I *LOVE* turtles!!!!!

Yes, it's true....I have a thing for turtles....they are so cute! Maybe it's because you don't see them all that often, but I think they're adorable! Yesterday after a really chill day in Guiones (I'll get to that in a bit) I came back to my room and my roommate said she had met our neighbors from Belgium who have a car and were going to check out the turtles on Ostional beach...and guess what? They had asked us to come along!

So, to back step, earlier that I'd met up with Michon for breakfast and then decided to go to Java Jungle and make some calls and relax with my book and have some refreshing iced tea....which is exactly what I did! I got to talk to my grandparents, greg, my mom, and Robert and Edith (yeah, I made A LOT of calls....but, hey! it's free and there was no one behind me waiting for the phone!) and really get into my book. After hanging out there awhile I figured I should get out of the AC and enjoy the sights, sounds, smell, and weather of Costa Rica so I moved on down the road to the Beach Cafe and had the most DELICIOUS muffin EVER! IT was a oatmeal banana muffin with tons of chocolate chips...YUM! I hung out there people watching and reading and then decided to one up it and move on to the beach to read....lol....no matter where i sat the water seemed to reach me and I was pretty soaked by the time I was ready to leave but the water was refreshing and I'd saved my book and backpack form the waves....can't say the same for my coat I was sitting on! ;o)

On my way home the sky started to turn black and thunder rang through the air threatening to open up a massive downpour on me! Every few minutes the sky would light up with lightening behind the clouds. Just as I got to my hotel the drops began to fall, but nothing like the downpour I'd expected. After meeting the Belgiums (Carolyn and Martin) we ended up having dinner together at the restaurant at our hotel and then we were off driving through the night on the dirt roads to Ostional Beach! We had to cross 3 rivers to get to the beach and stop for one ant eater crossing to get there.

Once we were on the beach the massive amount of small crabs running around and hearig the clacking of their shells was a little eerie and freaked me out since I was wearing flip flops and I didn't want one to run over my feet.....but I had to get over it so I just kept moving! As we walked down the beach we couldn't find any turtles but we saw massive amounts of eggs that had been unearthed by other turtles laying eggs or other animals. We decided to retrace our steps and we saw some turtle tracks....but no turtle sp we continued on. The second set of tracks we found had a turtle at the other end! The turtle had just got there since she was digging her hole for the eggs! Luckily I had my cell phone that has a flashlight option with a a red setting so we were able to watch the turtle through her whole process without disturbing her! It was SO cool to see how much work it took for her to dig her hole and then the massive amount of eggs that came out of her (at least 50!). Once she was done laying her eggs her work wasn't done....she spent a lot of time covering her next and then began the long trek back to the sea. It was so cool to be able to follow along side her and see how she would move forward when the water would roll in and stop when it would roll out....I'll post the pics of this when I get home! It was such an amazing time! I think it's been my favorite thing so far! :o)

Today I got to sleep in for the first time since we got her (I slept till 7:50 am!)....tonight we may go to see a live band in celebration of Guanacaste day (a holiday to celebrate this region). Tomorrow Jenny and I are planning on heading to Montezuma!