Saving Sea Turtles in

Costa Rica

My first solo trip to another country! Costa Rica was my first time volunteering by myself for two weeks with a program to help save sea turtles.

​

I flew into San Jose and stayed one night with a host family before catching a bus for a four-hour ride to Junquilal, a small beach town. You drive down some CRAZY mountain road to get there! This bus ride was an experience of a lifetime-being both scary and thrilling of a ride down the mountain during a downpour of rain and one windy road. Luckily we made it to the bus stop in Santa Cruz, where I would need to catch the local bus to get to the placement site.

Once I reached the site, some of the other volunteers and I got a tour of the area. We also got to catch a sunset on the beach as we release some baby turtles back to the ocean! The beach was about a block away from the placement site. I stayed in Junquilal for about two weeks by helping some of the locals look for sea turtles at night. We needed to locate the sea turtles before poachers could steal the eggs. The poachers would steal the eggs and sell them at local markets, and in some cultures eating the eggs are a delicacy.

The volunteers' job was to make nets that would be placed on the beach where we had relocated the sea turtle eggs. These nets helped keep the eggs safe from other animals in the area. (Side Note: the nets are not to harm but to protect.) The other volunteers and I would get up in the middle of the night to check along the beach to see if any turtles were laying eggs.

​

On the weekends we would travel anywhere we wanted in Costa Rica. One of the places we visited was Tamarindo. Here we just relaxed on the beach, swam at one of the local hotel pools, and visited some of the local bars!

​

When my volunteer time ended, I stayed in Costa Rica for the next few days. I traveled to Manuel Antonio National Park, where I got to see monkeys, sloths, and other tropical animals that I was not able to capture with my camera. Costa Rica was a blast, and I can't wait to go back one day!

​

Travel, Landscape & Nature Photographer