Sea Turtles, The Jungle & Itching

Today is the beginning of week number two, and we had the opportunity to go to Puerta Viejo to spend a free day relaxing, shopping and eating some great food! This is the first day off we have had since we arrived in Gandoca on Monday morning.
After over 24 hours of traveling, we finally arrived at Gandoca Wildlife Refuge and the Widecast station nestled back in what you would have to call the jungle. We had an orientation on the organization and a little into what we would be doing for the duration of our stay. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into!
Our work has included beach cleanup, learning to dig 65-75cm holes for leatherback and green turtle nests, hatchery duty & beach patrol in four hour shifts in either Sector A or B. Beach patrol, along with being a four-hour workout, can be tiring unless you encounter a turtle. There's quite the process that goes into encountering a turtle during patrol. There's measuring of the caracus, collection of the eggs to be transplanted to another nest and searching for tags to track the turtle. It has been many long, hard hours for all of us.
The heat and bugs are enough to call our condtions "roughing it". This isn't an amateur camping trip my friends! We are all proud to say that at any given time we could be using bug spray, sunscreen, aloe vera and calamine lotion all at the same time.
My teammates on this trip are troopers and amazing people. None of us would be as strong without the others and without anyone of us, the trip wouldn't be the same. I want to thank them, our familes & friends for their love and support throughout this journey. We will never forget saving the turtles, sounds of the jungle and endless itching we shared.

See you all state-side in a week!