Pura Vida!

What an awesome couple of weeks it´s been! I started my Costa Rican adventures in San Jose, but got out of the city as soon as my luggage (which was a little slower than I was) finally arrived.

First stop, Montezuma, a lovely little hippy town on the beach, surrounded by rainforest. It was exactly what I had been pining for for months, so I was pretty content :) I met some lovely people there, and hung out by the beach alot, listening to the howler monkeys calling to each other in the rainforest by the beach. One day I went on a snorkelling adventure to Isla Tortuga, and although the snorkelling wasn´t that great (it´s rainy season here at the moment so visibility was really low) we spent the day by a gorgeous secluded beach. We also hiked through a river to an amazing waterfall, which was fun!

Next stop was Santa Teresa, a surf beach up the coast. The surf was a little crazy for me there, so just chilled out with lots of long walks up the beach and yoga. So nice!

I just came from Playa Ostional, where I was volounteering with an amazing project involving the Olive Ridley turtles there. The trip there was a 12 hr encounter, which ended with me jumping on the back of a motorcycle and crossing suspension bridges of rivers in the rainforest, whilst it was raining at night! It was so worth it though! Ostional is one of the most important nesting sites of Olive Ridley turtles, and is one of the only beaches were these turtles have their Arribada (mass nesting). The project was really interesting, as we were doing research as to finding a balance between the local people collecting the turtle eggs during arribada and whether them collecting a certain amount was actually beneficial. It was a bit of hard work, digging up old turtle nests, but on the most part we got to patrol the beach at night looking out for turtle tracks and collecting data from the turtles when they lay their nests. While we were there we got to see hatchlings, and set them free (I think this was possibly one of the most awesome moments of my life!). And of course, seeing the turtles land on the beach and dig and lay their nests was just amazing!!

I left Ostional today, and now am in Tamarindo for a little surfing. Stay tuned for more Central American adventures as I make my way up to Guatamala!!!

TTFN xo