We took a vacation over Thanksgiving and drove
to Playa Grande, north of Tamarindo, on the
pacific coast. It was a four hour drive and worth
every minute!
This is a beautiful beach- long, wide, clean and
pretty mellow. It's quite popular with surfers at
high tide. We were happy no matter what the tide
was doing!
We drove there with our friend Ellen and her two
daughters, Shelby and Leah. We met our friends from
San Jose, David and Olga and their boys Max and Alex.

The main reason we picked this beach was that we
had a chance to see Leatherback sea turtles nesting
here. This is one of the few places where they come.
The season had just started so we knew we might
have a chance to see them!

The females come up on shore during the night, at high tide.
They come up to a high spot on the beach and dig a
very large, deep hole. They lay about 75-100 eggs and then
cover the hole up and go back to the sea. The process
takes about 1 1/2 hours.
To watch the turtles nesting we started out at the
park visitors' center at midnight on Friday night, Nov. 28.
There are volunteers who patrol the beach looking for
turtles coming up on the beach. That night we waited
until about 4 a.m. and then headed home, no turtles.
The next night we were lucky and at about 2:30 we headed
out onto the beach. It had been a little overcast and drizzly
and there was no moonlight that night. It was hard to walk
along the beach in the sand. The only lights that were used
were flashlights covered with red cellophane. It was a very
special experience to watch this huge, gentle animal.

For more information go to this link!

http://www.leatherback.org/ldc/pg/aboutturtles.htm




Here's a view to the north.



Waiting for a wave...




Oren and Leah enjoying the surf.