Rainbow Rim

Happy Summer! Sorry but blogging has become a chore... mostly on account of the awful internet connection I manage to steal form the General store here at the cabin.... needless to say I'm quite behind but may use my day off to get something done.

Ventured into the forest a few weekends ago. Finally got the truck packed up and ready to go and made it to Locust point on the rainbow rim around 2pm. Ate some pb and js for lunch and headed south to North Timp point on the Bikes.



Prescribed burn closed the trail to Timp but we hiked that last year so not that much of a loss.. View from North Timp point of steamboat mountain and Tapeats Amphitheater in first two pictures.





Back to camp for dinner and sunset (on right). Western part of the canyon seems hazier at times but I really dig the view.




Monday headed north... Locust point to Fence point- about 3 miles. View from fence point of steam boat mountain, Crazy Jug canyon and Tapeats Terrace. Love the way the esplanade looks out here.




Ended at Parissawampitts point (name apparently derived form a paiute word for Bubbling spring or something of that nature).


Didn't see any springs or much at all really. The point is pretty overgrown and you have to hike down to be able to see the canyon. So we stopped.. took some pictures of the signs and headed back.

Jesse at the point (left).. classic hippie biking attire.


Tough ride back.. saw a coyote! Mountain biking isn't exactly my forte but I still had fun.

Snowing here on the North Rim.. I figured a good opportunity for me to hunker down and finally get this thing going again. Been at the Grand Canyon for about two weeks now. Nice to be back. Had training on the South Rim this past week. Two days of sitting in on talks and getting "renewaled"... Interesting but hard to sit in one spot all day.



So getting down in the canyon on Wednesday, Thursday Friday was probably the highlight. Went down the Bright Angel Trail.. dropped food off at Indian Garden and continued on to Phantom Ranch to stay for the night. Nice walk.. and much less mule poop than the last time




Made it down to the river just in time for some sunset action in the distance.



Hung out at Phantom on Thursday and headed back up to Indian Garden in the afternoon.



Thanks to caffeinated clif shots, had a much easier time getting up Devil's corkscrew than the last time I did that (photo on left).








Got out to Plateau point for sunset and enjoyed turkey burgers and guacamole for cinco de mayo.









5 am Friday morning.. me, Jesse and Jake head east on the Tonto Trail.. about a 4 and a half mile stretch to the South Kaibab Trail (far superior to the Bright Angel Trail as far as condition and views go)... well worth the extra few miles.


Sunrise on the Tonto Trail.. managed to stay out of the sun for pretty much the entire time.. definitely helpful with the moisture retention.

Made it up around 10:30 and over to the BA trailhead in time to see everyone else come up and out of the canyon.



Saturday was wildlife day! Sat in on some good talks about Grand Canyon animals and got to see Jack Hanna speak (sometimes hard to understand with his super fast Tennessee drawl)... the two baby mountain lions were quite a treat... so cute!
On left is Tesla: a Red-tailed Hawk that collided with a powerline and had to get part of her wing removed. She was beautiful... kind of a bummer to see all these birds that have been injured in some way.. Now they're used for education which is great but it was still hard to look at them perched on posts indoors.

Adios

So long, Costa Rica. Had an awesome time but it flew by! Would have liked to see more but the raging fever I came down with last week prevented any travelling I had planned. So instead of leaving on Saturday, we left Ostional on the 5am bus on Monday morning. Did a whirlwind tour on Tuesday.



Started off with breakfast at a Coffee Plantation. Got to see the whole process of picking, shelling, washing, drying and toasting the coffee beans. Got a picture of this nice oxcart which was the mode of transport they used in the 1800s and early 20th century.


Then off to Poas volcano. The most visited one in costa rica.. probably because its so close to San Jose. Got really lucky. The clouds rolled in about 25 minutes after we got there.. and once that happens they're there the rest of the day and you can't see anything. Took my touron photo in front of the stinky volcano. We also did a nice hike to this beautiful lagoon next to it with this big acidic lake. Pretty.


The view coming down from the volcano. The valley with San Jose in the middle and mountains in the background. It was a bit hazy because its Sugar Cane season. They burn the sugarcane to burn off the leaves and get rid of the snakes that live in the crops.



After the volcano, we went down into the valley and further into the jungle to check out some waterfalls. They were lovely. The jungle was definitely really cool. Picture on right was the first waterfall we got to; Templo Waterfall.. 85 ft tall.




This was the top of the tallest one.. 120 feet. Magia Blanca Waterfall. After a series of about 5 or 6 waterfalls, we headed back to the city. I left on Wednesday afternoon. That morning, me and Stephanie's host mom took us unto San Jose for some souvenir and market shopping.. and also a tour of the Teatro Nacional. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures but it was beautiful. Some part of it reminded me of the Plaza in New York. She also bought us coffee and ice cream. Best host mom ever. Made me wish I was staying with her a little longer :)
Now its back in the U.S... and who knows when the next adventure will be.

La Arribada

The Arribada has arrived. Phenomena that only happens here in Ostional and a few other beaches around the world. I think Ostional is in the top three for the largest arribadas.. or something like that... The arrival of thousands of Olive Ridley Turtles about once a month. This girl on the left was a trooper. Only had one back flipper. Took her a while to get down to the water and she probably had a hell of a time digging her nest.


The Arribadas here have been getting smaller and smaller with the dry season but during the wet season they've seen numbers of about 200,000 turtles over a period of about 5 days. The largest Arribada was in 1995 with 500,000 turtles coming up to nest. The last one was a small one, only 3 thousand in three days. We're not really sure how large this one is yet.
Picture on right digging her body pit before she digs the nest. They look pretty awkward on land, I have to say.



Finished my 12am-6am hatchery shift yesterday and made my way down the beach hoping to see some of the leftover Olive Ridleys. There were still quite a few nesting and moving to and from the water. Cool to finally see some turtles in daylight. I've really only seen them at night on patrols and such.





We're not exactly sure why this occurs here... many people think its because of the moon phases and other think the turtles are able to find their way back because of the high amount of tectonic activity on the Nicoya Peninsula (some geology for you, Jesse)








But of course with every Arribada... in edition to seeing all these turtles, you see the egg harvesters. Ostional is the only beach in the world where egg harvesting is legal. Its very stringent and controlled... the locals are only allowed to harvest eggs if they're part of the association, if they've been approved and accepted, and they can only collect eggs for the first three days of the arribada. While its a bit tough to watch, there are some benefits to it. Having legal egg harvesting greatly diminshes the amount of illegal poaching, and the members of the association keep the beach clean...supposedly. They also harvest eggs that will likely be dug up by the arrival of other turtles as the Arribada continues.



They say it has its benefits but none of us here really see the necessity of it. Really there is no necessity. The locals don't need to live off the money they earn selling eggs and people don't depend on sea turtle eggs for food. I guess its just a tradition thing... and the fact that Sea Turtle eggs are aphrodisiacs.. at least they leave the leatherbacks alone.

Baulitas!

Spent the day in San Juanillo yesterday... nice local beach that is about an 80cent bus ride from the station. Great place to go and relax, swim, have some beers. Twas a good day. Came back here to the news that there were 15 leatherback hatchlings that emerged from one of the nests in the hatchery. They came out around the middle of the day and the beach and sand were too hot for them to travel to the water safely, so they were being kept in a bin at the center until conditions were more ideal.

We waited til around 6 and then a bunch of us went down to the beach to clear a nice track for them: flattening the sand, filling in crabholes, picking up debris and such. And then the race began. The little babies were a bit tired and disoriented from being in a bucket for the better part of the day so they started off a bit confused looking, moving around in circles and not in the right direction.


But they soon got the idea and headed toward the water.. Maybe it was the audience that had them confused at first.... There were quite a few of us watching and trying to send them in the right direction.


It was hard to get any decent pictures because they sun had set and they move really fast. Amazing to see there huge front flippers propelling them down the beach- they really are incredibly strong... Adult front flippers can break a legs if you get in their way.


Eventually they all made it to the sea. Like I've said before there's something really gratifying about seeing the hatchlings start swimming. They're on their own now and its disconserting to think about their odds but at least we may have made one small difference this critically endangered species whose numbers and chances of survival are dwindling each year.
Three more hatchlings arrived Saturday night while I was on patrol and hopefully there'll be a lot more because the nests they've been emerging from had quite a lot of eggs in them.

Esperanza y Excavaciones

Esperanza made an appearance last night. A few days behind schedule.. but better late than never... Esperanza was the one we weren't sure would come back because she had such bad injuries around her flippers.

Lucky I got to see her too.. I wasn't on patrol but I decided to go to the hatchery at midnight with Steph just in case a Baula showed up.. As soon as we were nearing the hatchery we saw the 3 red flashes that means "we've got a leatherback". Christine and Andre got to the Hatchery when we did and said she was pretty much gone... so I ran for it. Saw her just as she was making her way back to the water.

UNFORTUNATELY did not get a photo.. on account of very little moonlight and the crowd of foreigners standing around her.. tourons..

May have gotten a decent picture if conditions had been like the photo on the left... picture I took while messing around at the hatchery one night.

One girl didn't show up for her hatchery shift so I stayed with Steph until 4:30 am when she finally showed up.

Slept for about a half hour then started the day off at 5:45 with Gallo Pinto (rice and beans), juevos rancheros and Excavations! Digging up old Olive Ridley nests from the last Arribada... counting and opening the eggs to see how far along they got. Long, hot and smelly work... Was quite difficult getting the smell of rotting turtle embryo off my hands even with gloves on.

The Ticos treated us to coconuts that they climbed up to retrieve themselves and then I headed out for a day on the town in Guiones... A bit of shopping with the chicas and food... Icecream, beer, burgers!.. with bacon... simple treasures that you start to miss....

Patrolling at midnight.. so now I sleep... good night!

Had a 6am-12pm hatchery shift today... which soon turned into a Hatchling crusade. I saw some vultures nearby eating something so I went over and realized it was a beheaded Olive Ridley hatchling. Fucking vultures. Saw some more picking at another hatchling and ran over to save it... Little guy on the right.

He seemed alright and eventually made it to the water under my supervision and protection... Quite a proud moment.

Found the nest after I saw another hatchling emerge from it.. about 20 feet away from the Hatchery... And then another. Scared the vultures away and watched those two make it to the water as well...

Yet another hatchling came up but this guy wasn't doing so well... Took a while and lost a lot of his gusto so I don't know how far he made it after getting to the water.

About four other hatchlings came up out of another nest that I couldn't find but by then it was nearly midday so they all got fried. I think one of them made it safely to the water... Natural Selection at its best I suppose... They generally don't emerge during the day when its so hot so the ones that are dumb enough to shouldn't survive right? Still sad though..... Only one in one thousand sea turtle hatchlings make it to adulthood... Shitty odds huh?

Its so relieving when they finally make it to the water...

They look so much better swimming rather than walking.

More patrolling tonight. Princesa, one of our leatherbacks, came last night to nest. I was fast asleep but I'm determined to photograph a leatherback before I leave! wish me luck...