We were lucky enough to be in Playa Guiones to see the Olive Ridley Arribada! Our Airbnb host informed us that the turtle Arribada (‘arrival’) was happening in a few days so we started monitoring the online chatter. It occurs approximately once per month from August – December in Ostional Wildlife Reserve, two beaches north of the beach we were staying. We took a car there and arrived just before sunset to watch hundreds of Olive Ridley sea turtles climb up onto the black sand beach to lay their eggs. It was like a National Geographic documentary, truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We went early enough that there were relatively few tourists, and we were able to see the turtles while high tide was still during daylight hours.
It was fascinating to watch the turtles digging, laying, and disguising their nests:
As the light began to fade more and more turtles came ashore. We could see them all up and down the beach in the surf and hundreds of little turtle heads poking up out in the water looking around.
We enjoyed our last days at Playa Guiones, especially the low tide sunset walks and quality time in the hammock.
Despite my warning that it would be a waste of time, Priscilla took the telephoto lens to the beach to try to catch me surfing a wave. So glad she did, because she got some great pictures!
After 25-30 hours of surfing, I’ve just barely managed to actually catch and ride a few waves per session.
However, this is what it looks like 95% of the time. Note the foot sticking up from the whitewater.
Leaving Playa Guiones was a bit sad as we managed to get into a nice routine, living the beach life. However, a lot of stores started closing for the rainy season and our favorite lunch place was closing in a few days, so the timing felt right. We took the bus to San Jose for a few days which was more than enough. We didn’t find too much that sparked our interest in the city. We braved the rain and walked around to a few parks and some different areas. However, after so much time at the beautiful beach we were ready to leave San Jose quickly.
We did find this amazing rainbow eucalyptus in the park though. 
On the morning of our flight to Houston (overnight layover then to Tokyo), we took a Uber from the hotel to the airport. There was bad traffic and about 10 minutes away from the airport the Uber driver decided to turn around, abandon all progress, and drive to another airport instead. Because any airport will do, right? After a heated discussion in broken Spanish and a total of 2 hours in the Uber for a 30 min trip, we got to the airport with about 30 minutes before our international flight took off. Somehow we rushed through the airport and made it on the flight! We were so lucky it was a small airport with no lines! I’m pretty sure that experience took a year off my life though. Also, my bag didn’t make it. Oh well, nothing like a couple of days in dirty clothes and hypertension to start off a Japanese adventure!
Highlights:
- Finally catching some waves while surfing!
- We’ll always remember the Ostional Turtle Arribada!
- Costa Rica has been amazing, and it’s easy to get to from the USA. We look forward to returning to do some jungle ziplining, whitewater rafting, more surfing, and explore the Caribbean coastline.
- Not San Jose.
awesome time, awesome photos….thanks for sharing