Turtle Love

Well I thought I best write to you all with news of turtle love. Congratulations! You all have an adopted turtle to love. You don´t need to donate money, or anything really, but Meagan and I thought that buying everyone a turtle was far better idea that just some stupid fluro pink Panama singlet top. Although I know that some people maybe gutted that they won´t get the top. Kathy particularly.

So you´re turtles name is Ashima. It´s from the book The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri (I know I must have spelt her name wrong), a wonderful read and a talented author (her book of short stories, Interpreter of Meladies, is as equally brilliant). Now this name, Ashima, means something very cool in Bengali, but I can´t remember what. Someone read the book and get back to me can you.

The Turtle is a female Green Sea Turtle that was tagged in 2004. If you want to check out the work of the organisation doing great work here and in other areas of the caribbean, check out www.cccturtle.org, I have a certificate and everything!

The past few days have been long with travel and rich with experiences. Last night I saw a female green turtle laying eggs and then waddle and puff back to the ocean. It would have been even better if it weren´t for the 6 israeli´s that would not shut up. Be especially annoying as it was all in deep gutteral hebrew.

This turtle was huge, about the size of two Svenos. No joke. For those of you in Tasmania you´ll realise how big this is and as I´m sure sveno will never read this, I´m sure I´m safe in saying so. Honestly, it was massive. Even the young gal from california beside me at one stage said... "Like, Oh my god! That thing is totally huge. Is that its head up there? No way! It must be like at least 400 pounds." Unfortunately God/Nature/Allah had not endowed her with 400 brain cells (or looks to make up for it, before some of you ask).

Aside from having to hang out with twits, the nature side of things was awesome. I got to look in as the turtle layed the eggs, covered it´s little nest, then covered and disguised it´s 2 metre wide body hole, before hauling her worn out and completely non-terrestrial self back to the ocean. Then today and yesterday on the boat rides, plus the canoe tour at 6am this morning; I saw... Crocodiles, Caimans, Toucans, Herons, Iguanas, a River Otter (!!!!!), Spider Monkeys, Howler Monkeys and my favourite, the three-toed sloth. No doubt I have forgotten some creature but this is all I could remember and I just had to write and tell you all. Especially the poor souls in a Tassie (or Victorian) winter right now.

Well, quite obviously everthing is just fine and dandy with me. Heading back up to Honduras right now, it´s going to take a couple of days. I´m looking forward to work and getting in the water. Hope everyone is well, all my love and cuddles.

Cap´n Turtle Courtney.

By myself

You know you are on the caribbean coat when they put coconut milk in the rice and beans. Well I'm in Costa Rica right now, traveling by myself. It's definitely a different feeling, but I was blessed enough to be traveling with a cool crew of people I met on the farm and we stuck together for about a week.

But first, the farm. It was hysterical at worst. Between making friends with the town drunks, milking cows with Ronald and hearing one of americas finest state that "I thought only the old school people spoke french in Canada" (there's actually a whole provence that tried for independence); i definitely laughed very very hard. a lot. deep laughs that were very very good for me. The farm was a great place and apparently i loved it so much i donated my trusty head lamp. bugger. But at least it is in a good place.

From the farm I set forth with Josh, Karissa y Francais. To the caribbean coast we went and a fun time we had. Free avocados dictated our diets, and whilst Francais tried to recruit people for his french separatist movement back in Quebec , the rest of us enjoyed the beautiful beaches and chilled out atmosphere. Puerto Viejo was great fun we rented bikes (francais crashed his, and nearly had the rest of us die in laughter) and snorkeled a beautiful beach in Manzanillo.

After a few days on the coast we headed to Bocas del Toro for a few more days of relaxation, whilst francais tried to grow his army. We had a great time there on little Basimentos. Great food and any tropical island with 50 cent beers gets my vote of approval. the coco bread, pan dulces and cheap lifestyle was a welcome retreat from Costa Ricas stupid high prices. Damn gringos. We also saw strawberry poison dart frogs!! Unfortunately we heard news of MASSIVE development projects attempting to get underway on Bastimentos right now and i fear this little paradise will soon look like the big isla, isla colon or any other stretch of Costa Rican beach front property... over run with horrible trashy homes. The beaches there were gorgeous, but maybe the frogs won't last much longer; in vain irony to just how splendid an environ they wallow in.

So now i'm back in the land of high prices and really looking forward to tomorrow. I'm heading up to Tortugero a national park where a bunch of turtles come to nest each year. I will be one of many whitey touristas but it been is something i've been looking forward to for a while. I know meagan will really miss this bit, so i won't talk about it too much.

I've laughed a lot over the past few days and life on the road has been fun, but only a week before i meet up with Meagan again... and that i am looking forward to a lot. It was great to travel with Josh, Karrisa and Fran; but new adventures await in Honduras. I can't believe the new job opportunity. Sorry Alpal, you're right I'll be swimming in bath water whilst you are trotting to work each morning in more clothing than i have with me.

hope everyone is well. If you get the chance, buy, borrow, steal or loan out a great book called "three cups of tea" by greg mortenson and some other author dude, a brilliant read and idea in todays tough world with the "war on terrorism".

Back home again in IN

Crazy, exciting, and unexpected opportunities have come our way. The dive shop that we did our divemaster and assistant instructor has offered jobs on their live aboard boat the Utila Agressor! It is still all just sinking in as we prepare to start on August 25th. We will have some amazing work schedules. Courtney being on the boat for 5 weeks and off for 3 and mine being more flexible but something similiar maybe 4 on 4 off. Besides getting to dive everyday in the Caribbean we are planning to travel in our breaks. At the moment I am feeling like one lucky lady because I also got the opportunity to come home before work and visit with my family. I got to meet Kylee my new cousin (who is absolutely adorable) and road trip with family from California and Texas. We drove from Indiana to Wisconsin and for those of you who don't know Midwestern US geography it is a good haul. Well worth the journey to watch cousin Justin play in the collegiate summer league.

For the time being I'm soaking up Midwest life... a little slower, more humid, and more consumer driven than I remember (I swear malls are starting to surround my home). Naturally I've been taking advantage of the family garden and cooking all sorts of fresh food with the novel ingredients you can only get in the developed world. All I have left to do is get ready to go back to Honduras on the 21st. Hope everyone's summer/winter has been treating them well and everyone is taking a little time for themselves. Keep us posted by leaving a message, much love to all!