Crotalus Durissus

Sometimes, the highlight of the day happens while the sun is still tucked in. Yesterday was one of those days. We were able to drive through both rivers and make our way to Ostional in time for the arribada. The volcanic sand of the beach was covered in hundreds of olive ridley sea turtles, hauling their bodies up the beach (leaving tractor like tracks), digging their deep nests, silently laying their eggs (70-100 eggs per nest), flinging the sand through the air as they covered the nests, and then hauling themselves back to the sea. We were awestruck. Eggs that had been laid in August were now cracking open and hundreds of hatchling turtles were emerging from nests, also trying to get to the sea. Again, we were awestruck. The kids will have more to add and I think will share that it was remarkable, but also difficult (we saw many hatchlings that didn't make it, for various reasons) and complicated (there were hundreds of community members there, harvesting eggs.) A lot of our photos were disappointing as there was little light and it was raining. Today though, we saw this gorgeous photo, from a Costa Rican finalist for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. We took this video of some hatchlings emerging from a nest.

Sometimes, the highlights (or at least memorable moments) just keep happening all day. Dan dropped us off at the beach early this morning so we could explore the tide pools at low tide. On his way back up the hill, the car broke down - a hole in the radiator (perhaps grown larger when we drove through the rivers yesterday?) So, he got the car to the mechanic, ran back to the beach to let us know, and then ran home (4km or so, mostly up hill.) When he got home, he discovered a coati in the kitchen. It was sitting on the counter, eating our pineapple, having already dug into the rice bag and checked out what was in the compost.

We lingered at the beach as planned until lunch time. As we were packing things up, we realized that our shoes were in the car. So, we walked back home (3 km or so, mostly up hill) barefoot over gravel and rocks and mud. Two things made this okay - we have kids who complain over little things but seem to manage bigger challenges like this just fine AND we met a woman named Monica who kindly let us jump in the back of her pick-up as she drove us partway. We made chocolate chip pancakes for lunch, with no pineapple.

The afternoon was quieter (reading on the hammocks, talking to my brother(!), working on our turtle book) until Dan came in from the shed to ask Sam for help with identification of a species. The species hanging out in the shed was a crotalus durissus, aka a tropical rattlesnake, aka a venomous pit viper, aka maybe I want to go home now. Okay, maybe I'm not ready to go home, but unlike the rest of my family (who thought it was pretty cool - even when Hubert who was working on our roof raced to his car for a shovel which he promptly used as a lethal weapon) I was shaken. I think living here will make me a more cautious, light stepping, shed avoiding person.

Finally, at dinner, (all the bits and pieces left in the fridge made into a sauce for pasta - as we had no car to get the groceries with, as planned) we solved a mystery! Remember the photo from a few days ago, the one showing what we were calling fungus butts? Well, one dropped on to Dan's fork, just as he was about to place it in his mouth. We looked up and saw a gecko directly above. Yep, turns out is gecko poop. Some people have cat or dog hair to sweep up, we have gecko poop.