Isla Damas

I met a girl in Puerto Viejo who gave me a number of a local in Manuel Antonio who collects sea turtle eggs every night to then release them into the ocean.

Best part is, once you paid for the transport the release is free. Though you should pay 20$ as a donation so he can continue doing this. But it case you don’t have any money you can still help chase the birds away once I’m they wobble into the water.

Alright here we go:

1. Head to “Ferry Boat to El Cocal” on Google (it’s in Quepos)
2. Pay 400 Colones for the short ferry ride across the river
3. Wait for a shuttle. It’s a 4 wheel drive that starts once filled with 8 people. (2000 Colones one way)
4. Ride on the back of that car along a deserted beach
5. Arrive at a random spot in the middle of nowhere and clap your hands in utter happiness.

The turtles hatched in the morning. There are more turtles from June until October, but when I was there in December 96 turtles were impatiently waiting to head into the ocean.

After a short briefing …

-don’t step in front of them
- when in the water: don’t move around
- chase the birds away that try to eat them

… and a long round of questions we walked them to the beach, flipped the blue box and watched them make their way into a new life hopefully for the next 100+ years.

As you can guess the worst predator (except for the birds that unfortunately managed to snatch away 5 baby turtles) are humans.
Not only people walk around at night to save the eggs, there are others who sell a nest for 20$. With the remaining donations our good guy (help me I forgot his name) buzz the eggs from these people so that they too can be released. He says it’s an instant race each night of who gets there first.

Luckily most of our turtles made it into the ocean contributing to a healthy reef now 🪸

I would say this was by far the best experience I had in Costa Rica and I can highly recommend anyone to experience it.

If you want to book it, here’s his WhatsApp Number (he can read and reply in English)

+506 8974-2946

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