A very long time ago, the first olive ridley sea turtles began swimming on our planet. Today, these ancient turtles are endangered, a fact that is really almost unfathomable because, after all, they have been with us—before there was an us— more than one hundred million years.

Need some perspective about just how long a hundred million years are? Consider T Rex, the mightiest dinosaur ever. This “Terrible Lizard” roamed North America sixty-five million years ago, and it ate olive ridleys when they came onto beaches to lay their eggs.

Over uncountable eons, these beings have flourished, despite being prey for nearly everything under the sun for tens of millions of generations. Probably thirty million generations were preyed upon by dinosaurs and other reptiles and fish before the first T Rex evolved and, since then, another 70,000,000 generations have fed a lot of critters. Still, they flourished.

They even survived the greatest extinction on the face of the planet. In fact though all of the mighty dinosaurs perished—they lived and flourished.

Over millennia, spreading across the face of the earth, these oldest of all reptiles populated every temperate and tropical ocean. From the Arabian Sea to the east Atlantic coast of the Americas and from India to the Pacific coast of the New World, they thrived all around the world. Tens upon tens of millions.

When Americans began to watch “I Love Lucy” the seas were still full of these turtles. The Pacific coast of Mexico alone had ten million olive ridley nests when the first episode of that TV show aired, each with about 100 eggs per clutch. Maybe a billion eggs were laid along just one coast of that country in just one year–1951—and these animals were found virtually every place that there were warm or temperate waters. The number of eggs was limitless.

Of course, where there is a limitless resource, there is money to be had. With so many eggs that were so easily gathered and so much profit to be made, entrepreneurs put together massive pack trains of horses and mules and brought them to the beaches. These pack animals carried off hundreds of millions of eggs each nesting season, year-after-year. And, to the surprise of some, it came as a shock that within twenty years, there was only one nest in one year on a beach where there had been several hundred thousand when Desi, Lucy, Ethel, and Fred made us laugh the first time. Alas, this catastrophe was being replicated all around the world.

At the same time, many countries opened sea turtle fisheries.

The result? From limitless to endangered in a couple of decades. A single generation of humans nearly accomplished what seemed impossible: nearly destroying in the blink of an eye what had taken 100,000,000 generations to create.

Fortunately, some countries belatedly realized the extent of depredation and began taking steps to conserve and protect these turtles. Tiny Costa Rica has helped lead the way, creating wildlife reserves and working with dedicated conservationists and local residents to not only conserve what is left but to rebuild stocks.

Today, Ostional Beach, on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, may have the world’s largest arribadas of olive ridleys. Every month, often when the moon is in its last quarter, female turtles gather just offshore and suddenly come to the beach en masse, day after day. The greatest arribadas are often in October, November, and December and the biggest mass nesting in recent years was 500,000 females coming ashore in 1995. If you want to experience extraordinary Costa Rica ecotourism, this is a must-see.

Costa Rica has come to understand that these extraordinary creatures are worth more than the value of their meat and eggs. And Mexico? Remember that pathetic single nest on a beach once filled with turtles? Well, the government finally decided to protect it. Slowly, it recovered to 50,000 nests in 1988—and then up to several hundred thousand nests in 2000.

With a little help from Nature and mankind, the olive ridley will have another 100,000,000 years.

If you were asked to pick the place with the highest satisfaction of life and happiness, where would you choose? Hint: Disneyworld which brags it is the “happiest place on earth” did not make the finals (or the list for that matter). It is officially tiny Costa Rica, winner of the Happy Planet Index as the most satisfying place to live on the planet.

The Index measures three factors in 143 countries, encompassing 99 percent of the population on the planet: high life expectancy, high life satisfaction, and a low ecological footprint. Costa Rica came out on top by a large margin.

The Happy Planet Index asked three questions: 1. What is a person’s life expectancy ( premise: it is better to live longer than die young)? 2. While alive, how satisfied are people with the quality of their life (premise: living longer but miserably is not very satisfying)? 3. How much does a country cost the planet (premise: sustainable development is better than exhausting resources and has less effect on global warming) ?

Like me, you probably assume that the richest nations will come in towards the top but that is not the case. Despite its wealth and power, the United States sits at number 114. England does better but still only ranks 74th.

The difference between Costa Rica and the USA is striking. Costa Ricans live longer than Americans (health care is nationalized, nearly free, and universal in Costa Rica), report much higher levels of life satisfaction (they are very happy with their life), and yet have a carbon footprint which is less than a quarter the size of the States.

Costa Rica reached the top of the rankings for many reasons. The country does not just talk about sustainable development, it is committed to it. While the developed world and rising powers of China and India rely upon nonrenewable resources (think oil) for power while contributing to serious global pollution and global warming, an incredible 99% of Costa Rica’s energy is completely renewable and sustainable. As the States and other developed countries dither about how to address power needs, chase more and more resources to use up, and argue about the challenges of global warming, tiny Costa Rica has been taking action. Even as more and more of the world is being deforested, there are 20% more forested areas in Costa Rica than just 20 years ago. And, though there may be large oil deposits off its shores, the country has ignored its Siren Song and refuses to allow oil drilling. Also, it is the first, and so far the only, country to commit to being completely carbon neutral by 2021.

Costa Rica’s per capita income is only a fraction of that of the United States and other western countries but its ranking at number 1 in all the world is a model to emulate.

Situated off the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica along the shores of the Osa Peninsula, almost on the Panama border, you will find the Parque Nacional Corcovado (Corcovado National Park). This is a unique protected habitat and is the largest surviving forest on the Pacific Coast from Mexico to South America. There are eight different habitats to be found in the 42,000 hectares (100,000 acres) which form a tiny national park that remains for the most part unspoiled. Though teeny, it is one-of-a-kind. Literally.

When Christopher Columbus explored the Americas in 1502 he traveled the Caribbean from Mexico south to a land he called ‘Costa Rica’, the ‘rich coast’. The name stuck. Fabulous tropical forests covered the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific and there were so many sea turtles that sometimes mariners, lost in the fog, found land by listening to the sounds of tens of thousands of animals paddling towards nesting beaches. Unfortunately, the passage of 500 years has not been kind to either the forests or animals and today most of the primary forests from Mexico to South America have been cut down or burned. Fortunately, Costa Rica had the good sense to preserve Corcovado.

Columbus never saw Corcovado. The first Western explorer to see it was Sir Frances Drake (remember him? The sea captain who destroyed the Spanish Armada in 1588 and saved England from Spain) who landed just north of the Osa Peninsula in a beautiful place now named after him: Drake Bay. The bay serves as the gateway to Corcovado.

Corcovado is very tiny (not small, tiny), less than 160 square miles in size. That is about 20 miles long and 8 miles deep. Tiny. Even so, it is incredible. Described as ‘the most biologically intense place’ on earth by National Georgraphic, it is largely unspoiled and the single largest surviving rain forest situated on the Pacific Coast from Mexico to South America. The mangroves and other biodiverse areas of Corcovado protect an incredible array of plants and animals. There are 139 species of mammals, including the mighty jaguar, puma, ocelot, and three other kinds of wild cats. You will also find 400 different species of birds (the entire continent of Europe has 1000 species and the continental U.S. has 900) living in an area less than half the size of New York City! The largest remaining Central America population of scarlet macasws live here, along with 116 kinds of amphibians and reptiles. ‘Intense” is exactly right: 10% of all the different kinds of mammals in the whole of the Americas are found here—in a park less than 1/20th the size of Yellowstone National Park.

If you like frogs (and who does not?) then visiting this national park will be a rare treat. There are species of poison-arrow, glass, and re-eyed tree frogs which make this park their home. It is one of just a couple of places in Costa Rica to find squirrel monkeys, and visitors are able to watch fishing bats fish the rivers of the reserve at night. At one time you could also find the harpy eagle in Corcovado, however, it has not been see for a number of years and is believed to be extinct in the area.

The seemingly deserted beaches of the park provide a nesting ground for four species of sea turtle and because of the large tapir population jaguars and crocodiles also inhabit this area. They prefer to hunt around the edges of the Corcovado Lagoon and are often sighted. The footprints of this large carnivorous cat are often found in the mud trails which surround the lagoon.

Corcovado is one of the best tropical rainforests on earth. You will see why it is called the Amazon of Costa Rica because it is as impressive as any rain forest in Brazil, Indonesia, or Malaysia. Torrential rains fall in the area from April to December so the best time to visit is in the dry months from January to April.