Whales, dolphines and turtles, oh my!

Greetings from Corcovados Tent Camp Bilogigical Reserve!

Here are a few words to describe our experience so far in this small corner of Southern Costa Rica: "Paradise on Earth!"

Arriving here was an adventure, as we floated down a wide river on a small boat. Breaking the waves and crossing into the ocean was thrilling and yet scary. Viewing actual camping tents surrounded by tall palm trees was exciting and relaxing.

But don't get me wrong, we ARE on an academic field trip. We have received some lectures about marine life, oceanography, current problems and efforts to combate these serious situations.

We went on a full-day marine life watch in little boats out on the open sea. Finding huge families of different kinds of dolphines proved to be a beautiful experience because those small mammals love to dive in & out of the water. We swam in the open sea too, which was humbling because the rolling waves were huge. We saw humpback whales. And I got so sea-sick that it was a totally miserable experience and I puked my guts out most of the time. Waiting for the hours to pass by was unbearable because I felt desperate to get off of that small, rocking boat. But I survived.

We are in Drake Bay, which is the only place in the world where humback whales come from both the North and South of this planet to have babies. November is the best month to whale watch because the Southern whales are going back down to Antartica for summer and the Northern whales are coming down from Alaska to have babies. So cool!

Between hiking, kayaking, swimming in the ocean and river mouth springs, climbing waterfalls, we are learning. It seems like there are so many environmental problems occuring in the oceans and humans are the main cause of these drastic and permanent problems. More ocean floor is "deforested" than the rain forest. For every 1 pound of shrimp a boat scrapes from the floor, 5-10 pounds of sea life is killed. ("Think about that the next time you eat a shrimp coctail," said our tour guide.) Turtles, dolphines and baby whales get caught in fishing nets and are killed for no reason. On and on and on....

Yet, there are some foundations that are organizing in order to help the ocean environment. And we are having lectures with those organizations' leaders. Education is the key.

Tomorrow we leave for Panama City. Chao.