¡Hola!

Whilst in Drake Bay we popped into a little hut by the beach which was the office of Fundacion Corcovado, which runs conservation projects on the Peninsula de Osa, to enquire as to any local volunteer opportunities. We were in luck as there was a long-established marine turtle conservation project on the next beach, the other side of the Rio Drake. We initially went for a tentative 4-day stay, but in the end we worked there for over two weeks and it was by far the best thing we have done yet on the trip. We would have stayed even longer if we didn't already have our Inca Trail passes reserved in advance, which demand we reach South Peru by the end of October. It was a difficult to leave.

We'd always wanted to volunteer whilst we were travelling, but we've realised just how much sense it makes to get involved in projects along the way - it's so nice to actually do some work, get to know locals and make a bit of difference to a community, rather than just wandering around spending cash in restaurants and bars, often owned by gringos. Plus at $15 a day, it was a much cheaper way to live.

The project was run by a guy called David, who was about our age, and there were typically 10-15 people there at any one time. Like us there were a number of volunteers coming and going and so the group was always changing, but the people there were just awesome and we made a lot of great friends there - eso es papa! The aim of the project was, primarily, to protect the eggs being laid by the Olive Ridley turtles nesting on the beach from being poached by locals, and it achieved this with great success, reversing a trend of 90% of eggs being poached into 90% of eggs surviving. It worked by simply making it more difficult, tiring or frustrating to poach eggs, through a combination of camouflaging nests and tracks left in situ, by relocating fresh nests to another point on the beach and camouflaging both sites, or by relocating to a secured hatchery site. The location of all the nests were recorded through triangulation by measuring distances from markers on the beach, and a whole load of other data was recorded, like track width, nest size, egg sizes and weights, plus the general health of the turtle (if seen). The staple diet of the project was the beach patrols, two during the night and one in the morning, to find the nests before the poachers can; essentially an 8-10 km walk over four hours up and down the beach in the dark (no white lights allowed on the beach).

Finding tracks and nests was a common enough occurrence, but witnessing a turtle was another thing altogether. I didn't get to see one until the eleventh hour, when on my last night (when I was happily celebrating and not on patrol) I was dragged to the beach to meet the Olive Ridley making a nest just across from the camp. She was beautiful and I got one of two videos of her laying eggs and covering the nest, but typically my batteries ran out before I could film her crawling back out to sea. It didn't matter though, because it was amazing to get to handle her, inspect her for any knocks and scratches (she was in perfect condition), and follow her back out to the sea; her stopping every 5 metres or to rest and heave a big sigh before pushing on for another 5 metres.

Sarah was even luckier a few days before when her patrol spotted a turtle leaving a nest and heading back into sea. It is a priority to ensure the turtles are tagged wherever possible, so Sarah had to stall the turtle until the tagger could readied by covering its eyes and blocking her path back to sea. Sarah is still sporting her turtle wrestling scars - scratches from the turtle's flippers on her arms (and watch) - which she is very proud of.

The other main focus of the project was engaging with and educating the local community, through working with the local schools, training local people to lead patrols, and building an association through which locals can make money out of the project by running patrols for tourists from Agujitas. The idea is to find ways for the locals to make money from conservation rather than from poaching and selling eggs. On our first day we did a trip where a local farmer, who used to be a poacher, gave us a tour of his farm, gave us some samples of his various produce (including his home-brewed rice wine or ´magic water´) and let us swim in an amazing water hole on his land, all in exchange for a few bucks each. It was a clear choice for people like him simply not to bother poaching eggs anymore.

Whilst we were there a few of us went over to the next beach, Playa Ganado, as a sort of scout party to paint markers on the beach and make it ready for patrolling. Ganado is a pristine beach with a crystal clear river running behind it, full of mangroves, caimans and crocodiles. In fact we found some fresh crocodile tracks when we arrived there, complete with the remains of some sort of eel thing that it had regurgitated on the sand. Patrolling Ganado involved two people camping there for 3 days in shifts living in basic accommodation - tents on a platform in the middle of the jungle, living with the monkeys and the jaguars. We would have loved to do a shift there but unfortunately we just had to move on.

The Foundation had a deal with Costa Rica's 'Nature Air' whereby we could get a flight back to San Jose for just 30 bucks (taking just 40 mins, compared to the day it took to get there by bus and boat!); we also got to fly in one of those cool little planes that took off from directly outside the lodge (we were living at the end of a runway!). This was such a brilliant flight - first climbing and banking over the beach where we had been living, we could see the lodge, the chante and the Rio Drake, and Playa Ganado in the distance, then over the lush rainforest of Parque Nacional Corcovado. In short, estaba de puta madre!

We´ve got some great videos from here (especially of the turtles), so as soon as I find a fast enough computer I will upload them.

R&M
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