Karumbe and Cardboard Turtles

I arrived at Karumbe the day before Carnival. Karumbe is a turtle research station in the small coastal town of La Coronilla. As a new volunteer, I was expecting to be thrown into work, maybe cleaning field equipment or helping with the turtle capture. Instead, I was sized up for a starfish costume. In fact, I spent the whole day creating marine animal costumes out of cardboard, driftwood and anything else we could find lying around the station or beach. On the night of Carnival, we marched in the town´s parade as a medley of turtles, sharks, jellyfish, starfish and sealions. We stratigically placed ourselves behind a drum line so we had a great beat to dance to during the parade.

Turtle Liberation!

I was starting to doubt that Karumbe Bay actually worked with turtles because with all the hubbub over Carnival, I dídn´t actually see a turtle till my fourth day. But since then, I have been helping the scientists with turtle sightings, capture and census walks. Their goal is to obtain more information on the habits of juvenile green turtles who come down from Brazil and the Carribean to feed during the summer months. The days can be long, but you can´t beat working in a bikini and swimming in the ocean as a part of your job.

Turtle Capture

This dolphin has seen better days