A Few Surprises by Maeve

Yesterday evening, Mama, Daddy, Sam and I went to Playa Pelada. We were met with surprises. There were thousands of pelicans in the air and then a thousand more in the water and perched on the rocks. I'm really, really not exaggerating much at all. When I went swimming, I saw lots of little, brown fish. I think that might be why there were so many pelicans. Also, there are fewer people at Playa Pelada and so maybe the pelicans like the peace and quiet! It's no problem to swim there even with the pelicans. They float on the water quite a ways out. It's so cool watching them fly through the air and then dive zoom down headfirst to gobble a fish.

That same day, when we were walking along the beach, we saw a group of vultures all huddled around something. Sam went over to see what it was and he came back with a confused expression on his face. He said it was a turtle nest! I went over and decided he was right. Turtles don't nest very often at this beach so I was pretty surprised. I was sad that the nest had been destroyed. We learned today that the arribada (when thousands of mama sea turtles come at the same time to nest) began again last night a few kilometres down the ocean at Ostional. Maybe one of the turtles landed here instead by accident. We are going to check out the arribada in the morning. I wonder if there will be surprises there.