For more than a hundred million years, Olive Ridley turtles have been beckoned to the shores of Ostional beach in Costa Rica to lay their eggs in the warm volcanic sand. Gathering in their thousands they are prompted by some secret signal to crawl up the beach in mass nesting events, known as "arribadas" (the Spanish word for arrival).

Adapted for life in the ocean , beaches can be perilous places for nesting turtles. Crawling, digging and egg-laying are strenuous processes for a 50kg animal and their eggs are often eaten by predators before the turtle can bury them. Even successful nests are routinely destroyed by other turtles coming ashore and digging in the same area.

Turtle eggs are also a popular snack for humans and the community of Ostional runs a sustainable project to collect eggs laid during the first few days of an arribada. These early eggs, considered unlikely to survive, are bagged for legal and controlled sale throughout the country.

The baby turtles hatch within 45-54 days and race towards the relative safety of the ocean, where they can avoid the vultures, storks, dogs and crabs that have waited for them to emerge. Those that make it can spend up to 48 hours fighting against the swell to avoid being washed ashore, while diving frigate birds and large fish pose a constant threat.

The small fraction of hatchlings that reach maturity remember their place of birth and will return, some 10-15 years later to lay their eggs in Ostional’s black sands.

Photographer Solvin Zankl has documented the arribada from the moment the first individual crawls ashore, to a hatchling's first swim in the ocean.

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