Gap Year Diaries

Looking back over the blog entries from their last few days of sea turtle conservation on the Costa Rican coast, Emily and Rachel recount the arrival of a new volunteer, and, more importantly, his iconic footwear choice, as well as their sad farewell to the conservation project and onward journey back to San Jose. In this episode, we also witness what happens when leaf-cutter ants attack, and just...

After much hard labour and laying around in hammocks at the sea turtle conservation station, Emily and Rachel relive and read back over their hallowed ‘day off’, which they spend floating around the local laguna on a canoe owned by a man named Gilberto, spotting distant squirrel monkeys and potentially deadly caimans. In this episode we also learn just how long it can take Rachel to successfully c...

Now fully qualified turtle conservationists, Emily and Rachel continue re-reading and reliving their adventures in the coastal Costa Rican jungle. In this episode, they attend their very first party of the trip, Emily has a near-death experience whilst trying to speak Spanish, and Rachel recounts her own turtle adventures with a group of overly enthusiastic American tourists in tow.

After recalling their unexpected arrival in the coastal Costa Rican jungle, and becoming accustomed to being woken up by howler monkeys and antimalarial-induced nightmares, Rachel and Emily continue reliving their time conserving sea turtles by reading from their original blog text. In this episode, they receive some turtle-saving training, and try their best to ingratiate themselves with the loca...

In this episode, Rachel and Emily cast their minds back to the Costa Rican coast, reliving their ridiculously haphazard journey from the capital city of San Jose to Gandoca Beach, to embark on a sea turtle conservation project. From unlikely saviours wearing G Unit t-shirts, to their first taste of remote, jungle living, this blog entry is the perfect illustration of how the kindness of strangers...

In this episode, Rachel and Emily recount a severe misfortune that befalls them on the second day of their five-month trip, and the hysterical (in every sense of the word) events that followed, all, of course, whilst reading from the original blog text. From malfunctioning padlocks to close encounters with the Costa Rican justice system, this blog entry recounts what Emily once referred to as ‘hon...

In this episode, Rachel and Emily read from their very first blog entry, reliving their arrival in Costa Rica – the first country of the trip. Featuring tearful goodbyes and ridiculously undignified hostel arrivals, from waking an entire dorm room with the turn of a tap, to unwittingly inconveniencing the entire Costa Rica Language Academy due to their sheer incompetence, the tone is well and trul...

In this special episode, Emily and Rachel do their best to ‘sponge up the context’ of their trip, by delving behind the scenes, and journeying back into their 18-year-old, travel-planning mindsets. From the staggering amount of jobs they somehow held down to save for the trip, to the endless hours spent agonising over what to pack, and whether or not they would need water-purification tablets in t...