Photo by the Costa Rica Tourism Board

Ostional beach, in Costa Rica's northern Pacific region, is one of the world's major olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) nesting sites. Throughout the year, you can see these beautiful creatures emerging from the sea to lay their eggs in the dark sand of Ostional. But this spectacular show is most impressive between August and late October, during the arribadas, an emergence of nesting females en masse with thousands occupying the entire beach laying millions of eggs.

This natural phenomenon has provided a major attraction for tourism development in the community of Ostional. In addition, since a large percentage of the eggs from the first days of laying are usually dug up or crushed by the later arriving turtles, the community has a legal and sustainable turtle egg harvest project that brings in significant revenue without harming the turtle population.

The largest arribada recorded in Ostional occurred in 1995 when 500,000 olive ridleys laid about ten million eggs.

You can witness the arribada in person! Find sustainable hotels in Costa Rica's northern Pacific region on SustainableTrip.org.

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