Sea turtle conservation in a small coastal community

Life moves slowly in Costa Rica ... so does service work. Although we didn't do much work during the day (and spent it mostly with host families, other volunteers, or on excursions in the area, I loved the night patrols - 4 hours each night. Although most nights were very dark, some during rainstorms, I really enjoyed the walk on the beach. Although exhausting walking through soft sand, tripping over stumps and branches, and, on occasion, getting soaked by a rogue wave, nothing could be more rewarding than running into (literally, sometimes almost stepping over) a nesting leatherback sea turtle. Their impressive size and methodical nesting ritual are like no other, and the work of relocating the nests to hide from poachers meant a lot to me and the other volunteers. As frustrating as it would be to find some of our relocated nests poached, or of nests we missed beating the poachers to, I felt we were truly helping make a little impact in increasing the odds of survival of the turtles. More importantly, however, I felt our presence and work in the community contributed to helping show the value that's placed on conservation work like this to the community, and hopefully poaching practices will be nonexistent in the near future.