The Arribada

Try to imagine 500,000 turtles on a beach about one kilometer long and 500 meters wide. Now try to imagine avoiding the turtle females as they come ashore to lay their 100-120 eggs each as they crawl over stones, rocks and anything else to find 'their' spot to lay their eggs. Quite something, right? Now add the darkness, as it was high tide, a little rain and a few hundred tourists.

These Olive Ridley sea turtles, as you can see from the pictures weigh about 100 pounds and are about 30 inches long. Apparently, according to our guide person, the male sperm is stored within the female throughout the breeding season, almost like a sperm bank, and somehow the female chooses the strongest sperm to fertilize the eggs. As usual, the males have very little to do with it and just continue to do their thing in the ocean as the females swim ashore ( where they were born), lay their eggs, and then return to the sea ( probably exhausted). Apparently the females do this each month for a few months during the rainy season at quatre moon and then not again for years.

The whole process reminded me of the Penguin movie that was so popular last year, as well as the seal hunt. The residents of Ostional, on the Nicoya Peninsula come out the next morning, again as you can see from the pictures, and pick the eggs. They put them in these huge bags and ship them off throughout Costa Rica, where they apparently get good prices for it. My school colleagues were aghast at this and felt that they were destroying the future of the turtle. The residents explained that they only take about one percent of the eggs and with the revenue, improve the facilties along the beach and so on.

It was a fascinating trip and I would love to write more about the turtles but I am simply too exhausted and have to go to sleep. I woke up at 5 am yesterday to drive there, stayed up half the night in the rain to see them ( some chance) in the dark and then woke up at 5 am again to see the last of the them either go to the sea or the see latecomers arrive. I would love to go again in about 45 days when the babies hatch and make their mad dash to the sea trying to avoid the vultures, crows, dogs and other animals just waiting for a delicious treat.

After my nap, I am going to school to see our kids run the torch being sent all around Costa Rica for independence day on Tuesday. Tomorrow, we are going to have all kinds of festivities at the school which I will tell you about or show you Tuesday.