Monday, 09 February 2009

• My Alternative Spring Break in Costa Rica

  by Molly
  

  
  

  When you think of spring break, you generally think of the beach, an umbrella drink, crazy parties and drunken nights. But what if you were to do something meaningful with your spring break this year, and mix the fun times in there with it was well? Have you ever looked into an alternative spring break option?

  For spring break one year, I decided that I wanted to spend my time off in a different way than the rest of my friends. Don't get me wrong, the trip to Cancun or Bermuda were tempting! I just felt that I wanted to spend my time trying to help in some way, while having fun at the same time. I chose to go to Costa Rica with a company called i-to-i and help with a sea turtle conservation project.

  When I told my friends that I was going to do this, they laughed at me. When I called my dad, he told me that it was going to be a waste of money. Everyone seemed to think I was being a whimsical teenager thinking that I could make a difference with ten days of volunteering my time to save sea turtles. I know it sounds a little silly, but that's what I wanted to do, and it was an amazing experience.

  So, I booked my trip, and off I went. Once I got to the hostel and started talking to all of the other volunteers, I knew I had made the right decision. Everyone was just there to help out and have a good time, and get away from the hoards of drunken college students. The next day, we took a packed bus down to Gandoca. It is a tiny town located on the border of Panama and Costa Rica on the far eastern side of the country. There is nothing around except trees, a basically untouched beach and the turtle conservation center. The locals put in an outdoor bar for all of the volunteers, which is frequented basically every night.

  The way the volunteering works is that you divide up your schedule into shifts. During the day, you do beach cleaning, which consists of clearing big stumps and rocks away so the turtles are able to lay their eggs more easily. Then, you have a break to get a soda or beer, eat dinner, and go to your night patrolling shift. The night patrols are divided up into groups, one with the 8pm-12am shift and the other with the 12am-4am shift. The purpose of these is to reduce the incidence of poaching and to ensure that the eggs are nested in a safe place.

  The first time I saw one of the giant turtles come up onto the beach was amazing. When the mothers come up onto the beach, they are highly sensitive, so you have to wear all black, you cannot use a flashlight and the turtles are hyper sensitive to the smell of deet, so no deet mosquito spray either! But it is all worth it when you get to witness their egg laying process. When they start to dig their nests, they go into a sort of comatose state, and you can take fin samples, tag and measure them. The whole process is pretty amazing to watch. They use their huge back fins to act like shovels, and slowly dig a smooth, deep hole to lay their eggs. Once they are satisfied with the depth, they lay their all of their eggs, about 90 in total. Then, they cover it up with their fins, and head back to sea.

  
  

  The whole process was amazing to see. Not only that, but when we got done saving the sea turtles, we got to watch the sun rise, have a homemade Costa Rican breakfast with our family and head to bed. But, on the nights that we didn't have the later shift, we went to the local bar and danced to the raegae music with the local Gandocans! It was really a great time, and I appreciated it so much more than any of the drunken vacations that I could have gone on with my friends.

  Would you ever consider an alternative spring break? Where would you want to go and what would you want to do? If you have been on one before, where would you go?

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