Night Lights

The beach was wide and smooth, packed down by the heavy tides of a new moon. The dark silhouette of trees was the only thing visible along the shoreline. The stars were bright, a useful source of ambient light- more than enough for me to pick my way along – carefully avoiding the floatsam and jetsam that had made its way ashore.
I tagged two turtles that night, both straining against my weight as I assured them It’d be over soon- a bit of a tough task on your own.
An odd thing happens when turtles lay. Once she’s begun to deposit the eggs she enters a bit of a trance, focused and unflinching until the whole clutch has been laid. Truly a spectacular sight knowing the sacrifice she’d make to see that her progeny survive her…I love my mom too.
The return walks are always great, rain or shine the sounds are a sensory overload- cackling forest and pounding surf. The blackness of this particular night was enveloping and I hadn’t made it more than a few steps when something underfoot caused me to hesitate. I sat idle for a minute, pondering what could’ve created the image bringing me to such an abrupt stop. I passed my toes over the spot, casually raking the sand into streaks when I saw it again. This time I was looking directly at the mirage. I began to walk wildly, a drunken gait flinging sand this way and that throwing off showers of light in all directions.
The high tide flooded the soft black sand with dinoflagellates, a very simple-celled bioluminescing algae. Every contact with the sand glowed bright and mirrored the million stars on display overhead. Dancing back and forth I began to spray light in all directions, moving systematically down the tideline stomping and spraying out new constellations.
Yet again in heaven.

The last two weeks have been pleasant, fewer turtles than I’d anticipated but a general trend for a full moon. Beach cleanups and camping trips the highlight as I anticipate a week’s vacation on the 14th. Volcanoes and caves, my dad and my brother and a rental car in northern Costa Rica for 8 days. Stoked.

A dozen new volunteers arrived yesterday, green and disoriented, and the camp has a new buzz of life. A pickup soccer game with the Corcovado Park rangers was comical at best. Collisions and cursing, fancy footwork and spectacular goals. I was quickly relegated to defense, but our team managed to do quite well. Not much can beat the sensation of a ripe guava squishing underfoot or a slide tackle through a stream of leaf-cutter ants.
Today strikes me as a great day for a walk down to the waterfall, I’ll catch back up asap.
Cheers,