Costa Rica: where pristine rainforest meets the wild Pacific coast

“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is t​he greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living” – Sir David Attenborough

I couldn’t let August go by without writing about our amazing trip to Costa Rica! I still can’t quite believe we finally made it after the last few years – we were supposed to go in 2020!
 
The rainforest is the most magical place – Costa Rica holds 5% of the world’s biodiversity and the Osa Peninsula where we stayed for the whole trip, has over 2.5%. There was wildlife everywhere you looked, and I was definitely in my happy place!

​For the last three weeks of my trip, I volunteered with the amazing Osa Conservation – a non-profit dedicated to protecting the biodiversity of the Osa Peninsula.
 
I mainly worked with sea turtle conservation, which involved collecting eggs from new turtle nests to protect against poachers and predators and then releasing the babies when they hatched.

Every morning I woke up at 4.30am and spent the morning on the beach looking for turtle tracks. We’d find the new nests and excavate the eggs. Once we had all of the eggs, sometimes over one hundred of them, we would relocate them to the hatchery, where 50-70 days later they start to hatch. One morning I was lucky enough to see a big mother finishing laying her nest, which was really special as they usually do it overnight. They are absolutely incredible animals and I have so much respect for them – they have to make it against the odds in order to survive. It’s estimated that for every 1000 babies, only 1 will make it to adulthood.

In the afternoons I spent my time climbing up and crawling inside trees. At one point I was surrounded by hundreds of vampire bats – it was terrifying and amazing at the same time!
 
Other activities included hiking the rainforest, working on the organic farm, helping with reforestation projects and painting and drawing murals too! At all times I was surrounded by crazy amounts of wildlife. One morning I was collecting turtle eggs and nine scarlet macaws flew overhead. I turned to look at the ocean and saw a whale from the beach!

Costa Rica is such a special place and gives me a lot of hope and inspiration for a country that really values their wildlife and landscape.
 
There are some wonderful people doing wonderful things there, and if you are interested in conservation, I urge you to check them out at www.osaconservation.org.

You can see more of my adventures on my instagram page.