Costa Rica Scavenger Hunt....: A Family trip to the Playa Grande and # 50 snorkeling, #13 seeing leatherback turtles lay eggs, and #48 canoeing

Right before Christmas we spent a few days as a family at Playa Grande on the northern side of the Nicoya Peninsula. It is tropical dry forest, which is a completely different type of ecosystem than any we have visited here in Costa Rica so far. We had an amazing time.

Joshua snapped this picture out the window on our drive to Playa Grande. The landscape is dry and the flora is completely different from the rainforest.

The view from our small hotel right on Playa Grande.... The beach is actually part of

Las Baulas National Marine Park. No one is allowed on the beach after 6:00 at night

except on a tour with a biologist. Our hotel is the only one on this beach and it could not have any white lights on all evening... only indirect, red lights or candles were used. It was very pretty... and dim!

One of the things we really wanted to do while in Costa Rica (plus it's #13 on our Scavenger hunt) was to see the leatherback turtles nest. They are very endangered and less than 30 made nests last year in this location, so we knew it was a slim chance... but we still woke at midnight (the turtles come in the middle of the night at high-tide) and made our way to the ranger station and thankfully around 1:30 a.m. we were able to see one of these huge turtles nest that night! It was an incredible experience. To help with the survival of the turtle, biologists often remove the eggs from where they are buried and place them in a hatchery. The hatchery pictured below was located next to our hotel and we were able to speak with biologists about their conservation efforts.

The leatherback turtle lays around 70 eggs at once.

Ethan, Mom and Dad all returned a second night to see another turtle. They waited from midnight until 2:30 but no turtles were spotted so they returned for some sleep!

Here we at a beach called Bahia de Piratas. (Pirates Bay) We found unbelievable tide pools here and the animal life we discovered was awesome.

We also enjoyed snorkeling in the completely clear water. Dad and Maddie saw a group of lime green fish (some more than a foot and a half long) swim right around them while eating smaller fish.

Of course a game of soccer was enjoyed on the beach as well!

Christmas Eve morning we left at 6:30am to canoe in the estuary. It was a beautiful morning and we canoed for about three hours.

Maddie and Mom were in a canoe together and were immediately caught in a strong current pulling toward the ocean. They were so focused on trying to work their way upriver against the current that they didn't notice the 10 foot crocodile next to their canoe... but Dad and Ethan saw it... !