Day 10 Sea turtles

Today was an adventurous day on the coast near Nicaragua. To start off our last day in Costa Rica we had breakfast at the house of the family that’s been feeding us here. We had some amazing coffee and some great homemade cheese with our pinto de gallo (rice and beans of course) and tortillas. After breakfast in our rash guards and swim trunks, we headed to the beach. There we hopped onto two boats with a third research boat behind us, and took an hour-long boat ride to the other side of the bay.
First, we watched just the researchers demonstrate how to take samples and measure a sea turtle, then we split up into two big groups. While half patrolled the net while snorkeling, the others just snorkeled around to find fish and guide turtles to the net. Once there was a turtle on the boat, groups of 2-4 helped collect information about the turtle and then release them again.
We then had lunch on the boat, which was a variety of salads, some more rice (you should have seen that coming by now), and awesome plantain chips. After lunch, we all hopped in the water to cool off and splash around before our hour ride back on the boats. Once we got back, we headed to the hotel to clean up for dinner.
We had an amazing bar-b-que on the beach with the turtle team, some local friends and family, and some Australian grad-students, who informed me that “throw some shrimp on the barbi” is really an American coined term. . . I’m not sure if we’re all completely convinced. After we had some amazing bar-b-que we played on the beach with some kids and then headed back to the hotel.
We’re all very tired and ready to come home tomorrow to see our friends and family; thank you all for following this blog and helping us get here. It was an amazing trip and words can’t describe how thankful we all are for you people and what you’ve done to get us here.
Peace, Love, and Happy thought,

Maggie and the rest of the gang 


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