Morning: Every morning we were woken up by the beautiful, soothing sounds of the white, salty waves crashing against the beach shoreline. Of course, we were also woken up by the extreme heat of the Costa Rican sun. We slept in mosquito nets; so one thing we always looked forward too in the morning was going to the restrooms. Once you tucked yourself into that mosquito net at night, there was no turning back.
Afternoon: Since our prime volunteer task took place in the evening and at night, we got to do a variety of different things during the day. Every day we performed some sort of enriching or eco-conscious activity, such as cooking dinner, clearing the forest trails, cleaning the beach, going on hikes, playing volleyball, and of course, getting to know one another. If we were lucky, we also got to help harvest the old nests, and save the babies trapped inside. The baby turtles were without a doubt my favorite part; they were incredible little things. They resulted in amazing footage for my video as well.
Evening: Although the evenings were a lot less leisurely than our afternoons, they were equally as fun and much more tiring, and exciting. We split our group of 13 volunteers into 2 sub-groups: 1 group would patrol the beach from 8pm until 12am, and then the other group would patrol from 12am until 4am. Of course, whoever was put into the second group was never too pleased and had to make up for the missed sleep by going to bed extra early.
On patrol, we’d walk up and down the 1km beach until a mama turtle would make her way onto the beach to lay her eggs. We would then collect all the necessary information for the professionals to handle, while protecting the mama turtle from local predators such as crocodiles and spotted jaguars. It was always very enlightening to see the mama turtles in action after having seen the babies hatch earlier. It was essentially like watching the circle of life take place right in front of us.
Highlights: I would say that the highlight of my volunteer experience would have to be the same as the highlight of my overall ISV experience, Spanish Week and Adventure Tour included. This moment, the highlight of my summer, would most definitely be on the last day of our volunteer project on Nancite Beach.
All 13 of us put on our volunteer and ISV shirts to take pictures, and in the process we ended up having our own little party on the beach; just laughing, dancing. We were celebrating our incredible experience and all the hard work we put into helping not only the turtles, but all of Nancite Beach - sand, mangrove, and all. It was so incredible to stand there with each other. I remember feeling pure joy and ecstasy. A moment for life, that’s for sure.