it seems an unlikely prospect that I'll be up at that time. Indeed I am not so at 9:00 after a nice breakfast I check the results on the Wi-fi that the CCC/STC have set up here. Well done Rafa.
I spend some time mooching about on the net and looking at books they have in the library here. There some interesting ones that we don't have, but then they don't have copies of all the good up-to-date ones that we have. We should combine!
Then it's back to Jalova for the evening.
5th July 2010
The volunteers are busy training and learning about turtles whilst I am confined to kitchen and cleaning duties for most of the day. Sigh. I have to do my bit I guess!
6th July 2010
More cooking for me this morning. I have the capable talents of Marta to help me though and I manage to duck out of the evening meal by being scheduled to take some of the volunteers on a walk up the north forest trail.
It's the first time I've been up here for a while and it's like greeting old friends again. The Spider Monkeys are out in force and put on a great show with their death-defying leaps and hooting and gesticulating. Everybody laps it up. We also see more of the Jalova crowd-pleasers in the form of a lovely yellow Eyelash Viper and a Red-eyed Treefrog that appears on my welly from somewhere. Some nice butterflies and the haunting call of the Great Tinamou caps off a cool walk which everyone seems to enjoy thoroughly.
After dinner my regular night stroll round the garden reveals a cool snake in the hedge, a Neotropical Racer, a handsome pink-bellied chap. I've seen them obscured my vegetation and racing away from me before but this guy is sat coiled in the hedge. Luckily, some of the volunteers are present to show it to and then Marcus, an enthusiastic (and very tall) Texan, Eduard from Paris and Karen L from England accompany me on the rest of the stroll which turns up many bugs and spiders, our regular visiting opossum in the compost bin and some lizards. There are also some Red-eyed Treefrogs in the flowering trees opposite the entrance to the staff quarters, attracted to the insects attracted to the pollen.
This phase is going well – everybody is still really interested and enthusiastic. I have the feeling I'm going to be quite sad to see many of these guys go at the end of the first 5 weeks.
Of note, a curious incident happens this evening. Whilst sat in the office, Stephen bursts in and says “Jon. There's a rat running about on your bed inside your mosquito net”. Now, this may go some way about explaining my mindset, but for most people I imagine this news would be received with dismay, horror even, but my exact reaction is: “Wow! Sweet!” I then proceed to grab my camera and grab some photos of it trying to escape as I lift the mattress, which it does. Sadly, its not some cool kind of jungle rat as I had hoped but just a common imported Brown Rat. I guess it may have come in with the coconut farm supplies or something and found its way over here. Needless to see, we don't see rats at all here and I guess with the amount of snakes around its days are probably numbered.
7th July 2010
My presentations are scheduled for today. I explain my Incidental Sightings project and do my presentation about Snakes which I hope does not scare anyone too much. We also take some group photos.
8th July 2010
We have to take Marta to Cano Blanco today to get the bus to San Jose as she is going to pick up a volunteer who is staying with us for two weeks to do Turtle work. The canal to the landing is incredibly shallow and we actually end up getting stuck a few times, and at one stage get out and push the boat! On the up side, it is really early in the morning so there is a lot of wildlife about; herons, kingfishers, laughing falcons, 8 beautiful Roseate Spoonbills and best of all, my first ever wild Raccoon sat on the bank watching us pass. We are due back to pick up the volunteers for a trip out on the canal to learn about the river birds that we survey. It's a good trip if a little crowded in the boat and we get to see some kingfishers, toucans and herons.
Andres has challenged me to a spotting contest starting in a couple of days. The aim is to spot the most species of bird, mammal, reptile or amphibian by the end of phase. We will have a mid-phase total in which the current loser buys the other a meal and beer and then there is the big victory at the end of phase where the loser gets one leg waxed and the other shaved (Andres, also has long hair and is trying to convince me that the loser should have their hair cut off. NOT A CHANCE!). Normally, I'd be pretty confident but the kid's good and he's a local so he is very familiar with this countries wildlife. Should spice things up a bit though and the volunteers are very excited by the idea. The young local biologist familiar with the wildlife of Costa Rica and herpetology specialist vs the grizzled veteran of many an international campaign and a specialist in ornithology. Let the battle commence!
9th July 2010
It's our weekly trip to Tortuguero today and I've been asked to drive, even though technically I feel that I don't need to go to Tort this week really. Rich gives me some money for lunch though which sweetens the deal. This turn of events turns out to be a very fortuitous one! For a start my boat driving skills, I think, improve tremendously during this journey, particularly my manoeuvring skills. Its like that point in your driving lessons where things start clicking without you really thinking about it. But a short event completely overshadows this. Whilst driving through the narrow canal that connects the main Tortuguero Canal to the Rio Jalova (Cano Negro), a large grey back breaks the waters surface in front of us. It's a Manatee – a huge yet rare and elusive river dwelling creature that looks like a cross between a walrus and an elephant (no tusks or trunk though). They are heavily endangered and very very rarely seen. Did anyone see that program 'Last Chance to See' with Stephen Fry. They went around the world looking for endangered animals and the manatee was one of the episodes (in Brazil admittedly, not Costa Rica). They couldn't find a wild one. The BBC and Stephen Fry could not find this animal and one has just surfaced randomly in front of the boat I'm driving. This may very well be a once in a lifetime sighting. The only sour note is that is it ever so brief and it happens before my spotting contest is due to start. There is no way Andres could get this one!
Tortuguero is fine. I eat a nice local casado which is a mix of rice, beans, meat and a few other things that vary depending on where you get it. This time its a hard-boiled egg, bolied yuca and some fresh grated salad. Very tasty.
I've been put in charge of the rota this phase (I was democratically elected to this. Whilst I was away. Sneaky devils!). It's a tough job no question – managing 19 volunteers and 7 staff members and making sure they all get a good mix of stuff to do and everyone has something each day of the week. And of course if you spot a mistake or something crops up that changes things – then it has a knock on effect for everything else. Despite this I manage to spend a bit of time coming up with a pretty good system and I think I've got a good first week ahead for everyone. Turtle walks start tomorrow night and surveys start in Sunday 11th with the infamous Jag-walk.
10th July 2010
The Tico vs Brit Jalova Spotting Challenge officially starts today. Andres and I spent way too much time last night writing out a formal contract (we were playing it up a bit to be quite honest) much to the delight of everyone else. We write a mock-up legal document that we both sign outlining the conditions of the contest and terms and conditions (anyone found to be cheating will be branded a 'cad' and have their eyebrow shaved). We each have our own record book which must be rigorously maintained and updated daily. I think this is going to be fun. It officially starts at midday with an official signing event.
The afternoon consist of catching up with some hatched nest excavations which sadly prove to be a little disappointing as we can't find any eggshells from one and the other appears to have been poached. Our disappointment is shortlived thought as Andres, leading the other team a little further up the beach radios in with an exciting sighting. A Hawksbill turtle is nesting on the beach in broad daylight. The Hawksbill is the rarest of the turtles that nests here and critically endangered. Needless to say we all start running. Unfortunately, the turtle has decided not to nest in broad daylight and makes a break back across the beach as we arrive. It still gives plenty of opportunity for photos though which again is incredibly lucky. I've seen one Hawksbill at night before, when we can't take photos and to get this opportunity is brilliant. Plus a lot of the volunteers get to see it as well, which is even better! The only downside is that Andres found it so thanks to the 'first man' rule of our contest he is the only one who gets to count it. I need to find my own Hawksbill to catch that one back. An unlikely prospect. I'm beginning to need that Manatee more than ever. Still can't complain about my luck.
Our lucks runs out tonight as does our water supply. More accurately, we can't get any water up out of the pump. None of us are really able to offer a solution and we are forced to get water from the well and purify it with tablets to drink for the time being. This situation is less than ideal and I don't know what is going to happen.
11th July 2010
First nest check of the phase and its me doing it (my fault I did the rota) and I did not realise it was going to be so long. We (myself, Rachel from Nevada and Kirsty from Northamptonshire) are out from 05:00 until 13:00 in total, counting tracks and nests from the night before (120 tracks, 82 nests in 2.5 miles), marking some soon to hatch nests with little runways for the hatchlings, checking the triangulations on others and also just checking all our existing nests in general. We also try to do an hatched nest excavation but fail to find anything. We do get so see some cool stuff (a pair of mating Green Turtles wash up right onto the beach in front of us, some hummingbirds, a great sighting of some parakeets and some Capuchins in the trees), but it is a long hard slog. The girls cope magnificently and utter not a word of complaint.
Back at base the water situation is a bit crazy but thankfully Marcus the Texan, whose enthusiasm and energy are boundless, and Lauren from Australia, are both resolutely positive and resourceful and tackle it with good humour and a great deal of effort. I feel bad for them but I'm also thankful that they were there as many other people may not have been able to handle it.
I am tired but still manage to take a group of volunteers on a walk to the estuary and back, where we are rewarded by some great views of Howler and Spider Monkeys.
12th July 2010
Its the first bird survey of the phase and I get to lead it (I didn't fix the rota, thats just how it worked). It all goes to plan and we get to see a fair selection of herons and kingfishers, plus some monkeys, parrots, toucans and a Common Black Hawk. Best of all though, there are lots of swifts in the air over the canal and at least one of them is a striking Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift, which is not only a new species for me, but a good one for the spotting challenge. Everyone seems to enjoy themselves, which makes me happy.
Lunchtime brings the first update of the Tico vs Brit spotting challenge which has me in a very respectable lead of 66-33. Andres has been doing night walks though so got to give him a break there.
This afternoon I am appreciably tired after the epic nest check and today's early start, and flagging a little bit. Andres is out doing a forest walk and manages to spot 4 species of bird that I've never seen before! In one afternoon! I have no reason to doubt his abilities though.
I have my turtle walks starting tonight, which is a little daunting as I've never actually led one before, and I am now responsible for doing the tagging. Despite my tiredness and apprehension, I actually thoroughly enjoy myself. It's been raining today which has been good for our water situation, but it makes it pretty dark on the beach. Surprisingly though the turtle tracks do show up through the gloom and we've barely walked 1/8 of a mile before we come to our first turtle, which is still looking for a nest site. Our protocol states that we leave this one as it can take a long time for them to dig their body pit and nest chamber before they start to lay their eggs, and we need to maximise our turtle data collection. We are aiming to find one that is about to lay eggs and do the full egg count, nest marking and tagging – and then afterwards we will just tag as many as we can that have finished laying their eggs. The next turtle we find is digging her nest chamber so we wait around for about 30 minutes or so before she starts laying and then Melissa from the UK starts counting the eggs, whilst Kirsty and Herman from Sweden do all the marking and writing in the books. It's everyone's (but me) first time so we stumble a little but get the job done in the end – even with the minor incident of a vinesnake crawling over Herman's hand! I manage to tag the turtle after breaking a couple of tags in the process and we measure her and off she goes back to the ocean. It feels very satisfying.
After that we are on fire. I get better at the tagging as we go along and manage 3 more, with the last two done without wasting a single tag. We also see 8 more turtles but are not able to tag them as they are either just returning to sea or only just emerging. We are also astoundingly lucky at one point, to find ourselves standing amongst a horde of freshly emerged green turtle hatchlings. Wowza! Unfortunately, we cannot stand and watch them as they start orientating themselves towards our lights so we have to leave them behind. It gets everyone a little paranoid now that we may be crushing other hatchlings underfoot at any minute! Our luck continues when one turtle spotted up ahead turns out to be a rare Hawksbill scooting across the beach to the sea, too quickly for us to tag unfortunately. That evens me up with Andres a little. So a pretty successful night all in all.
13th July 2010
After a night walk you are scheduled the morning off. At the moment we are doing two shifts on consecutive days to minimise the impact on daily routines. So I get to chill out and do a bit of birding around base to get my contest list going a bit more.
We have the same team for the night walk except this time we are doing the midnight to four shift. It is pretty successful and we manage to get our nesting turtle tagged and eggs counted. We also manage to tag and measure a couple more. A successful night all in all!
14th July 2010
Our spotting contest is hotting up with Andres getting rare birds out on his surveys whilst I have been doing night walks. He has evened up the scores a great deal by seemingly pulling birds out of nowhere like White Hawk, Streak-headed Woodcreeper and Royal Flycatcher. Birds I have never seen in all of my 6 months here! I have to admit to feeling quite competitive about this and a little suspicious of some of his identifications. I immediately feel bad about it though as I have no reason to doubt him and after all this is only friendly competition with little of importance at stake except pride (something which I have never put much stock in. Just tends to get you into trouble in my experience). I do jokingly accuse him of making up woodcreepers though, to which he acts very offended.
15th July 2010
Its a day off today and starts promisingly with me getting up early to do some birding in the coconut plantation behind base. My efforts are rewarded with some cool new species that I have never seen before: Cinnamon Woodpecker, Piratic Flycatcher and beautiful Green and Shining Honeycreepers! I guess Andres is not the only one that can find new stuff.
It rains soon after I am finished and continues for most of the day limiting the activities that can be done on base. Many people have gone to Tortuguero today so it is also quite quiet. Eventually when the weather clears up I go for a forest walk with one of the volunteers, Karen L from the UK. We are rewarded by views of a pair of White-whiskered Puffbirds, and lots and lots of Monkeys! I also manage to see a couple of frogs but annoyingly one of them manages to get away before a positive ID can be made! I am annoyed about that not only because of the contest but because it was potentially a new species for me.
We get back to find out that Andres has found a cool new spot and seen a Paca (a rare spotted guinea-pig-like animal) and another type of bloody Woodcreeper.
16th July 2010
My turn for nest check this morning with Deanna from Canada and Lauren from Australia. They are both very nice and also very efficient meaning that I have more time to spot stuff. It's an overcast day which seems to promote a lot of bird activity and I manage to rack up 8 new species for the challenge including 7 species of hummingbird, 2 species of toucan, another type of puffbird and a couple of seabirds. There are also a lot of tracks on the beach including many many large Jag prints, and also deer, opossum and coati tracks. We do get caught in the rain on the way back but it doesn't dampen our spirits and the girls cope magnificently with the distance. We are very tired in the afternoon though and I also have the late turtle shift.
I'm out with Kyle and Sarah from Chicago and Karen L, my spotting buddy from yesterday. They create a very efficient team and we manage to find 7 turtles and tag all of them. One of them is also at the right stage for us to mark the nest and count the eggs, which we do very efficiently. An excellent night and I really do enjoy these turtle night walks. They are a direct contrast to the boom or bust of the sometimes torturous 6-7 hour walks for leatherback season. You know you are going to see some action at this time of year and the time just flies by!
17th July 2010
The Spotting Contest is really close at around the 100 mark for both of us. We both have some really good species and it is incredible how many news ones we have seen. I mean I am normally pretty vigilant anyway so it seems strange how they are all popping up. I have a quiet day today in which Andres takes the lead with a Double-toothed Kite pair whilst out on nest check. He also finds a Leatherback nest at Mile 15. If only it had been closer to base! I would love to see another one of those great beasts.
I do manage to get out for a bit of birding behind base and manage to find one of Andres' mystery woodcreepers. I hate it when he is right! I then go and sit on the beach to type my journal. I haven't chilled on the beach much so far this phase so it feels really good. The tide is high and the waves are crashing in over the wreck of the boat that is now half submerged in the sand and volunteers are crashed out in hammocks along the beach edge. Turtles can be seen bobbing about just beyond the waves and a solitary pelican wings its way north.
There is a colossal storm overhead this evening. The lightning flashes and thunder rumbles insanely loudly overhead. The first turtle team has already gone out and the rest of us gather on the porch watching the rain sheeting down and hoping they are alright. There is protocol for what to do if there is a storm overhead so they should be fine, if a little wet. There is a rather surreal event of a figure approaching through the rain carrying a bright torch. We initially think he is a ranger, but it turns out to be one of the coconut-farm workers with a gift of some traditional Tico food for Andres. What an unusual time for him to come over!? There's nothing else we can do except go back to bed and hope the guys out on the beach are ok. As it turns out the midnight team meet them coming back and apparently for four people that had just been out in torrential rain and thunder and lightning, and were plastered in wet sand, they were in remarkable spirits, grinning and singing bawdy songs. They even got their turtle nest marked and a few more tags. That tells you something about the people we have here at the moment. Good job guys!
18th July 2010
Good day today. I have an early morning incidentals with Marcus (the big Texan who is rapidly becoming everybody's favourite guy to have around), Kirsty and Lauren. I take them first down to the estuary and Kingfisher Creek, which lives up to its name by providing us with a big Ringed Kingfisher and also at the opposite end of the size scale, an American Pygmy Kingfisher. There are also a pair of Green Ibis flapping around above us uttering their crazy gobbling turkey-like calls.
Then we head up north along the forest trail for a while. This rewards us with some beautifully posed Eyelash Vipers, two Fer-de-lance on the trail, many monkeys and best of all a new bird species for me, the strangely named Semi-plumbeous Hawk. I guess the name comes from the fact that it is a solid grey on the back and pure white on the front. Plumbeous must refer to the lead colour and semi because it is not all grey. But the bird's most striking feature is surely its bright red beak and legs? Then why not call it the Red-legged Hawk or Red-beaked Hawk. Makes more sense to me. It's a cool bird anyway and I'm very pleased to see it.
Just about everyone heads off to a football match with some of the locals in the afternoon. I stay behind as I am leading the Jag-walk tomorrow with my team of Marcus (again!), Rachel from Nevada and Sarah from Chicago. They are a good bunch and I feel they will be good choices to tackle this epic trek with their positive attitudes. We go through all of our prep this afternoon and make up some food to take with us. I'm looking forward to the challenge of Jag-walk once more and Rich is coming with me to assess my leadership capabilities as it is my first time actually leading the walk.
Evrybody comes back buzzing about the football. Sounds like it was fun.
19th July 2010
JAG WALK
We have a slightly late start for the walk today. I maybe should have been a bit more proactive about people prepping themselves beforehand, but then I am also guilty as I forgot to write out the notebook pages for our data last night. This makes us about 20 minutes late to start. I also realise that I forgot to read the protocol last night as whilst I know what we are doing there are a few finer points that I should have remembered but don't. My fault, I've been feeling a little tired recently. Just one of those low points that everybody goes through at some point.
Anyway back to the Jag walk. I have not done this walk before when there have actually been lots of turtles present so all of a sudden counting the turtles tracks becomes a very important task (there is a grand total of 3309 tracks on the walk – that's 1650 turtles in one night along a 15 mile stretch!)and we start finding lots of dead turtles from about the 3rd mile onwards. We end up finding 14 dead turtles in various states of decay from fresh kills made the night before with bloodied flesh to really putrefied ones that reek to high heaven, and then there are many that are just down to the peeling carapace and bones. This ultimately is what costs us time as we have to stop and take notes and photos of each corpse, and some of them a buried deep in the beach side vegetation and require us to machete our way in to get them. The walk becomes an epic and really takes its toll on all of us. We don't get into Tortuguero until just after 16:00 and we started at 05:25. That's over 10 hours spent on that beach. Thankfully, it is not a truly hot day, but still the heat does build up and walking on the sand really gets to all of us except Rich, stoic to the end, and Sarah who manages to keep cheerful all the way through. I end up with some small blisters for the first time ever during my time here and my feet are on fire by the time we get into town and slump into Budda Cafe for a well deserved pizza and beer. I spend sometime talking to Marcus on the boat ride home. He's a really interesting guy and a real Southern gent. He's a few years older than me (which makes a change round here!) and has vowed to make a big change to his lifestyle, first of all by challenging himself to come out here and learn new things and apply that knowledge to his life and make it work. Not-so dissimilar to myself. He is a constant source of positive energy and he has a ton of gadgets and helpful tools and a lot of practical knowledge which is proving useful.
20th July 2010
My feet have recovered somewhat and though they were extremely painful yesterday, it seems as though it was just due to my feet swelling inside my boots. I have a couple of small blisters but they are not too painful.
We get to relive the experience by putting all the data on the computer during the morning and otherwise have a fairly leisurely day.
During the afternoon I take a few volunteers that haven't been worn out by a long mammal transect survey in the morning or the jag-walk yesterday, out for a walk along a muddy boundary trail. It's a pretty good walk that turns up a couple of species of frog and a bird for me. We also get to see several columns of army ants making their way along the jungle floor – always an impressive sight. Sadly, though they are not hunting so we don't get any cool birds following them.
21st July 2010
Most of the volunteers are heading off on their long-weekend today. Most of them are going rafting – I still remember the great time I had doing that (Incidentally, I have actually managed to get the photos from that trip and will have to post them online ASAP. I look pretty chubby in them I have to say!). Four of the girls have instead opted for the delights of sunny Puerto Viejo. This means that base is very quiet this afternoon and evening.
I escort the 11 volunteers going rafting to their boat at dawn on the river mouth and then take a very leisurely stroll back along the path with my binoculars. I miss being able to do this, just amble along at my own pace tracking down birds that can be difficult to see but can be located by call. There us a cool Bat Falcon hunting out over the estuary although he is on the far side so I cannot see what he is catching (bats presumably at this time), but he returns to the same perch to eat several times. There are also two Laughing Falcons sat in the riverside trees duetting with their distinctive 'laughing' calls that carry for some distance. The dawn chorus starts up soon afterwards and it is interesting to note that the birds don't seem to sing over one another, rather they start at different intervals and then stop and another species takes over. This could be worthy of a study?
Some of the rangers appear later in the morning with the news that they have caught some poachers and need to take them off to court, but they have bags of freshly laid eggs. Marta and volunteers Kim and Rachel who have stayed behind this weekend, immediately set to work reburying them in the hope that they may still survive.
I busy myself with some chores around base during the afternoon and generally enjoy the peace and quiet.
22nd July 2010
I'm up early on nest check today with Patrick from the UK. Pat is only with us for a few more days and has been doing the turtle surveys with us for two weeks. He's pretty competent and has a good eye for working out where the often-confusing turtle tracks go that criss-cross the beach this morning. It is a beautiful red sunrise that quickly becomes a scorching morning. We are lucky enough to see two Green Turtles on their way back to sea (one actually being mobbed by vultures who follow her all the way down to the tide line before hopping around in disarray as the waves claim their hoped-for meal). Luckily, because there are so few people on base and most are going to Tortuguero today we only have to go up to mile 15 and back. This is great because it is seriously hot by 07:30am and I'm not sure I could have handled another 4 miles on top of what we had already done.
The afternoon becomes even hotter and after doing some more chores and having an intense shower and grooming session, I settle down with a book and my computer for the afternoon. It's too hot to even go looking for animals and a few minutes spent photographing butterflies in the garden even proves too uncomfortable.
June 29th 2010
Well I'm back in Costa Rica after a short break back home in the UK to see my family. I am now a paid staff member of the GVI Costa Rica expedition! I arrived back in San Jose yesterday and stayed a pleasant night in Gaudy's Backpackers, unfortunately just missing fellow interns from my phase Andrew and Charlotte and also Helen who is still in Costa Rica but just passed through San Jose on her way to Mexico! She left me a nice letter with the Gaudy's staff, which was very funny and quite unexpected.
I am due to meet Stephen, our Country Co-ordinator, at the bus terminal this morning where we are going to journey up together on the bus. I meet him as planned only to find out that the road north is blocked (this is the road through the national park and happens fairly frequently, usually due to landslides). This unfortunately means a rather longer, though admittedly nice and scenic, detour via Turrialba (where we went white-water rafting) and Guapiles. It's not to bad really, though it means we have to get the latest boat when we finally arrive at La Pavona landing and arrive into Tortuguero town at gone 17:00, which is less than ideal as it will take us another hour or so to get back to Jalova by which time it will be dark. Not so great for boating. Rich, our expedition leader, and Joao (pronounced Joh-ow, or something similar), are there to greet us. Joao is from Portugal and has been working with turtles down on the south Caribbean coast near Manzanillo, and he is the newest staff member. He reminds me of the actor, Elias Koteas (look that one up!) and seems like a friendly guy. It's been a long journey and thankfully although its late its been a clear day so the darkness doesn't set in as quickly as usual and we manage to get back with a little light to see us along the jungle path to base. We see a Smoky Jungle Frog and a Red Brocket Deer on the way back and at base Molly and Marta are both waiting for us and greet me with hugs. It's good to be back.
After a lovely chicken and vegetable dinner, I head out around base with my new head-torch to check out the night-time fauna and manage to find a Red-eyed Treefrog and the Opossum is still raiding our compost bin.
June 30th 2010
I was going to try and wake up early today, but of course that was never going to happen. Well I did wake up to the usual dawn chorus at 05:30 which is always cool, but I couldn't get up until gone 08:00.
I was almost hoping for a nice quiet couple of days before the volunteers arrive, but of course, that is not the case and we have much to discuss. Stephen has prepared a lot of information for us to go over including all of the up-to-date information about the courses we offer and what the volunteers will have been able to read and see. It's all been fully updated and hopefully will prevent any of the misunderstandings that were present last phase. We also go through Health and Safety with a fine-toothed comb discussing risks and hazards and even what to do if we have a helicopter evacuation scenario. It's a pretty intense day but Stephen has done a great job of preparing all of this and I am really impressed and pleased with the amount of effort gone into preparing us.
What little spare time I have today I explore our base and get reacquainted with things. It looks a lot more lush and green since I was last here and a lot of the shrubs and bushes seem to have grown in stature. It doesn't take me long to get familiar with all the birds again and being a hot day there are lizards everywhere, in particular, there are lots of juvenile Iguanas around base. In contrast to the grey and leathery adult lizards, these little guys are a vivid emerald green colour. You never quite know where you are going to find them, sitting on a fence post watching you walk past, or hanging from a bush eating a flower. They have a ton of character and raise a smile from everybody whenever we see them.
July 1st 2010
July already! Incredible! This is the strangest year ever for me in terms of feeling the time pass – its been one long summer so far (with lots of snow right at the beginning)!!
It's time for some hard work today. Stephen is back to San Jose to meet the new arrivals. Rich and Marta are in Tortuguero getting supplies. Molly is blitzing the kitchen. That leaves Joao and I to do some grounds maintenance. We start by cutting some bamboo and then constructing a large washing line frame which ends up having two levels each with 5 lines to hopefully provide more room for everyone to hang out their washing and also keep it all in one place and nice and tidy. We also get to do a bit of 'male bonding' as we are working and get to talk about some of our previous experiences and our musical tastes (his are similar to mine, particularly with liking of early 90s alternative music, but with enough differences to make it interesting). It takes quite a few hours to construct but the end result certainly looks the part, and I hope it withstand some heavy usage. We are very happy with it but only time will tell!
After a quick lunch break I then strim the lawn, which is a lot harder than it looks and there are a good few areas where there are some deep gouges in the ground, and it's not the most even of jobs but it should do. We can't really have long grass here for obvious reasons (it hides bitey and sharp and pointy things!).
I also unveil my new Incidentals Plates™ and stick them on the wall in the kitchen. These are basically pictures of all the common animal species in the area with little tick boxes to show where they were seen. I managed to improve some of the pictures and print them off on some nice glossy photo paper whilst I was at home, so they look really good if I do say so myself.
I take my first trip down to the beach this evening. It's a lovely part of the day and the sea is quite choppy at the moment with waves crashing in and sending up a great wall of sea spray which hangs in the air all along the beach creating a very cool atmosphere. What is even cooler though is the sight of a Green Turtle pair bobbing around just behind the point where the waves begin to start. They appear to be mating though it is hard to tell. In fact a quick scan around reveals at least 9 more pairs bobbing about just in the immediate vicinity. Wow! I wasn't expecting this. Its impossible to get good pictures but I try my best. You can't really see a lot apart from the odd flailing flipper or view of the head or back of the shell. This is a pretty good way to welcome me back to the beach. I also see a couple of seabirds flying past including the amusingly named Brown Booby, which is a first for me.
July 2nd 2010
Volunteers are due today. We spend the morning doing the last bit of cleaning and prepping and making fresh coffee and juice and chopped pineapple. We are expecting them at 14:00 but due to a flat tire on the bus it becomes closer to 15:00. There is a nervous apprehension as the time approaches and Molly and myself head down to the river to wait for them to arrive. We meet them halfway up the path and I take a few bags off them in a wheelbarrow. I remember my first time walking up that trail with all my bags and it was a killer! I get chatting to Sarah from Chicago almost straight away and Ruth, one of the interns from the previous group is back too. Everyone seems friendly and smiley. All good so far.
Beverages and food is consumed and introductions are made once we reach base. They are a mostly young group hailing from around the globe (US mostly, followed closely by the UK including Scotland, but also representatives from Australia, New Zealand and Canada). We have a few missing as one person had their flight delayed and two others lost their luggage and are having to wait in San Jose with Andres. We spend some time after introductions chatting and helping people settle into their rooms – some of the mosquito nets require a little ingenuity to put up!
The obligatory risk assessment talks and base rule talks have to take place but after a fantastic evening meal cooked by Molly and Joao there is plenty of time to socialise and on the whole, I feel really positive about this group. They all seem happy to be here and with the base location. They are all interested and asking questions about everything and it really gives me the feeling that we may be in for a good time this expedition.
We have had a bit of rain today and I am hoping to find me a few critters around the garden to show people but alas my predictions are wrong and even the opossum decided not to show. Ah well – plenty of time.
July 3rd 2010
It's a nice cool morning and everyone is up early for breakfast. Moods are still good – looks like everyone had a good night's sleep. There are more talks and in between the volunteers are exploring the base and the beach and asking plenty of questions and taking a lot of interest in everything. I end up wandering around the grounds with them looking at spiders and picking some starfruits, which I don't like much but everyone else seems to like a lot! I explain the general principle of the Incidentals Species Recording project to at least 5 people and I haven't even done my presentation yet! I have to say first impressions are still good.
The day warms up quite rapidly and the lizards come out in force to greet our newcomers and also a cool Brown Vinesnake. Andres arrives with three more volunteers. It's good to have my irrepressible Tico buddy back and he brings with him astounding news of Germany's 4-0 trouncing of Argentina. Live that one down Diego!
The volunteers spend the increasingly hot afternoon learning about turtles whilst I update some computer stuff. I have got a new battery pack for my netbook which is proving to be a godsend giving me 5-6 extra hours of battery life!
Molly, Joao and myself are due to go to Tortuguero tonight to do some practical turtle-tagging training with our colleagues at the CCC (Caribbean Conservation Corporation) – now called the STC (Sea Turtle Conservancy), which is a much better name if you ask me! I get to drive the boat all the way there which is good fun – its a beautiful calm day on the canals and there are very few other boats present. Its a bit tricky parking but otherwise its a successful trip and my first full length journey. We get a good meal at the STC Headquarters and get to chat to some of their volunteer staff, most of whom I have met briefly before at the previous training day that I attended. Then it's heads down for a couple of hours as we are doing the 12-4am shift!
We leave at 11:30pm which comes around all too soon and its back out on the beach in the dark. Its been a few weeks now since I've done this but despite being at the opposite end of the 18 mile stretch of sand its a familiar feeling. Our turtle hunting is fairly successful – its Green Turtle season now, not much chance of any Leatherbacks now, but the Greens are much more numerous and should mean that there won't be any of those horrible nights when you walk for hours and don't see anything!!! We manage to find three turtles all of which are taggable (i.e. they don't already have tags and aren't missing any front flippers). I get to do the first one which decides its going to head back into the sea, meaning I have to do it on the run. Joao tries to slow it down by holding his hands over its eyes and I manage the first tag successfully, but unfortunately the other one doesn't go in and we run out of time. According to Claire, the STC co-ordinator, it was a good tag though. Not the easiest task in the world!
The second turtle is camouflaging its nest and is down in a shallow depression flailing its flippers about and getting sand everywhere. Most people probably don't realise that working with turtles can be so physical, but the four of us get covered in sand and smacked about by the flippers (Joao actually gets a small wound on his arm from a flipper blow) as we tag and measure her.
The third turtle is missing a back flipper and as a result is taking forever to dig her nest-chamber. A lightning storm is brewing overhead so we decide to make a hasty return instead of waiting it out. You don't want to be out on the beach with lightning overhead for obvious reasons!
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