Turtles!

After a huge amount of scouring the internet, I'd just about figured out that the stretch of coast north of Tamarindo was our best bet in November for a shot at seeing nesting turtles. The best bit of info I could find online was this handy guide that tells you when and where sea turtles nest in Costa Rica.

Whenever I'd dreamt about a trip to Costa Rica, seeing nesting turtles was right up at the top of that list - a proper bucket list type activity. Both boys love nature too so were equally as excited!

The turtles

There are several types of turtles that nest along both the Pacific and Caribbean coast of Costa Rica including the giant leatherbacks (very rarely seen), hawksbills, olive ridleys and green turtles. It was the green sea turtles that we were aiming for on the Nicoya Peninsula around Tamarindo; I'd read that the Las Baulas Marine Park was the place to see the turtles, but when I finally managed to get through to them I was told that they hadn't had a nesting turtle in the national park for around four years :(

I reluctantly headed to Viator (have had mixed experiences with tours etc with Viator in the past) and booked us on to a night walk that got good reviews and was in our price range. In the end we paid a total of £165 for the five of us.

We headed out at 6pm, with pick up from Tamarindo. The minibus drove for about 45minutes (the last 15mins or so down some very rough unpaved roads!) to a remote stretch of beach. It was a short walk in the pitch black down to the sand (which was pretty exciting on it's own!). No light is allowed at all (hence my lack of photos!) so that the turtles are not disturbed; the only exception is the red lights that the guides use to find the turtles.

We'd spotted the first turtle almost immediately - there was another tour group gathered round one that was busy building a nest. As there were already 8-10 people our guide just briefly showed us the tracks that the turtle had made and explained the process in a bit more detail but we didn't join the existing group.

Instead we waited another 15minutes or so until our guide had identified another turtle further along the beach that was in the process of digging her nest. As the nesting process can take some time, we hung around away from the turtle for a while until it was clear that she was settled in and definitely going to lay her eggs there. At the point we VERY QUIETLY headed over and sat in our small group to watch the process - which was properly magical. Watching the way the turtle's back flippers reached down and scooped out the sand was fascinating - Griff even managed to get sand thrown in his face! 

After a short time the turtle shifted position slightly and then started to lay her eggs, right in front of us. Both boys (and us!) watched in amazement - it really was just such an amazing thing to witness in real life. Once the turtle has finished laying we left her to fill in the hole, and went further down the beach to watch (from a distance) other turtle hauling themselves out of the water to nest, and turtles who had finished dragging themselves back out to sea. 

The whole thing really was one of those dream, once-in-a-lifetime experiences that was worth every penny. There are lots of opportunities to see turtles nesting across both coasts of Costa Rica, depending on the time of year and I would highly recommend making sure one of the accessible nesting sites is on any itinerary for a Costa Rica trip.

Tamarindo

As for Tamarindo itself, the town was probably our least favourite
destination that we visited in Costa Rica. Compared to everywhere else we'd been, it just felt very touristy, built-up and hectic. It is though a great base for exploring the northern end of the Nicoya Peninsula and we had a great day at Playa Conchal just North of Tamarindo, which was stunning.

But our stay here did enable us to see the nesting turtles, so it was worth it!