Amazing sites to see

After our first big day of surprises, the next day went rather smoothly. We took a tour of one of the caves in Parque Nacional Barra Honda. The Terciopelo cavern is a 206 foot descend and was named because of a terciopelo corpse they found at the bottom of the cave when first exploring it. There are several other caves including one which they have found remains of humans who were thrown to the bottom for whatever reason. But only one cave was open to the public at this time. We hiked up the mountain with our two guides. Both of our guides were amazing. I walked behind talking to one of our guides. He picked plants as we walked along and shared them with me. I would smell them and he would tell me in Spanish what the Indians used them for and their Spanish name. He told me that he was very well traveled and had friends all over the world. I think he said something about Obama. Sadly I could only understand maybe half of what he said, but I would love to spend time at this park studying with him. Our other guide was the one to take us down into the cave.

We strapped on rappelling gear and followed him down the ladder. The cave was really beautiful. There were bats sleeping and large toads hopping about. We climbed down until we reached a wall with only a narrow hole. Jason and I both thought it was the end of the line, but our guide showed us how to squeeze through. He pointed out the way the columns were formed and what they had named some of the formations. There was one call, “The family” and others they referred to as “papayas.” He tapped on some of the rock formations showing us how they were hollow and would make different pitched sounds. Jason is going to post a video of him and our guide playing on the rock.
We stayed at Barra Honda a second night because the buses don't run on Sundays anyways. The rangers allowed us to stay for free and they also allowed us to use the kitchen for the volunteers. We had such a wonderful time and Barra Honda. Everyone was so kind to us. Thank you!!

On Monday we headed to Playa Grande and Parque Nacional Marino las Baulas. Baulas tortugas are the leather back turtles that come to Playa Grande to nest. During nesting season there are tours at night which allow you to enter the beach and witness the nesting. We tried to see it the first night we were there but you have to make the list and they can only take so many people out at a time. Some times turtle don't even come out. Jason and I had been up since 5 am and couldn't stay up longer than 11 pm so we packed it in and planned on seeing them the next night. We stayed in a pleasant hotel that is connected to a bar called “Kike's Place.” It was not very expensive and we got a bathroom which is really nice plus free wireless.

The next day we went out bike riding to see Playa Grande. It is just across the estuary from Playa Tamarindo which is the a much more built up beach. Playa Grande will be the same in a few years. There was a lot of land that was divide into small sections and being sold by Century 21 to what I'm sure is big building companies. Lucky the entire beach is part of the park and protected land just for the sea turtles.
The bike ride was lovely. We popped in and out of the beach all the way down to the estuary, where the salt and fresh water meet. If we had planned it better, we may have taken a boat tour up the river. There are apparently always boaters waiting to take tourists across or on a tour. We watched the sunset on the beach, which was actually rather boring compared to the sunsets of Mal Pais, and headed to the ranger station to check in for the sea turtles.

Now when you go to watch the sea turtles, you wait all night until one shows up. This may or may not happen. Then they take only a certain number of people out to see. When viewing the mother, everyone stands behind her in a half circle and hopes that she finishes her nest and lays her eggs. If there are too many people, you might not get to see the first turtle that comes up. In our case we waited until a short time after 11 to see the second mother come on to shore to lay her eggs. A family drove Jason and I to the site because we did not have a vehicle. We followed out in a single line and made a small half circle behind the mother. Because we were the last of the people there was only about 15 of us instead of 30. There were biologist counting the eggs and making sure the nest didn't fall in on itself. The most amazing part was watching this giant turtle (her shell 4 ft long) back herself into this hole she had dug that was about 3 ft deep and carefully scooping sand out. The way she moved her back fins seemed almost unnatural. Bending them inwards to make a shovel and lifting them out and flicking her fin in a way to throw the sand out. Our mother laid 71 eggs. They were slightly larger than golf balls, shiny and perfectly round. Sadly, no pictures were allowed so I have nothing to show you guys. I'm sorry. We did not get to see her return to the sea. But we did see the tracks that she had left when she came on to the beach. They were so wide, they looked like a 4 wheeler had driven out of sea.
That evening Jason and I crashed in front of the abandon museum. We wanted to catch the first bus out and didn't want to pay for a room for only 4 hours. There was what used to be a small circular bar. We laid out our sleeping bags and slept till the sun awoke us. (I don't know if I have mention this but you have to try really hard to sleep past 6 am in Costa Rica. The sun comes up at 5:30 and sets about the same time in the pm. 8Pm here seems like 10 or 11 pm. It's nice in a lot of ways.)