Montezuma Waterfalls

We hiked up to Montezuma Waterfalls today. There are 3 of them and wé have gone twice and had a hell of a time figuring out where the waterfalls were and whether we were at the first second or third. We got kinda lost today and went on a tough hike well past where we needed to go haha...walked down to some rocky rapids and stumbled along till we decided we had passed all the waterfalls. Saw some fresh cat prints tho. Anyways we made our way back and saw all the waterfalls. Really cool waterfalls! but cassidys camera died before we got pics.
Last night at the dinner and movie we watched city of god. A brazilian movie in subtitles but was really good...would recommend it. Then walked back to Romelia in the pouring rain and thunderstorm.
Well Cass and I are planning on leaving on tuesday to speed boat to Tamarindo then bus up to Guanacasta and spend a few days there, then bus up to Nicaragua and spend a few days there before returning here to Romelia to volunteer for another week.

Montezuma cont

Hey just a quick update. Of course we've been back in Montezuma all week working on the hatchery...working really hard! We had a visitor to help us with the hatchery...he heads another turtle project at Buena Vista. We've been starting to have some problems with lenin the head of our project...just because he never helps and doesn't do much. Its just hard to respect him when this guy from the head of another project is helping and he can't believe lenin never helps out! anywho just working hard and enjoying our time. had a bonfire the other night because some guys who had been here a while were heading back to mexico. Thats all for now i have to go because we're in montezuma for a movie and dinner night because kelsey (who has been here a month) leaves tomorrow. Me and cass went on sunday and saw benjamin button tho...its a pretty sweet place (first TV/movie we've since since we left)
Anyways later
hay

Santa Teresa

Hey...this will be short because I just posted a blog yesterday. But me and Cass got the best days off because I guess its gonna be hell getting the hatchery done in the next two days...but we've done more than our fair share of work there. We took an hour bus ride (the buses go slow because it was like a rock road windy up and down hills but really cool) that costs only about 2 dollars. We are staying at a cool hostel called Tranquillo Backpackers. they have hammocks everywhere, free internet and all you can eat pancakes in the morning which i'm looking forward to since we eat rice and beans three meals a day at Romelia. So we chilled on the beach today, got some fresh fruit and veggies at a farmers market, had some AMAZING ice cream, and ate at a fabulous fresh roasted chicken place which came highly recommended in the Lonely Planet guidebook. Our roommate is a cool guy from new zealand. Textbook... cute blonde surfer with a nice accent, real cool guy. Thats about it, headed back to montezuma tomorrow and gonna do a short waterfall hike and eat at a restaurant in town which plays movies with dinner...which will be cool cuz it will feel like home. i haven't watched a movie in forever and they are actually quite current movies like he's just not that into you, yes man, changling, and a new one i hadnt even heard of, crossing over. till next time...pura vida

Romelia

I haven't had an entry for a while so I'm sure a lot has happened! Well we've been really loving it here near Montezuma at the Volunteer project Romelia. We have been doing tons of work, spending hours working at the hatchery. Me and Cass alone have probably filled 150 sand bags and carried them and made a wall to guard the hatchery from high tides. We have spent hours shoveling sand. On top of that there are night patrols, cleaning and making trails because this area is going to be a national park although it isn't yet and they will need trails. So we are clearing the trails picking up garbage and building bridges. But there are many more odd jobs on top of that since the place has only been open for about 4 months so they are still fixing it up for future volunteers. I wish I could post pictures because the location is absolutely beautiful!
It was really fun the first week because it was an intimate group of people and some characters! In the last like 3 days we've had 3 germans show up, a girl from poland, a boy from ireland, 2 girls from the UK and 3 Canadians last night so it is packed now. It was frustrating because me Cassidy and the Canadian Kelsey had been here for a while longer and didn't have much help, were working hours a day in the hatchery by ourselves, and some of the people that just showed up seem really lazy. Anywho for the most part they are cool people but luckily none are staying long so we'll finish the hatchery and then it'll be back down to only a few of us which will be nice.
We absolutely LOVE our coffee...coffee breaks all of the time and nothing makes us happier. We have a full time volunteer cook now so that is nice...and he is quite a character. Oh and after a really tough day at the hatchery on tuesday (me cass and kelsey worked the hatchery from 5am to 7am, 9 to 12 and then 2 to 5 with minimal occassional help) the boys challenged us to a soccer game on the beach and we won 5 to 4. It was SO much fun...ridiculous. THe boys actually didn't want it to be girls vs boys because they thought it wouldn't be fun. They said we would try it for 2 minutes and then if we never touched the ball they would switch up the teams... so it was rather funny when we beat them. Needless to say cass and I scored all 5 goals. haha
Last sunday (backtracking a bit) Cass and I had the day off and took a boat ride from montezuma to tortuga island (about and hour boat ride) where we got to snorkel, lay on a pretty sweet beach, free lunch and drinks so it was a really nice day. Snorkeling wasn't that amazing but it was still fun. We might some guys from Atlanta and had a good seinfeld quiz session on the boat ride back (which was scary by the way cuz we were in a little boat and the waves were ridiculous). Last thing...we plan to take tomorrow and sunday off and take a dollar bus ride to Santa Teresa and stay there a night so that should be fun. I'm sure I could say more haha but i think this novel is long enough. If anyone wants a post card leave your address and i'll send one (of course no need for mom and dad)
Love you all, Pura Vida!!!

Hayley

First Turtles!!!

Me and Cass FINALLY saw our first turtles come on the beach and nest. It was funny cuz it was when our spirits were lowest...we were on a patrol cracking jokes about never seeing a turtle and then...low and behold a turtle made its way on the beach and built a nest...and when we were finishing that one another turtle came up so two in one night. Since they were on a very busy beach at montezuma..we relocated the eggs to the beach outside our project called playa grande or playa cocoa... much less traffic so they will be safer. There was another turtle that night on the beach by our place and last night there were 3 more. We only saw the two that came up a few days ago. It was really cool though. Since then we´ve done some more training on turtles and how to find a nest, dig it out, relocate it and triangulate its position. We also are still working on the hatchery. We filled sand bags today.
Last night was really cool cuz there was the most ridiculous thunder storm i´ve ever seen. it was around 2 hours long probably and it wasn´t like a normal storm where there are big breaks between strikes. it was 2 solid hours of lightning strikes lighting up the dark cloudy sky barely ever more than one or two seconds apart. we walked to the beach and saw it from there and saw a few strike the ocean in the distanc.e.. probably one of the coolest things i have ever seen. also yesterday we did an hour hike on the beach to get to a cute little waterfall and swim in a river that looked so cool...it was oulet into the ocean but it looked straight up jungle and i hope there werent crocs in it haha.
Thats basically all for now. its just been really cool here cuz there aren´t too many people but all the people are fun and nice. We lost a bet against the two staff from costa rica that USA would beat mexico so we owe them drinks. it was pretty funny. Oh and there is this one guy and his daughter. it kills me listening to him. he is the human almanac or something. He knows random trivia about EVERYTHING and you feel like you´re watching the discovery channel if you bring up something simple and he gives this way long detailed explanation sounding very professional, enthusiastic and thorough. I wish you could here him it cracks me up...24 hours a day too. Anyways thats all for now..have to go help them carry back groceries from the store. Having a good time tho but also excited for when we get to do traveling

Montezuma

So cool... we could tell right away this Pacific Coast was more our style. It was neat to see the Caribean because it was very remote and legit rainforest...but this side kicks ass. the caribean is more poor and kind of unsanitary. Only been here a day but it has been sunny so i´m going to get a tan after all and also the volunteering here is much more intense. we are building a hatchery right now so doing a lot of work dig ditches in the sand and making sandbags to put up for a wall against the tide. The place is so cool here...still very primitive we dont even have electricity and actually a 30 min beach walk from montezuma...but its so beautiful and more organized. We are also going to be clearing trails and doing shorter night patrols on the beach for turtles. Overall very different from the other organization but very cool.
Unfortunately ...again... my camera was stolen. they got into my adidas bag and into my camera case and then replaced it took nothing else and zipped my camera case back up. its off the beach quite a ways so i have an instinct it was someone at the place. definately upsetting... but i seem to be a target for it so i´m almost becoming immune. at least i downloading almost all my latest pics but too bad it was so early in the trip. but thats the reason i brought nothing else valuable. backtracking... we arrived in san jose at around 3 on sunday and our program guy (Henry) who takes care of the costa rican volunteers in the program is the sweetest man ever. He drove cass and i around for about 6 or 7 hours to places in san jose...bought us dinner, coffees, ice cream and packs lunches for us when we go out on bus rides SO SWEET! so he sent us off from san jose on a bus at 6 am yesterday took a bus, ferry, bus again, van and then walked and arrived at our volunteer base at like maybe 1 yesterday so long travel day. but for the most part we´re happy here. thats all for now...we have to haul back to the project to start hatchery work

Puerto Viejo

We finished our time at Boca Chica...left this morning on a short bus ride to Puerto Viejo (our 3rd time here). We are at hostel Pagalu which the head biologist at Boca Chica recommended and got us a spot in. Overall I had a good time at Boca Chica...it rained almost thewhole time! but I guess thats what makes it green. I had two shifts night patrolling the beaches where I didn't see a turtle but saw a pencil thin snake, an owl, crabs, and leaf cutter ants all over the trailswhich clung to our shoes. I also had one shift guarding the turtle hatchery from 6am to noon. A nationalpark worker came by and spotted a howler monkey in the tree which he showed me and a sloth which took about 15 minutes for me to finally see. There was a mom and daughter pair from Calgary Canada and they were really fun... played cards and yahtzee with them a lot.
We went to playa negra the other day which is a black sand beach and to Cahuita the last two days. We tried to snorkel in Cahuita yesterday at one of only 2 live reefs in costa rica but unfortunately there was no clarity so we called it quits. We bought our bus tickets for San Jose tomorrow and then we are headed to the Pacific Coast monday where we will be at a turtle conservation project in Montezuma for a few weeks we hope.

Puerto Viejo

We came down to Puerto Viejo again for the day...we have a little longer to spend here today. So last night was my first real volunteer activity. I was scheduled for a beach patrol from 8 to midnight because they were expecting a certain female turtle to come back and nest last night. Apparently after they find a female nesting... they expect to see the same female in the same area nesting 14 or 15 days later. Unfortunately we didnt find her last night but i guess on a patrol this morning someone found the nest she laid last night a little further up the beach instead of down where we looked. It was definately interesting though...our leader and some girl who was volunteering for the day talked the entire 4 hours in spanish about 10 words a second. It was long and we waded across a small river at the beginning so i was soaking! Apparently there as been a caimen spotted there (spectacled caimen might be spelled wrong but i think is a croc or gator). Anywho it was rather long and we didnt see anything too exciting so that was a bit disappointing. Cass got the hatchery shift from midnight to 6 in the morning! So she definately had a long night guarding the hatchery.
When we got back from puerto viejo yesterday they did a nest exhumation. So all the volunteers followed Phil (the head biologist of the project) and went to a nest which had hatched a few days earlier to see what happened with the rest of the eggs (it was a leatherback nest). Apparently the mother laid it too close to the forest roots and one of the eggs got a fungus which infected the other eggs...and also just the roots took too much nutrition or something so they couldnt finish developing. Some eggs were broken and turtles made it but there were about 20 eggs that made it to stage 4 out of 5 i think and died. he buried 4 eggs that he thought still had a chance and was devasted when he broke open one of the eggs and the baby was still alive. He was really upset...clearly it was sad and he said the baby stood no chance. im sure difficult for him when he devotes his life to it and accidently kills a turtle he means to save.
Plans from now: We think this is good experience and all but we asked our volunteer coordinator if we could get involved in a turtle project on the Pacific coast where the olive ridleys are supposed to be nesting now. We are making plans for other places we want to go and things we want to do but spending some time in Panama is definately on our list now. It has been raining the WHOLE time here on the caribean and we also hear the pacific is usually a bit nicer. Well thats all for now...i cant believe how much i have had to say in this little while!

Boca Chica in Cahuita

Yesterday after a 3 hour bus ride we got off of the bus one stop too early so had some local help to catch a questionable cab over to Boca Chica (the "hotel" we were supposed to stay). When we arrived it was humid and quite warm! We got a little tour around the place and its a very open roof basically. Chain and mosquito net sides. There are 6 bunk beds for the girls area in a very tight space! Little huts around with wood table, some hammoocks, and a little bar area playing music. Oh and a pool that I have no plans on getting in... haha.
Anywho... we just got an hour of training this morning and then at 3 today we have an activity but people have been arriving so much the last 2 days i can't imagine much work for each of us! Yesterday we had 2 people speaking spanish, a girl from holland, a few girls from germany and austria, a few boys from germany and austria, and some more canadians and americans showedo up today! We don't even have enough beds. Oh I forgot to mention we're actually in Cahuita not Panama. They're just finishing the Leatherback turtle season so I dont expect to actually see any. However, they have a couple other species i dont remember the name of...one started with an H though i think maybe hatchback. We talked to our program supervisor and on Sunday we plan on heading back over to the Pacific side where most of the Olive Ridleys are nesting in season now. Most of the people don't like our location and say the pacific side is much better...and especially with the space issues now that all of these people showed up there won't be much for us to do. It is definately primitive and takes a bit to get to used to but I don't really mind it all that much.
So yesterday after we settled in a bit we went down to the beach which is about a 5 or 10 minute walk. It reminds me of the Oregon Coast because it was very overcast with big waves but it was pretty nice. Warm water and weather. They have a little turtle hatchery they watch over all of the time for nests that were maybe in bad spots or whatnot.
And I am on this computer in Puerta Viejo I believe... a short 15 minute bus ride away but a big travel destination for surfers I guess. Its rained for the past like 18 hours straight though so it is really wet out. I know this is jumping around a lot but I only paid for 30 minutes at this little internet cafe so bare with me. Anywho we'll be heading back to boca chica in about an hour. Sorry it was a very disorganized blog... :) But remember I am new to this. Again...I am not sure when I'll next be able to post but until next time...

Pangea

Last night we were picked up at the airport and driven by shuttle to a hostel called Pangea where the volunteer program organized for us to stay. Met a guy from Seattle doing some traveling on his own and a couple of guys who go to school in Deleware. Cool people. The hostel is pretty sweet with painted jungle walls, a pool, a bar with music going all night. A really nice man from the volunteer organization met us there and got us all set up with our arrangements. Then we had some drinks with a couple of girls that have been doing the program for about a month now and had only the best things to say about their experience! We may have informed some people we were going to be saving turtles in a place called Jaco...well this is about the time in the night they sprung it on us that apparently me and Cass are going to be on the opposite side of the country as we thought. On the coast of the Caribean side...but actually right over the border in Panama...working with MANATEES to start. I hope I spelled that right. Anyways...after 2 weeks me way switch to turtles on the Pacific Coast. Sounds like this place is really remote so I got up early before taking our shuttle over there because I have no idea how much internet access they have. Hopefully we'll be able to write a few times in the next couple weeks. So far...Pangea Hostel headed to Manatees in Panama. Till next time...PEACE