Day 9: Horizontes

After a quick lunch at Horizontes, we moved to the classroom to discuss the second year program. Students interested in the program, which centers around the study of Bioinformatics, can go for 10 days of research and fun under the care of Dr. Gabriel. Mr. Doleman introduced us to Veronica, a turtle researcher and student at UCR. Veronica explained the research they conduct at Playa Cabuyal and the recent presentation she gave at the World Turtle Symposium in Las Vegas.

After a quick break... word spread that Vanessa (the manager of Horizontes) had rallied the locals to a game of futbol. What an awesome experience to see several generations of Costa Ricans playing soccer with high school students from Kentucky. It lasted more than an hour and the cheers and laughter could be heard all over the valley. Even Eddie (our driver) came to play... sporting his #5 shirt that he got when he voted for his local congress candidate.

The night ended with a turtle sweep of the beach. Students took turns walking the south and north sections, looking for the turtle tracks. No luck this year, but we did find some interesting things. One group found a broken leatherback egg, three olive ridley eggs (broken) and a hatchling track that just left a nest. Needless to say, students were really tired when they returned back to the dorms at 1:30am.

Breakfast wasn't served in the usual fashion. We met up with Freddie, a professional wildlife guide, to take a 2 mile hike at 6am. Try to wake up 12 teenagers for an early morning hike after only a few hours of sleep. The hike was interesting and we ended up at a waterfall for breakfast. - Mr. Heintz