June 3

Many group members slept in today.  Our late night shifts are catching up to us.  Adrian and Dr. Mo were alone on their bird hike this morning!   A somewhat easy day was planned for today. After two days of turtle patrol and our service project, we were ready for down time.  Breakfast was served at 9am.  After breakfast we retreated to the hammocks while catching up on our journals as well as falling asleep to the sounds of the ocean. For those who wished a short term tattoo, Adrian found the fruit that produced a dye and Adrian completed the chosen picture on our legs or arms.  These tattoo's will last for about eight days, but they look really cool! After lunch we had a little group activity/ competition.  We were split into two research/presentation groups.   Each group was given
two topics that they had to research.  Then they had to put the information in a creative format to share / teach it to the rest of the group.  We then presented in front of 5 judges. The group that won wrote a poem about the different threats to the turtles, including poachers and pollution.

After lunch, we took a boat around the lagoon looking for more animals.  We found more monkeys and a lot of different birds.  After a while, we took a break to have pineapple and watermelon. Adrian handed us sanitizer- or so we thought. It actually was aloe. He grabbed the wrong bottle! He showed us that we can skip the watermelon rinds across the lagoon (well some of us can, others... not so much). We were out on the boat for another half hour.

After getting back  to the station, we watched another set of hatchlings being released, those little guys are adorable!!!

After dinner we once again prepared for our Turtle Patrol.  Again we set out to watch these huge creates make the trek out of the ocean to drop their eggs.  The moon was full and the beach was aglow.  Soon, clouds covered the moon and thunder could be heard.  It didn't take long for us to receive a call that a turtle had been spotted at station 16 coming out of the water.  The group picked up the pace to reach the location.  It started to sprinkle......then rain.  The rain packed the sand making it easier to move across the shoreline.  At station 16 the Leatherback was preparing the area to deposit her eggs.  Everyone in our group has assisted in the birthing process except Dr. Mo.  This was going to be her turtle.  As the turtle began the digging process the rain increased drenching all of those who stood and waited.  Rain jakets and ponchos did little to keep the group dry.  The Patrol leader checked on the turtles progress.  The hole was filling up with water making her efforts challenging.  At times turtles  return to the sea only to come back later when the conditions are better.  This young turtle kept digging and the rain kept falling.  Finally the rain started to subside.  Still sprinkling the Patrol Leader and Dr. Mo moved into position.  Laying face down next to the turtle and covered in mud Dr. Mo held the turtle's fin.  The eggs filled the plastic bag.  Before we knew it she was done.  Looking for the tags the Patrol Leader confirmed she had none.  Quickly the Leader tagged the two back fins and Dr. Mo name the turtle.  We stood back as the young turtle, Molina, headed for the sea.   It started to sprinkle again and we quickly headed back for the Turtle station, eggs in hand.
Because we were leaving early the next morning, our patrol ended before midnight.  Soaked to the bone, covered in mud we all headed to the shower and to bed!

Good Night Moon........Goodbye Turtles.

Most of us packed up our stuff as we left the next morning. After dinner, we went out on our last patrol. We were only out 2 hours. We saw more turtles and were able to name a few! Got back to the camp, showered and went to sleep.