The Turtles

Image: some of the reserva's baby sea turtles (different year)

Here at the reserva, the staff collect sea turtle eggs from the beach and keep them in a hatchery. The hatchery is essentially a greenhouse made of mesh material with sand on the bottom, where the turtle eggs can be buried. Every two hours of every day, groups of volunteers are sent to check on the sand above the turtle eggs to track any changes. They are supposed to hatch this week, so hopefully we will get to see some baby turtles before we leave. I have been sent a few times for the hatchery checks, but as of right now, there have not been any changes in the sand.

There are seven different species of sea turtle in the world, and Costa Rica has four of them. The hatchery at the reserva is currently holding eggs of the Olive Ridley sea turtle, which is the smallest of the four species in Costa Rica. It is also the most common species we find here on this beach. 

Why does the reserva take the eggs and put it in a hatchery? Why not just let the eggs hatch on their own in the wild? They do this for a few reasons. 

Firstly, there are many poachers who dig up sea turtle nests to use the eggs for their own consumption or to sell. We were shown some statistics, and it showed that there were 41 poached nests out of some 200 total nests on our beach in 2023. That year, the reserva was able to save 44 nests.

This picture was also taken at the reserva

Another reason that the reserva takes the eggs is to prevent the eggs being eaten from predators. This includes Jaguars, armadillos, crabs, ants, and humans. The hatchery is locked and surrounded by fences in order to keep out predators and poachers.

The final reason, and the most interesting in my opinion, is to breed more males. If the temperature becomes too cold, the baby sea turtles will be mostly males. If it gets too hot, there will be more females. As we all know, the temperature of the earth has been rising slowly, which means that there are more female sea turtles coming out. To keep the balance between male and female turtles, the hatchery is placed in a shaded area to prevent the sand from getting too hot. 

I looked this up on Google, and it said that if the eggs are incubated below 28C, all turtles hatching will be male, and if incubated above 31C, all turtles will be female. Very interesting.

This is another picture taken by the reserva. If we spot a sea turtle laying eggs at the beach, we will take measurements and check if the sea turtle is tagged. A fun fact is that a sea turtle will always return to the coastline it hatched on. Because of this, many tagged turtles return to this beach every year.

Written by Stephen J

Monkeys in Reserva Playa Tortuga

One of the animals they have at the reserve are monkeys. The job focused on the monkeys is walking through the jungle finding monkeys and once you find one you have to follow it for five minutes tracking what it does every 15 seconds. 

While I was on the monkey walk, we didn’t find any monkeys but we have seen them while we were doing various other tasks. One day during free time, while some others from our group where coming back from another job, we saw them in trees that were visible from our rooms. Another day during breakfast, they were right outside of the main entrance, and the last time we saw them, we where collecting the videos from the cameras in the forest and there were lots of them playing around in the trees.

When we were on our monkey walk, some of the things we were looking for were if they had babies with them, if the babies were on there backs, where they were (how high on the tree they are), and what they were doing. Some examples of things they could be doing are eating, sleeping, climbing, etc. and we had to update it every 15 seconds. 

From what I’ve seen capuchin monkeys are very playful jumping off of one tree and grabbing a branch from a near by tree while yelling as loud as they can. Other times they will be fighting like siblings or even running away from all the other loud monkeys to get a break. 

The two kinds of monkeys we were looking for were capuchin and howler monkeys. Both kinds have a life span of 15-20 years. Their main diets are also mostly the same with flowers, nuts, fruits, and leaves but capuchin monkeys also occasionally eat small birds and other things like that. I have only seen capuchin monkeys so far but hope to see howler monkeys soon.

-Hunter 

 

Bats at Reserva Playa Tortuga

Picture this: you're a fruit bat in Costa Rica, hanging from the holes in the center of leaves from a invasive banana tree. At night, you fly though the air, searching for insects and delicioso fruit.

Birdwatching at Reserva Playa Tortuga

Time flies by so quickly- today is already our day 3 volunteering at the reserve! In the morning, when it is still not too hot outside, we went for a birdwatching walk. Josue, a worker here took us on the walk and taught us a lot about the birds. Starting from 7 am, we went on a trail surrounded by plants and animals. 

We each got binoculars to observe closely at the birds, and Josue brought a camera to take pictures of birds. 

As we were walking, we could hear a tweet-tweet sound of Chestnut-Backed Antbird. They are small and black, and they usually stay in couples. Josue told us that sometimes if we copy their tweet-tweet sound, the male Antbird will come out to check the sound. 

We walked past a river where some rocks and logs are, to find some more birds. We were able to see some bigger birds: Tricolored Herons, Little Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets, and Bare-throated Tiger-Herons. Tricolored Herons looked mostly grey except for their beaks and legs. Little Blue Herons looked a bit similar to Tricolored Herons, but their feathers will change to white in winter. Snowy Egrets on the other hand are white at all times. Bare-throated Tiger-Herons are interesting because when they are kids, their feathers are brown, but once they grow up, their feathers will turn grayish-blue. We also saw some Kingfishers, which were small green birds.

Although we couldn't take any pictures, we were very lucky to spot a toucan flying. 

Later, we walked down to the beach. I found some footprints on the sand which would likely to be from a Heron. We were also able to find a Masked Tityra on a tree nearby the beach. It was mostly white, but had some black parts, and some pink around its eyes. 

We didn't see any on the birdwatching walk, but I saw two Macaws earlier in the morning on a high tree. 

I was surprised by how Josue knows so well about birds. And in the conversation during the walk, he told us that he was a local, and had been watching the birds since he was a kid. So, whenever he heard a sound of a bird or see it from far away, he knew what species it was.

I really enjoyed today's birdwatching. It was an amazing experience for all of us in Costa Rica. I never really had a chance to look closely at birds before, so I am very glad that we had such a chance. 

Thank you, Josue, for sharing your knowledge and time with us!

By Rika

Butterflies in Reserve Playa Tortuga

Caligos

As one of the activities today, we went to the butterfly garden. We cleaned the cages of the larvae, changed the plants that they eat, counted the larvae to make sure they were safe, and learned about the butterflies, their eggs, and their babies.

Sara, a worker at RPT, told us about the three types of butterflies in their butterfly garden: Morpho, Caligo, and Siproeta.

Morphos are blue, and their eggs are big. Their pupae are green, and the caterpillars have yellow spots.

Caligos have patterns of an eye on each wing. Their pupae and larvae look like dry leaves. Their eggs are white and small.

Siproetas

Siproetas have orange and white wings. The larvae are black with orange spots. Their eggs are really small and look like watermelons. Their pupae are light green and also have orange spots.

We petted the larvae, and they were soft. But the babies were delicate, so we used a paintbrush to move them while cleaning the cages and changing the leaves. We also gave the butterflies some fruit because they haven't planted enough flowers for them yet.

Every afternoon, the volunteers pick up the eggs. The eggs are very small and hard to find. Some of them are behind the leaves or between the leaves.

I really enjoyed taking care of the butterflies and larvae.

~ Yumi ~

Siproetas eggs

Gift Sharing

When we were staying with the Borucan people they shared so many gifts of knowledge with us about their culture and life style. We had less opportunities to share our knowledge and culture with them so we gave them physical gifts. 

Each of us scouts chose one thing that either we enjoyed or thought represented us. Yumi made origami for them, Rika made bracelets, Devon brought Legit Buildable fidgets, Steven brought a craft for them to make, Huy brought Rubix cubes for them to learn to use, and I brought Anmore stickers. 

As a group, before we left home we asked what there village could use and they said school supplies. We started raising money and collecting school supplies just a couple weeks before leaving and got more supplies than we could have imagined! We left for Costa Rica with a 70 pound suitcase of school supplies and almost $1000 Canadian dollars to give them. We were all very happy with the exited faces we got when we handed over the gifts and supplies. 

They also gave us some handmade coin purses made by a scouts mom. They are made by weaving hand-spun cotton thread, often dyed with natural materials, into small, pouches. We were very happy to leave with memories and knowledge but the keepsake coin purses and masks we got to paint ourselves were so nice. After all we did with them from learning how to make tamales, to swimming in a waterfall, we hope they had as much fun as we did.

  -Hunter

Visiting Boruca - Day 4 and 5

Stephen:

The Boruca are some of the most welcoming people ever. Upon arrival, we were met by the host of the place we would stay for the next two days. He greeted us with a warm welcome in Spanish, which we understood little of. Luckily, David, another person from the village was able to translate for us.

After setting up our bags and beds, we met the Boruca scouts troop. The scout leader, Diego, and the Boruca scout members were able to welcome and communicate with us with the help of David. They then offered us a delicious lunch made only with ingredients farmed in Boruca. Diego was very kind, and taught us the Boruca scout traditions, which in a way was similar to ours - the oath being spoken and repeated by everyone, and the left hand shake. 

Something I noticed about the Boruca scouts is that a lot of their activities could be accessed by just walking a few minutes. They had everything in the village - a museum, a place to make traditional food and collect fruits, and a waterfall. In Anmore, where we are, it would require a lot of driving and changing towns just to get to places, while in Boruca, they had everything walking distance away. 

A lady from the village taught our scout troop how to make traditional Tamales. We wrapped some raw, salted rice and some pork in large leaves. The end result looked like a small rectangular present, and although we never got to try them, the pork smelled delicious.

I also saw how well the traditions were preserved and how good the conditions were. The village had special jobs for mask carvers and people who make textiles. The museum was also full of information on the history of Boruca. The taps also had clean drinking water and the sewage system with the toilets was great. I did some research and compared this to the Canadian reserves. The reserves here in Canada also have some tradition preserved, but a lot of it was lost. The conditions can also be difficult, with bad sewage systems, and unclean drinking water. I was surprised about how good the conditions were in Boruca.

The people were very happy. Everyone seemed to be busy doing something. I saw some performers singing songs, people cooking food, and some families taking walks by the river. The hospitality coming from the Boruca scouts and our airbnb host was great. David was muy fantastico!. We were able to learn a lot about the village and Costa Rica. Our host, despite knowing little english, was willing to ask us questions and talk to us. The Boruca scouts also joined us to wish Rika a happy birthday and cracked an egg on her head. Overall, these are some of the friendliest and most welcoming people I have met. 

Huy:

When met with the people from Boruca, they seemed a lot more grateful about what they had. Everyone seemed to be super happy and were super friendly to us and waited patiently when we didn't understand something that they were saying. When comparing this to people back at home, there are a lot of times where people aren't the nicest about things and probably has more things than the people over here at boruca.

Devon:

There were a LOT of dogs there. Each person had 12 dogs and were responsible for taking care of each others' dogs.

The community was very healthy and have a good lifestyle. Hospitals, schools, and other community services are mostly free for civilians who have a job and support the community. 

 One of the things that Diego said that stuck with me was that although there was the language barrier, the language of a scout is universal.

It was truly a great experience for both parties.

¡Muchas gracias!

Written by: Stephen Jiang, Gia Huy Pham, Devon Mitten