Minibadda

The bakery comes to our house, and is the only time we get desserts.

Kimmy and I at Rip Jacks the night of the minibadda.

Playa Grande

Look at this Caterpillar!!!

The ridleys are here! Thanks goodness, this getting a turtle every couples of days and maybe/maybe not getting a sample has been ridiculous. So far we have had three leatherbacks on Playa Grande and three more on Playa Ventanas (pretty amazing since there is no good spot to nest there). It's nice to finally collect some samples, however they are still doing a pretty darn good job at avoiding me. For instance, Friday night was my night off and Kim and I went for cocktails at Rip Jack's, and then six turtles popped up on Grande and two more on Ventanas...Jerks! Fortunately, my awesome team collected three samples for me! This was the most ridleys that have come to nest on one night in the past two years. Since arribadas call for 100 turtles in the night, we call this a minibadda, because it seems like a lot to us. Side note: I am also the only person on the team who was yet to see a leatherback this season, so it's not just the ridleys avoiding me.

On another possitive note, I managed to order some more supplies. Now I'm just waiting on sheep's blood for my agar (Microbio stuff...It's really not as gross as that just sounded). Fingers crossed I can actually get started on my anaylsis in November, before the peak of leatherback season and we have even less time.

Other than that, not much has happened the past week; I saw my first coati, tree full of black-headed trogons, and the guard, Joaquin, found an awesome Hercules beetle that flew away before I could get a picture. Yesterday there was a ridley that hatched in the day, but once again Kim and I missed that adventure because we were still trying to set up the hatchery. Our website is finally up, so you can all check that out at http://www.goldringmarinestation.org/.