This week we adventured to Ostional National Wildlife Refuge. The second most important turtle nesting site in Costa Rica. This refuge is a 200 meter beach strip, extends three miles out to sea and includes the tiny village of Ostional. 

As one of the earth’s most incredible creatures starts to make its way onshore, they’ve come for a very specific reason. Something you can witness first hand. 

they swim for many miles, finally resting on Ostional beach to lay their eggs. As each turtles finds their spot on the beach, they start to dig a nest big enough to house and protect as many as 80-100 eggs at a time.

The locals call this event ‘Arribada’ – or ‘Arrival’ and it usually happens under the cover of nightfall between the times of 8pm and 4am.

While it happens all year round, between the months of July and November, Ostional beach is the home for hundreds of thousands of Olive Ridley Sea Turtles.

It is thought that a significant portion of the world’s Olive Ridley sea turtles lay their eggs in the Ostional Wildlife Refuge.

To date, the largest arribada recorded at the refuge occurred in November 1995, when an estimated 500,000 female sea turtles came on shore to nest.