First border crossing completed as we are now in Panama. We arrived this afternoon in Bocas del Toro which is a beautiful archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Panama, just over the border from Costa Rica. Back tracking slightly, we had one more day in the Monteverde cloudforest since I last wrote which we spent doing a giuded tour of the nature reserve with our very own Bill Oddie. He was the most excitable man and kept interrupting himself every time he heard something at which point he would dash off with his telescope over his shoulder and his binos round his neck while we raced after him trying to see the lesser-spotted whatever it was that he had heard. It was hysterical but much better than if we had wandered around ourselves. Mostly the tour was about the cloudforest itself and the flora there but we did see a quetzal which is a very rare native bird, lots of hummingbirds, a tarrantula, a raccoon and some howler monkeys high up in the trees that Bill spent 20 minutes running back and forth trying to get us a good view of. They make a spooky barking noise and we caught a glimpse of them in the end. The following day we went back to San Jose where we left Katie as she headed off to finish her sailing adventures with an Atlantic crossing. In the meantime, Sarah and I went to register with the turtle conservation project we had volunteered for. This turned out to be a very frustrating process which almost resulted in us pulling out of the whole thing but eventually we got it sorted and we headed to Cahuita on the Atlantic coast the next day to join the project. The Atlantic coast is very different (and much drier) with a very strong Caribbean influence in the food, language and culture in general. It is not as green as the Pacific side but feels more like we are on a Caribbean island and is still very beautiful. We arrived in Cahuita and had to walk 2.5 km on a track through the forest to our 'station'where we were staying. On that walk we saw more howler monkeys up close than Bill could shake his telescope at, as well as various other creatures including snakes and a little guinea pig/piglet type creature. The station was also plagued with raccoons coming to raid the food supplies and we saw 2 sloths including one crossing the road right in front of us. They are the weirdest looking creatures and move incredibly slowly. I got a couple of photos which I have put on this site - just click on My Photos. We settled in to our very basic accommodation and got to know the 12 or so other volunteers & project leaders. They turned out to be a really nice bunch of people and we had a good time with them. The idea of the project was to patrol the beaches which are prime nesting grounds for 3 endangered turtle species. The beach is patrolled at night and if a turtle is found nesting they tag it, take it's measurements and then take the eggs and relocate them either in the hatchery at the station or elsewhere on the beach where they are less likely to be stolen by preditors or poachers who sell the eggs. The turtles never return to their nests once they have laid so it doesn't matter to them that the eggs are moved, and they go into a kind of trance when they are laying so they don't really notice what the volunteers are up to. The first night we were on the early patrol - 8pm - 12am walking 13km on soft sand in the dark with no torches except when really necessary, and no mozzie repellent as it is bad for the turtles. We walked 2 hours each way up and down the beach and returned absolutely exhausted at the end of the shift having not seen a turtle! By this stage we were beginning to wonder what we were doing there but each shift got easier and in the end it was quite satisfying completing the walks and feeling a little less exhausted than the last one. By our final night we still hadn't seen a turtle. It always seemed to be the opposite shift that got one each night so on the last night when we were 30 mins from the end of our final walk, we passed the second shift and asked them to radio us if they got one, which of course they did so we had to walk another 30/40 mins back down the beach again where we found them having just taken the eggs from her nest. It was an enormous leatherback turtle, about 1.5 metres long and we spent about half an hour watching her cover her nest and camouflage it with her huge flippers so that it was less obvious to predators. By this stage it was 2.30am and we had been out for 6 hours so we didn't wait to see her go back into the sea but headed back to bed. All the walking was worth it in the end and it was amazing to see and touch the turtle. Even though our 1 week was only a token effort, we are feeling quite virtuous at having joined the project and for actually sticking it out as I think we were both ready to walk after the first night! During the days we didn't have any duties so we were able to take advantage of the amazing, deserted beach. The surf was very strong though which wasn't great for swimming and I had an embarrassing incident involving my bikini bottoms and a large wave...! A great setting to hang out in though. We are now spending 5/6 days in Bocas where we will hopefully do some diving and snorkelling and then we head to Panama city... xx