ostional

After 5 days of hanging around in San Juan del Sur, waiting for it to stop raining so we could get more beach time, we decided to head down to little-known Ostional, a pueblo right by the Costa Rican border. And after a very bumpy hour and 45 minutes on the bus, we pulled up to a small, quaint fishing village where people's houses are turned into hospedajes and comedors. We asked around for "Daniel Sanchez" and were led to Hospedaje Dona Alba, where they ushered us into the back yard to watch teenage girls practicing baile folklorico while Maria (the mom, wife, and cook) readied our room. As soon as humanly possible, we asked for directions down to the beach to check out what was in store. It was picturesque with dozens of pelicans, seaguls, and fisherman all after the same thing.

We're pretty sure the mountains you see in this picture are Costa Rican.

Our first night's adventure was checking out Reservacion La Flor for the arribadas of the tortugas paslamas (olive ridley turtles) with our guide: Salvador. It was incredible to see the turtles coming onto the shore in every direction that you looked, and then being up close and personal to watch their magical way of digging their nest and laying their eggs, not minding at all that you are there too. Even more awesome, was heading down to the shore and seeing tiny baby turtles making desperate attempts to sea.

She's laying these eggs in the photo.

Unfortunately, not all stories have happy endings and the plight of the turtle is an extremely difficult one. As you might know, only about 1 percent of hundreds of thousands of turtles actually make it to adulthood due to the many predetors of the land and sea, humans included. And to our dismay, even though Salvador is trying to do his part to spread knowledge about sea turtles and their endangerment and treat them with care, many other guides that come to the park are wreckless, using white and not red light, and walking unnessarily all over the place. Additionally, it is hard to change a culture's ways, and we saw this first hand when a bag of turtle eggs were brought up to the house we were staying at in transport to someone who wanted them in San Juan. But Matt and I agree with the many tshirts and stickers here that say, "YO NO COMO JUEVOS DE TORTUGA," and only hope that more individuals jump on board soon.
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Relaxing on the beach, watching the wildlife, the waves, finding shells and and trying to make change for a sand dollar............. this was Ostional............ Oh and also, eating simple, delicious, very affordable homemade meals. Breakfast for 1 dollar, and fresh fish fillet with rice, platano, and avena (oatmeal milk drink) for 2.50.





And the next day's adventure was to find horses in order to see some monkeys and birds. Success! We crossed rivers and ventured straight into the heart of the jungle. And no one got bucked off.

Mono Congos aka Howler monkeys

URRRRRAAACCCCAAAAS