We packed into the van, our destination unknown. The sun had set a while ago, it was completely dark outside. We turned onto the dirt road and headed further into the rainforest. I wondered how much further it would be, we had been driving for a while. At some point the road had to end and as sure as the thought entered my mind, our bus came to a halt. 

I could faintly make out an old rundown shack out to the right. The darkness made it hard to see anything.  We walked towards it, or at least in the direction we thought it was, only to find a man blocking our path. 

He said a couple words in Spanish and then turned and walked away. We followed at a brisk pace and I immediately thought to myself, this is super sketchy. 

He walked very quickly. We did too, so as not to lose him in the darkness. We emerged onto the beach yet the darkness remained as the clouds hid the moonlight. The sound of crashing waves and crabs scampering across our feet only added to the eerie feeling inside of me. I jokingly thought to myself, this guy is probably leading us to our death. And while I was joking, a part of me realized it was a definite possibility. 

Here we were, following some random guy we just met in the woods. I still had yet to even see his face. He was walking us down the beach in complete darkness to who knows where. Probably leading us into a band of his goons. From then on out, I was definitely in super reactive defense mode.  If the wind so much as brushed my shoulder I was turned around ready to fight someone. Paranoia was setting in. 

Suddenly he stopped. I thought to myself, oh great this can’t be good. He said something in Spanish, and started walking very quickly in the direction we had just come.

What was he doing? We had just come from that way…? We literally walked like two miles in one direction and now he turned around to walk back. Was he wearing us out only to make us more vulnerable victims? I demanded some sort of explanation!

As if he read my mind, he turned around and said “Vamanos…Crocodiles!” 
“Wait…Crocodiles?!.. What??
On the beach? I didn’t sign up for this…
But when you hear the word crocodiles, you don’t stop and argue. You turn the other way and get moving. And thats exactly what I did!

What were we doing, you may ask? I had no idea
What did we sign up to do? Save the Turtles-(rescuing turtle eggs from harmful predators)
Was it what you expected? Not in the least bit, but all the same a very cool experience.

You see we signed up to “Save theTurtles” however this experience felt more like a beachside drug deal. Let’s just say I won’t ever start laughing again when someone mentions were saving turtles. 

Needless to say, it was indeed a turtle refuge program and we were indeed on a mission to save some turtle eggs. Unfortunately the crocodiles hindered our ability to pickup eggs, but we did get to see where all the eggs were buried and protected from damage until the right time. At no point were we really ever in danger(besides the possibility of walking into crocs) and I think everything seemed a little bit more extreme because of the heightened uneasiness from the darkness. And we were able to leave with a great story!

This is just one of the many great/funny stories from Costa Rica! We only have a few more days left, but the past couple of days have been really cool. We’ve had the chance to do street ministry, work with kids groups and help paint a church. Hopefully I’ll get another blog up about the rest of the stuff because I do have some good stories!

TC