Hi, I'm Dilly Hoyt from Llanelli, Wales. Welcome to my blog; here you will read all about my adventures as I study at UWC Costa Rica, representing the UK.

Sunday 23 February 2014

Sorry it's been so long!

The Turtle Expedition to Cameronal Beach

From the 30th of December to the 5th of January, I went on an expedition along with ten other students from UWCCR to Cameronal- a beach on the Pacific side of Costa Rica which is well known for its nesting sea turtles.
Here, we volunteered each day, from beach cleaning, to fixing mountain trails. Whilst each night, we patrolled Cameronal beach in search of Olive Ridley Sea turtles which are most commonly found at early hours of the morning on the shore, laying between 70-100 eggs each time.
We were split into two groups for the night patrols; one group took and earlier shift, whilst the other took the later, and each night, we alternated.  Fortunately, I was in the group which managed to see at least one turtle nest each night, the other group on the other hand only managed to see one turtle the whole time being there, and that was the last night when both groups patrolled the beach together!
When we spotted a nesting Olive Ridley turtle (the most common species in the area,) we allowed it to dig its hole for the turtle eggs, and let it begin the process of laying eggs.  Whilst this happens, the turtle goes into a stage similar to a trance, where it cannot feel or see much, and so carefully, we extracted the eggs from the nest, placed them in a plastic bag, and took them to the nesting ground, which is a fenced off area which gives the baby turtles the best chance of survival.  The reason we did this was because the beach is home to hundreds of racoons; each hungry raccoon wants turtle eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  They were so greedy, that they ate the turtle eggs as they're falling out of turtle!
The only way to stop them from doing this was to spot the turtle before she started laying, so that we could scare off the racoons and reach the eggs before they do.  Once we transported them to the nesting ground, we placed the eggs in a specific area, chronologically, so that the people who worked at the beach full-time knew when the turtles would hatch.

This was a fantastic experience, as not only did I get to continue with my research on sea turtles, but I also got to know many of my co-years a lot better over the five days. 




My December Break

Since the very day I left campus, I was eager to come back!  I missed everything about the place, but mainly the people!  It was weird being in the U.S.A, where none of my friends lived- as one of the most beautiful things about living here is the fact that your friends are literally 3 metres away from you, and so if you ever get lonely, you can pop in to see them and have a great conversation.  Whereas, many of my nights in the U.S (at the beginning of the holiday) were either spent twiddling my thumbs, or watching Breaking Bad (although I do love Breaking Bad..)
My holiday then got a lot more exciting when I took a bus to Chicago, then a train from Union Station to Urbana to visit my friend Mara from UWCCR!  I had a wonderful time!  I met many of her friends back at home, watched her high school play a basketball game, and visited her high school, which was nothing like high school musical should I mention!
It was a very beautiful yet short adventure, which ended with a hug goodbye, and meeting my father for the first time since I left for Costa Rica, at the bus station in Chicago.  It was such a surreal moment, looking out of the bus window to find my dad standing in the snow with his colourful beanie hat on, wearing his well-known, gigantic smile on the slightly pink face of his.
I realized then, how much I missed him.  But the most beautiful moment of all was the fact that just about everything was the same between us.  We still had our same old jokes and he still treated me the way he did before, yet there was a certain something that was different- he understood that I had grown up a lot and was now a lot more independent, so that making decisions came very naturally to me now.  
The whole train ride back to Michigan was spent reading ebooks on our kindles, just as we once did , four months earlier.
But I'm sidetracking now, the whole point of this blog is to describe my experiences in Costa Rica, and so I'll continue with my adventures..

First Year Show

Soon after arriving back on campus, my co-years and I began frantically arranging our meant-to-be-secret first year show which, if you don't know, is a compilation of acts put together in order to entertain our second years.
We went about this by practicing in classrooms at night, or meeting in obscure places during lunch time. Unfortunately, the second-years caught on immediately, which meant that our cover was blown, and our unexpected, spectacular show, became expected, but nonetheless spectacular!
We had altogether around 20 acts, consisting of dancing, singing, poems and mimes- some entertaining, whilst others were emotional.  I  participated in a few acts, a Bollywood dance whom my friends Amiya from India, and Peppi from Finland choreographed, the year-group dance which everyone participated, including the second years who joined in, after watching us dance the routine a couple of times.  My main act was accompanying Mara and Pele (Ghana) to a Les Miserables compilation of three songs which I mashed-up a couple of days beforehand.  
It was silly how we didn't think about the lighting of the room before hand- it was terrible, and so my seven page piece which was relatively easy became a nightmare in the dark!  Although I played awfully, Mara and Pele compensated by singing tunefully!
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed performing in the first year show, and I'm sure that the second years enjoyed watching too!

Mal Pais Party

A couple of weeks ago, one of the residences had its annual party.  Where there was chocolate fondue, live D-Jing, and even a fire show!  The majority of the school attended this event.  
The theme was a traffic light party; you wore green if you were single, yellow if it was complicated and red if you were in a relationship.  This was a lot of fun, but I was very tired by the end of it, and so I ended up in bed by 11pm-my earliest night here yet! 

Trimester 2 Ends

It's crazy how time flies by here so quickly, one minute you're counting down the days until you're reunited with your family, whilst the next, you're counting down how many days you have left with your friends at UWCCR!
The months have flown by, and trimester two is already over!  This means only one thing, a very long and grueling trimester three is about to begin, meaning lots of studying and less socialising!
If this means getting into a good university, so be it!

Service Week

This week, I will be heading out to Monte Verde on my service week along with another 20+ students. During this period, we will do many things, such as clearing the mountain trails, hiking and maintaining the National Park.  There is also a beautiful waterfall near the guest house that we'll be staying at, or so I have heard.  You'll hear a lot more about that next week upon my arrival back on campus!


Wild Creatures on Campus

I think that I should do a weekly article on this topic alone, as I have come across so many strange yet wonderful creatures in the small proximity of this campus.
Here captured, a mother scorpion found in Lucas' shoe along with at least another 80+ baby scorpions.  Luckily, no animals (including humans) were harmed during the making of this photograph, eve though the scorpion was awfully close to my feet at this point..
Here, if you look closely, you will see an iguana behind the toilet!!  Haha, apparently, last year, there was one in the showers, but this year they've gone for somewhere with a little more objects to hide behind!  Who can blame the poor soul for wanting to do its business hygienically!

Thanks for reading!Dilly x