Ostional!

Hello everyone! I’m all settled in Ostional! After a harrowing morning of rickety buses and confusing transfers on Saturday, my host mom Marylin picked me up at the bus stop (that is, the only restaurant in town) and introduced me to the rest of the family: her husband Jose, whom everyone calls Pablo for some reason, her five year old son Brilles, and her adorable two year old son Albaro, or Borrito. The house is pretty similar to most houses I’ve seen in Costa Rica, though as an added perk the doors are open at all times, which means that chickens and turkeys (which are absolutely hideous animals, I might add) are free to gobble about as they please in the house (under my bed, for example), as well as pumas and anacondas, as far as I can tell. I truly love chickens, so this is quite exciting. Also, I’ve seen lizards of all size in their backyard, ranging from the miniscule to the positively dinosaurian. Iguanas over three feet long! We just don’t see that in Minneysohta! Saturday night, Marylin, Brilles, Borrito and I went for a walk on the beach and GUESS WHAT WE SAW!? BABY TURTLES CRAWLING UP FROM A LITTLE HOLE TO MAKE THEIR WAY DOWN TO THE OCEAN!! It was completely incredible! Although everyone but me seemed bored, I guess that happens all the time here. Borrito accidentally stepped on one and it stopped moving, so I picked it up and mourned for it, but then it started flapping its little flippers and waving its wrinkly baby head from side to side, so I quickly put it down and cheered it on to the sea. And guess what!? It was the very first of its brothers and sisters to make it to the ocean! The very first! Squashedness and all! When it got caught up in the first wave, I was so proud that I cried a little bit. Apparently Ostional is a big deal in the turtle world; one of only eight beaches in the world where turtles come for arribadas, which are times when as many as a million turtles (give or take some huge number, I don’t really understand numbers in Spanish) come to the beach and lay a billion (again with the numbers) eggs. There is supposed to be one in late October, I can’t wait!! On Sunday, I asked my host mom if I should go look at the library and start working, and she said absolutely not, Sundays are for soccer. So I spent Sunday watching soccer games in the field outside of my house, swimming in the ocean, playing with Brilles and Albaro and lying in the hammock reading. A taxing day. This morning, I went to the library to start working, and they seemed completely unaware that I was supposed to come, but pleased to have someone to help. The public library is a room in the building where the Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre de Ostional is (basically turtle refuge), and right now no one is working there; if someone comes to check anything out (which apparently never happens, reading doesn’t seem to be a priority here), a biologist comes and helps them out. Tomorrow, I’m going to start going through all of the books and organizing them, making lists of the titles, authors, etc. and putting stickers on them to identify them, because right now there is no system. It sounds quite daunting, but there are only two shelves of books in the entire library. It’s sad – I have more books in my room at home than the entire Ostional Public Library. In addition to working at the library, I’m also going to work with the turtle project several times a week. Tonight is my first shift, eight to midnight. I guess I’m going to be measuring turtles, counting eggs, and recording other turtley business. So that’s my life here so far! My Spanish continues to be somewhat sketchy – I realized yesterday that the word I’ve been using the entirety of my time here for puppy actually means sponge cake. There’s no Internet Café in Ostional, but there is Internet at the science center for the turtles, where the library is, so I should have access to Internet most days. I’ll keep you all updated! Love you all!
P.S. It is extraordinarily hot here. Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. Like Hades, but full of crazy animals, oceans and gorgeousness.
P.P.S. The pictures are my house here, the library, and the beach