{"id":1660,"date":"2017-04-20T01:21:21","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T01:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bluelotusadventures.com\/?p=1660"},"modified":"2017-05-04T02:29:02","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T02:29:02","slug":"a-morning-with-baby-sea-turtles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelotusadventures.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/20\/a-morning-with-baby-sea-turtles\/","title":{"rendered":"A Morning With Baby Sea Turtles"},"content":{"rendered":"

An event I thought I would never get to experience without paying some local guide company. Fortunately I was at the right place at the right time for an incredible experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The day started like any other day during my many trips to Costa Rica.\u00a0 Clear blue skies over the Nicoya Peninsula and warm temps.\u00a0 The plan, to take my students to a remote beach that has become one of my favorites for it\u2019s pristine sand, palm shaded coast, gentle waves and an ocean bottom void of annoying dead coral and volcanic rock known to be present of some other beaches in the area.\u00a0 However today, Playa Corozalito became my all time favorite for another reason.<\/p>\n

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We arrived at Corozalito about 9:45am. It\u2019s a 45 minute drive from Samara.\u00a0 The access road turns left as you approach the beach and continues through palm trees with several picnic tables along the way.\u00a0 I always choose the end where the last picnic table is located.\u00a0 As we exited the SUV\u2019s, we were greeted by the squawk of a Scarlet Macaw.\u00a0 An impressive sight and although I have seen these along other beaches, I\u2019ve never seen one at Corozalito.\u00a0 As the students snapped photos of the Macaw, another student ventured out on the beach a little ways.\u00a0 Suddenly a yell out, \u201cbaby sea turtle!\u201d\u00a0 All our attention left the Macaw and focused on a small struggling newly hatched sea turtle.\u00a0 Having some experience with this from years ago assisting some local scientist with an organized release of sea turtles, I knew the baby sea turtle had to find it\u2019s own way to the ocean.\u00a0 This was an essential part of the turtle hopefully returning to the same beach to lay eggs when it was mature (depending, of course, if this was a female).<\/p>\n

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This was an unusual sight because the sea turtles tend to hatch at night or just before dawn.\u00a0 There are many predators in the day light hours, especially sea gulls and pelicans. \u00a0 Thinking this was a lone straggler, and having some minimal experience handling baby sea turtles, I assisted the little turtle, bringing it past the deep sand it was struggling to get through.\u00a0 It was at this point we realized there were hundreds of baby sea turtles making their way to the ocean!<\/p>\n