Taken at playa Ostional, this was really a blessed trip. not only was i able to see 2 leatherbacks, i was able to witness the Aribadda (mass nesting phenomenon)! Thousands of olive ridleys came up to shore to nest within a period of 4-8days.. i was struck in awe, just standing at the beach, surronded by lots n lots n lots n lots of sea turtles. looking towards the sea..i was able to see many sea turtles swimming towards the shore, their heads bobbing up and down the choppy waters..haha. really very funny. on a serious note, its really tiring for these turtles to come up shore and nest..swimming across oceans..with like 100 eggs in them, you can actually see then pant when they reach the shore. crawl crawl crawl...stop and rest...then crawl up further to a safer spot. gotta start digging their nest (really hardwork! i had to do that too, like get down on all fours and dig turtle nest for the hatchery *sweat*)....then lay abt a 100 eggs....and they still gotta cover up the nest and camouflage it. really tiring... but then, thats the end of their job, they won't get to see their youngs again. and only 1 out of 1000 grow to be an adult. sad case.bottom left of the collage is my project leader yaiza, awesome to work with, and she took care of me well when i was there. =) and i can really sense her passion and love for the poor turtles.
bottom central: thats me and 2 other research assistants..during my off day, we walked 2hours to the next village just to use the internet. took a wrong route, and we had to climb up a steep rocky platform..crossed mini rivers..and the roads arent well-paved! they are sandy and had lots of pebbles...haa... hot, tired and bothered......even then, ever ready to smile for the camera! =)
bottom right: thats me sitting by the hatchery on a day shift =) oh during night shifts while i was at the hatchery...i saw lots of shooting stars! wooohoo!
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