Nesting turtles in Costa Rica

After a day at the beach, we walked back to the condo and had a quick bite to eat before the van picked us up to go turtle watching.  I wasn't really sure what we were going to get and in fact after having driven 30 minutes, mostly down a bumpy dirt road, I wasn't sure we were going to get to see anything.  At the first beach we stopped at, there was nothing to see.  We drove down to the next one and walking through the jungle with little flashlights for about 5 minutes until we reached the beach and had to turn off the lights.  We were in a darkness we rarely get anywhere in the US because of light pollution.

We barely saw our first turtle and it slipped back into the ocean.  Then we were told to run to see another one.  After a jog across the beach, we came across a fairly big turtle digging a nest.  The turtle's shell was about a yard across.  We watched from about 8 feet away as she dug in her trans-like state.  After about 20 minutes of watching, however, everybody's interest turned to the amazing stars we could see.  The light pollution was so low that we could see stars that we normally can't.  Also being so far south let us see new constellations.  

Sophie seemed to like the stars as much as the turtles.  

As we were waiting for the last turtle to enter in its birthing trance, Sophie and I spent about twenty minutes in the sand. She'd ask me what I wanted for my birthday and she'd draw it in the sand. It was so dark on the beach I couldn't really see anything, but it was so peaceful out on the beach that it was nice to be there together looking at the stars and listening to the waves.