These past few weeks Ostional in Guanacaste has been as it is several times a year the nesting site of thousands of sea turtles, an impressive event that attracts national and international tourists to this beach that receives four different species of sea turtles.

In this occasion, however, the number of olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) arriving at the National Wildlife Refuge has been such that they have reached the neighboring houses and have even made it to the road.

“This arribada has been abnormal. It started on Wednesday (October 25) and still on Saturday night there were a lot of turtles, but they seem disoriented. I have picked up about 10 of them in the road and taken them back to the beach, I have found them about 150 meters from the beach. One of them made it to my house and other two were in the patio of a workshop I have. I’ve never seen anything like it,” declared Jesus Anchía, a neighbor of the area and a biologist assistant in the University of Costa Rica, to national daily La Nación.

According to Sinac (National System of Areas of Conservation), this is the second most important arribada in the world due to the number of nesting turtles, which can be of anywhere from 1,000 up to 200,000 depending of the time a year. The nesting period lasts usually anywhere from three to five days.

The Association of Local Guides of Ostional published several videos showing some turtles that wondered far from the beach and had to be taken back.