December 13: Majestic macaws and a nesting leatherback

Now that we've finished the semester, we decided to travel for a week before hotels up their prices for holiday rates.

Majestic Scarlet Macaws
We rented a car (!!!) and drove five hours to Playa Grande, a beach on the Nicoya Peninsula.  When we stopped for a lunch break we were awed by our day's first of three extraordinary displays of God's grandeur:  beautiful scarlet macaws.  The only other time we've seen them was our first day in Costa Rica back in July when we were traveling from San José to Quepos.

These pictures of the macaws in the trees don't do justice at all but hopefully you can at least see how brightly colored they are and being able to watch them fly around was an amazing treat.

On the beach
Our hotel, Las Tortugas (The Turtles) Hotel, is located right on the beach.  It's known as a great surfing beach so we enjoyed watching the surfers and a beautiful sunset on a relatively quiet beach.

Angelina and Nathan played soccer at sunset

Grandeur II: A beautiful night for a walk along the shore

 A leatherback nesting
One of our family's dreams for the year was being able to watch a sea turtle lay eggs on the beach.  George and I saw this during our year in Mexico but the kids have never had this incredible experience...until tonight!  After dinner, we rested from 7:30 - 10:30pm and then walked down to the entrance to Las Baulas National Marine Park, located next to our hotel.  After registration, a park ranger gave an educational presentation about sea turtles.  We learned that three different kinds come to Playa Grande to lay their eggs:  Olive Ridley, Green or Black turtles and the Leatherback turtle (the largest).  Unfortunately, the sea turtle population has declined at alarming rates so there are many programs and parks that are trying to protect them and educate people about these incredible creatures.  It's amazing that even though they migrate as far south as the Galapagos Islands the females always come back to the same beach that they were born on!

Although it is currently nesting season here in Playa Grande it's never guaranteed that there will be one every night.  However, when we were in the presentation, another park ranger interrupted to say we needed to head out to the beach because there was a leatherback turtle!!!

So, around 11:30pm we headed out onto the darkened beach.  With the Milky Way spread out above us, shooting stars streaking the sky and the effervescent ocean waves soothing us, we walked in anticipation and excitement for what we'd get to see.  The huge leatherback (over five feet long) used its flippers to dig a big hole in the sand, then deposited 61 eggs, and covered up the hole with different 'mounds' of sand to confuse predators.  It was an amazing experience to watch this huge creature display God's grandeur in a way that has happened at this beach for thousands of years but is rare today.  It is definitely a memorable experience!

We were not allowed to take any pictures but here's a picture from the web to give you an idea of the size of a leatherback:

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