Work, Play and People

Since Saturday, December 17th, I had been going non-stop, bouncing from one place to another in order to maximize the number of people I could connect with. I woke up for breakfast at 8am on Tuesday morning fully aware that the pace of life on the beach is much more relaxed compared with the pace that I had been living for the previous two weeks, and it was a bit of a jolt to my system. I repeated the mantra “Relax, Carolyn. They’ll tell you when and what you are supposed to do eventually. Be patient.” many times before I was able to fully embrace it. Hours later, the leader took me out to the “vivero” or turtle hatchery, located about a quarter of a mile down the beach, and gave me a brief orientation.

The Olive Ridley sea turtle species is endangered; therefore there is a concerted effort to protect the nests from all types of predators. ASVO volunteers dig up the nests once they are laid along the beach and put them within a fenced-off hatchery that is monitored 24/7. Typically, a nest yields around 100 eggs and the gestation period is between 45-51 days. We as volunteers were responsible for keeping the hatchery area clean, recording size and mass data of hatched turtles and then releasing them into the ocean.

My first duty was the following night from midnight until 6am with a partner so we could take turns being on duty and sleeping in the hammock. Sweet! I was thrilled to hear that a nest was “due” to hatch that night! By the time I got there, we could see 4 little turtle heads. We checked the nest every 15 minutes to monitor the progress using only a red light so as not to disturb or confuse the turtles. It was super exciting to see one of the turtles completely pull itself out of its shell in the sand and emerge victorious during one of my check-ups! With a gloved hand, I took it from its nest and placed it in a bucket of sand so that it could be taken to the shelter to be weighed and measured. Since another one was likely to be surfacing within the hour, we decided to wait until the second one was born before releasing them into the great big ocean!

There was a family from Canada who had come back to the hatchery late that night so they could watch the release of the newborn turtles. We placed them on the shore about 15 meters from the water and encouraged them to go toward their future home by shining a red light, tapping the sand and a healthy dose of verbal encouragement! One seemed surer about life outside the nest than the other. As I watched the two brand new baby turtles take on the world for the first time about 2:30am, many allegories to life became apparent (see Turtle Life Lessons later).

Another morning, a group of us went to the recycling center in Montezuma and helped to smash, sort and bag 3 days’ worth of plastic bottles from this tiny tourist town. Wow. A few lessons I learned: #1 Don’t leave the caps on your plastic bottles when you recycle them; they’re not recyclable! #2 Don’t leave liquid in your bottles; it has to be emptied, and it’s much grosser days later. #3 Recycling center attendants need to be paid more. I processed waste for about 3 hours one time in Costa Rica meaning it was novel with an element of glamour and fun, but day in and day out it would become difficult, unpleasant work that deserves to be appropriately compensated.

In addition to this time spent volunteering, I had plenty of opportunity to hang out on the beach and play in the waves getting to know the other volunteers who were from college students from Costa Rica, Germany, Italy, two professional dancers from Belgium, and a Canadian science teacher who’s working in South Korea. For the most part, we spoke Spanish with a little English thrown in to clear up a few misunderstandings. One morning I hiked down the road about a half mile and found an amazing trail leading up a river through luscious rainforest to gorgeous waterfalls complete with a refreshing swimming hole, rock jumps and a rope swing, which I most definitely sampled. None of the other volunteers were interested in going, so I joined up with a great group of people from Toronto, and we had a great time! Another day I spent the morning reading on the beach, then explored the other end of the beach with another volunteer where we discovered THOUSANDS of shells, a nearly empty beach and huge rock formations with some awesome tide pools mini-ecosystems!!!


Soon it was time for the bus ride/ferry expedition back to San Jose followed by the marathon ride back to San Salvador. This time my travel companions were a vegan who’d attended the University of Iowa and was currently living in Chicago as an investment banker, a guy who works at my school in San Salvador and was traveling back home served as my border buddy and my seat buddy was the grandfather of a Salvadoran family that served as an example to me as the kindest, patient, loving family that I’ve ever had the opportunity to witness, EVER. After having traveled around Costa Rica as grandma, grandpa, mom, dad and 3 kids ages 2, 4, and 8 for two weeks they were now on the 20-hour bus ride back to San Salvador. They were nothing but wonderful to each other. Everyone helped out and took part to make everything run smoothly and the children behaved impeccably! I kept waiting for someone to get cranky and impatient but they NEVER did! At the end of our journey, I told them they were an inspiration!

While I may have officially “traveled alone”, I honestly never felt alone. I met so many kind, friendly and helpful people along the way who were willing to explain a million different things to me and share sweet life moments: how to conquer border crossings, how to dive under a wave to prevent being crushed, when to switch buses, how much a taxi should cost from point A to point B, how to tuck in the pulls on my backpack to appear less desirable to thieves, waking me up in the bus so I could see the amazing wind turbines around a Nicaraguan lake, and watching in awe as the sun set during the ferry ride. While there isn’t a single person who can reminisce about the entire journey with me, I did get to experience the joy of sharing unexpected moments of delight and connection with an interesting and diverse smattering of humanity. What a treat! :)