This Summer

I will be staying in the South Caribbean coast of Costa Rica for a month. I am interested in learning about the country's biodiversity and its culture. I look forward to learning Spanish, the native tongue of the people there. I will be helping out NGOs and local communities who carry out conservation work at Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Reserve. The goal of volunteering is to help the Eastern Pacific population of leatherback turtles.

Leatherback turtles have been around ever since the first sea turtles evolved over 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. They were able to outlive the dinosaurs, but at the moment, they are the world's most endangered sea turtle. Growing up to nine feet long, the leatherback is the largest and heaviest of all living turtles. In the reptile world, they are the deepest divers and among one of the fastest. I feel that it would be a privilege for me to help protect them.