While we were in Playa Flamingo, we all went on a turtle night tour. A taxi picked us up at 5:45 PM and we drove twenty minutes to the beach. Sure enough, not long after we got out of the car and were walking down the beach, a turtle was slowly making its way out of the crashing waves up onto the dry sand. Our guide Nelson told us that this turtle was called the Green Pacific turtle which is the type we were most likely to see. Nelson did not let us get close to the turtles as they were climbing up to the dry sand because we might scare them off. Because of this and the fact that the sun had already set made it hard to see the turtles. They looked like big rocks slowly moving. Once they climb up the beach they want to get close to the tree line so that the high tide won't wash away their eggs. After they find a suitable spot they try to dig down until they reach the wet sand. They lay their eggs from November to March. At the beginning of the egg-laying season, eight out of ten turtles that look for a spot actually lay them. At the end only about two out of ten turtles lay their eggs. Near the end of the laying season it is harder for them to find wet sand as they dig down because it is the dry season. After an hour of watching turtles climb up and back down to the water, we finally found one that had a suitable spot. The guide set up a special light and we watched the whole process of digging, laying the eggs and covering them. It was an amazing experience!
We stayed in Flamingo for seven nights. The next place we stayed at was a horse farm near La Fortuna, which was four hours away and in the mountains. One of the afternoons we went on a three hour horseback ride. Our guide took us through sugar cane fields, rainforest, pineapple fields, cow pastures, country dirt roads, and even down a creek (not following it, literally down through it). Our horses were really well trained and only needed us to make a kissing sound for them to go. It was tiring but well worth it!
 |  |
RSS Feed