For a couple of the days we were in Costa Rica we got to work in part of the mangrove conservation efforts.

This first thing we did was water the baby plants and set aside some of the larger ones for being planted for our second day with the restoration efforts. I also sawed and cut bamboo for the first time in my life. They use it as a fence and also as markers for the sites of where they plant their mangroves.

We had to measure how tall they were and count the leaves and branches to help out with their recordings to figure out what sites were flourishing and which ones weren’t, to figure if they need to plant somewhere else.

On the second day we had to cross this river with all these plants and put them into the sand. I would say that was one of my favorite things I liked doing while we were there.

On our third day being in Costa Rica we finally set out to go capture sea turtles. It was a beautiful day out on the water too. We watched the research assistant set up the net and then we all went out into the water to undo any possible tangles.

Once we got on shore some people went to look for sloths and others stayed behind. I ended up staying behind, but later some of us got an opportunity to go out with our captain and see them a little closer. We saw some baby calves with some of the dolphins, but every time we got too close they would slip under the water and swim away. We soon gave up searching for them and headed back, but that was when we got the announcement we caught our first turtle. Our researcher we were with was doing a study on hawksbill turtles and what they were eating. So we got to watch her do a lavage to see what the turtle was dieting and watched her do a venipuncture. We then helped her obtain its weight and measurements. Once we were done we returned the sea turtle back to the ocean.