All posts by JESSICA HILL

Morning Greetings in Costa Rica

After arriving in Costa Rica and spending eight hours driving to our destination, our first night in Playa Blanca was a bit of a culture shock, but I was certainly expecting worse conditions.

Being away from everything not having any internet or forms of communication, I found myself sleeping better than I have in a long time.

The first official day of the trip, I believe everyone woke up pretty earlier, the sun started to rise around 05:00. As we all prepared ourselves for the day, we have a visitor that walked around the grounds.

This is Lori, she was adopted and was extremely nice and motherly to all. Everyone took some pictures with Lori, then we began our orientation which included vast amounts of information.

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Costa Rica and Sea Turtles

2015-05-09 07.51.14During the ten days spent out in Costa Rica, we were afforded two days out in the water the catch some sea turtles. The first Saturday, May 9, 2015, we headed to the beach and loaded up on the boats, while the research assistants dropped the nets into the water, we were able to see the work that is put into this research effort. Once the nets were in the water, several students jumped in and helped straighten them out to insure that were laying properly. That day we caught one male Hawksbill, which was a previous capture, who had a satellite affixed to his back in October. The team was able to track his movements for almost two months, before the signal was lost. During our orientation, which was given by Beth, the research coordinator, she discussed him at great length. While in our hands, we spent about two hours collecting the necessary data and sawing off the satellite based that was cemented to his carapace. This was the only turtle the group caught, during the rest of our time on the beach, we all found ways to pass the time. A group of us went off and found a sloth, while the other half were brought out into open water to view dolphins.

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