W
e gave a customs official a ride from the border and she helped us find our way to our first stop, Playa del Coco. With potential of seeing nesting sea turtles we thought it is a good place to start in Nicaragua. We headed up to the only cheap place to stay, only to find that our guide book is not up to date and they have been closed for two years now. With other places way out of our budget, the owner was nice enough to offer his empty lot on the beach as a make shift camp ground. We opened the barbed wire fence and set up camp, and headed to the beach to see if we would be lucky. After being equipped with our red filters for our flashlights, we walked up to a group of people huddled around a black spot in the sand. While walking around I looked down and nearly stepped on a turtle laying eggs. When my eyes adjusted I looked up to see around 10 turtles laying eggs and another 5 coming and going from the black water
. We spoke to an informative park ranger about the process, and he showed us one turtle that was digging up the nest of another. He also showed Laura how to hold the eggs without damaging them. 
After a quick game of ping pong, we took a seat in the sand as turtles crawled past us without noticing us. It was a beautiful night with the moon shining, the Milkyway hovering over us and a thunderstorm flashing off in the distance. When we got back to our "camp site" a group of cows where laying by the gate, and upon entering we found two cows that had apparently gotten in while we set up camp. Laura did her best John Wayne impression and herded them off to better pastures. I decided to count cows instead of sheep that night
.
e gave a customs official a ride from the border and she helped us find our way to our first stop, Playa del Coco. With potential of seeing nesting sea turtles we thought it is a good place to start in Nicaragua. We headed up to the only cheap place to stay, only to find that our guide book is not up to date and they have been closed for two years now. With other places way out of our budget, the owner was nice enough to offer his empty lot on the beach as a make shift camp ground. We opened the barbed wire fence and set up camp, and headed to the beach to see if we would be lucky. After being equipped with our red filters for our flashlights, we walked up to a group of people huddled around a black spot in the sand. While walking around I looked down and nearly stepped on a turtle laying eggs. When my eyes adjusted I looked up to see around 10 turtles laying eggs and another 5 coming and going from the black water
. We spoke to an informative park ranger about the process, and he showed us one turtle that was digging up the nest of another. He also showed Laura how to hold the eggs without damaging them. 
After a quick game of ping pong, we took a seat in the sand as turtles crawled past us without noticing us. It was a beautiful night with the moon shining, the Milkyway hovering over us and a thunderstorm flashing off in the distance. When we got back to our "camp site" a group of cows where laying by the gate, and upon entering we found two cows that had apparently gotten in while we set up camp. Laura did her best John Wayne impression and herded them off to better pastures. I decided to count cows instead of sheep that night
.
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