Fingers Crossed: Una Sorpresa

Much has happened in the past week, I've just been to lazy to write about it. I was never good at keeping up with a journal when I was young. I think I tried twice, but ended up not keeping up with either. I figure I'll aim for once a week, but as we get closer to the peak of season and everything gets busier, the post are starting to slip...for this, I apologize.

Mom during her 24hr stay and my first pic with the new camera

Last Friday I got a phone call from my mother saying that she needed me to go cancel the cab with Blair because she was planning on surprising me here, however she could not get on a flight. I was definately more sad when I found out she was planning on coming and couldn't than I was not thinking I would not see her around Christmas time at all. Thankfully, Blair managed to get in on the surprise for the next night when he brought her to my doorstep. Though she was only here one night, it was so nice! I was fortunate enough to see my mom, spend the night in a hotel bed, get loads of BBQ sauce, candy, some paints, and a brand new camera!!! I haven't been able to take too many pics yet, but my D3000 is amazing! Thankfully the cab driver let me go to the airport with her, so we got another hour and a half together, since she was only in town one night. Wish the rest of the fam could have come down too, but only two and a half months left.

Cool bat shot with the new camera

In other news, the tourist guides are starting to get a little more friendly, which is good and bad. It was a little awkward when one grabbed my hand and tried to walk a bit of my patrol with me under the stars...caught me off guard to say the least. I pulled my hand away to talk with my hands as I often do, and quickly put my radio in that hand so it wouldn't happen again (lesson learned). Kim has also had some strange guide encounters. Fortunately, they are better around the turtles.

The last turtle I had had only 7 tourists and 1 guide. He didn't make me tell him every time I was going to complete an action (scanning measuring, tagging, etc.) and allowed me to work without asking me questions about actions I had not yet completed. She was a brand new turtle to the beach!!! For the most part, the work went smoothly, but the needle did come off in the turtle. iIt would be similar to a needle used to put air in a ball coming loos). The thick end was just enough for me to get my fingers around and yank out. Glad I didn't have to explain that situation to the tourists and guides, the ones from Tamarindo would not have been pleased.

We are coming to the end of another week with volunteers. They seem to all be really into the experience, and have been fortunate to see a lot. Everyone has seen adult leatherbacks, a ridley hatchling from an excavation, plus a select few volunteers were able to see a nest hatch, a black turtle, and a ridley. I would consider this to be an amazing amount of action considering I still have not seen a nest hatch on this beach (except the one where I found all the dead hatchlings over a month ago) and I can not remember my last ridley or black turtle. The lack of ridleys now is going to make completing my project difficult.

I've lost 2 sampled nests in the past week, one had only 3 eggs and the other we could not find a single egg for. This brings my uncomtaminated sample set from 15 samples to 13...I hope there will still be enough data for a master's. If the ridley's don't come in the next week, there will not be enough time for fungal growth and identifiction of any unhatched eggs (as this can take up to a month). Needless to say, I am neverous about my thesis. I also learned I have to defend by April 22 or I can not graduate in the summer as I had anticipated. As a result, I'm going to have to buckle down and get it mostly written by the time I leave Feb 28. EEEEEKKKKK!

Here are some more shots with the new camera: