Week 6...all change

Ok, so maybe not all change, but the end of week five saw us bid farewell to Jon, Peter, Desi, Lara and Nava from the CCC base in Tortuguero, still mid flood. Less than a week later and the 10 weekers were back on dry land at Caño Palma and had been joined by some new faces: Adam, Jen (or Fucci to her friends), Megan, Stephanny (our National Scholarship Programme biologist) and Lindsey on a site visit from GVI Head Office in Boston.

As the 10 weekers settled straight back into surveys after their long-weekend away in Manuel Antonio (on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast), the new five weekers began an intensive regime of orientation, together with training and testing for all our eight programmes of study.

Our intrepid newbies managed to spot 17 of the 30 study species for birds, complete a morning census, discover the wonders of the bakery and experienced some salsa dancing thanks to Stephanny, learn about the history of Tortuguero and the CCC, visit El Cerro and San Francisco, experience their first pipa, see all three species of monkeys in the area, an array of lizards and spiders as well as all present members of the colourful toucan family and a two-toed sloth! And that was just the first few days!

By Friday, everyone had passed their tests, learnt everyone’s name and settled into surveys and life at Caño Palma…but of course it doesn’t stop there, as Saturday 21st will see the return of Diogo from the International Sea Turtle Symposium in Brisbane, Australia and the coming week will have everyone training for the beginning of the turtle season and the return of our 24 hour biological station!

Week 6...all change