Tortuga!

While on a second adventure to the Caribbean coast we decided to take a side trip to the Gandoca Nature Preserve just north of the Costa Rica-Panama boarder. The drive in itself was interesting as we summitted a mountain on a gravel road, passed through banana plantations owned by Chiquita and Del Monte and crossed single-track wooden bridges that surprisingly held the weight of our rental car. But something we have learned in our adventures is sometimes you have to make sacrifices in order to reap the rewards that this planet has to offer. In this case we sacrificed a little time, a little comfort and a good-nights sleep in order to witness the breathtaking spectacle of a female Leatherback turtle laying her eggs on a beach under the light of a full moon. With only 25,000-40,000 females nesting around the world each year, we were really lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

The critically endangered female Leatherback turtle comes ashore in April to lay up to 80 eggs in a nest dug in the sand of the same beach where she hatched 20 years before. The fact that the turtles lay eggs in the same sand where they were born is one of the reasons their survival is threatened and one of the reasons the Gandoca Preserve is so carefully managed. Another threat to the turtles is pollution. Turtles love to eat jellyfish and when plastic bags wash into the ocean the turtles mistake them for jellyfish and choke on the plastic. People are another threat to the turtles. Humans have taken over many of the beaches they used to use as nesting grounds.

When we arrived at the nesting beach after dark we had to stay well back as the turtle was laying her eggs, we couldn't take pictures and had to speak softly as not to scare the turtle. When the turtle finished laying her eggs volunteers gathered the eggs and placed them in a special "nursery" where they are protected from humans and other predators. It takes up to 70 days for the eggs to hatch, after which the volunteers allow the turtles to crawl through the sand just enough to imprint the beach into their radar and then carefully shepherd the turtles to the open ocean.


After our turtle finished laying her eggs she created a "false nest" in the sand to camouflage the actual nest from predators. It was at this time that we got to take a closer look at the enormous prehistoric animal. Leatherback turtles are the largest of the sea turtles, weighing up to 1500lbs. The turtle this night was 152cm long (5 ft), 115 cm across the back with an estimated weight of 700 pounds. Truly remarkable were the flippers, some of which can be as long as two meters! As the turtle dug and moved in the sand, the sand flew far enough to "splash" us we watched.

We sat in the sand for almost two hours watching this spectacle. Mags was dozing quietly in my lap as the turtle slowly turned and began her journey back to the ocean. When she was about 10 ft away our guide asked us to move away to give her plenty of room for her trek home. But that was OK as we too had to begin our trek home.

The following day we tried to re-create an image of the turtle as we played in the sand on the beach. While we may have gotten the size about right, we certainly didn't capture the majesty that Mother Nature provided for us the night before.