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Published: December 24th 2012
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So it's Christmas Eve and it has been a long while since my last post....many reasons for that could include being in the middle of nowhere, lack of internet connectivity etc etc. but actually it just comes down to my complete ineptitude in being able to work a blog page....I couldn't remeber how to logon, post or publish a blog...so now I have finally worked it out...here I am.
I am currently about 6km from the border of El Salvador on the Pacific Coast, volunteering with Akazul a sea turtle conservation program and community engagement intitiative. Getting here was an interesting adventure. I got a boat from San Pedro to Panajachel and then a shuttle form there to Antigua, a beautiful colonial town with cobbled streets, impressive architecture and a number of crumbling churches which have been damaged over the years by numerous earthquakes. Here I stayed the night in a hostel and left on a 6am chicken bus to Escuintla. Chicken buses are old American school buses decorated in a multitude of colours and in varying states of repair. There are probably about 30 rows of seats each designed to carry four people. However this is not the case
in Guatemala, where as many people as possible are crammed in, with 7 to a row and many standing in the aisle. The front door is always open so people can hang on there and fit a few extras in too. Luggage goes on the roof. Women who get on with thier babies when there is only standing room are encouraged to hand their babies over to a seated stranger for safe keeping. They are hot, smelly and exceedingly crowded, however the Guatemalas take it all in thier stride, always helping one another and smiling. A guy is employed to take the money from all passengers and put the luggage on the roof. His job involves climbing over and round all of the passengers of different shapes and sizes and taking their fare, getting out and carrying huge buckets, bags, sacks of maize and corn up onto the roof and then running to the front door to jump on the bus whilst it is moving. I took two or three of these to La Colonia, a border town on the border of El Salvador and then had to find the place to take another vehicle to La Barrona. I have
since found out that this part of the journey was luxuary with only 8 to a minibus (as opposed to the 32 there were when I took the jouney again this week). We had tyres on board and sropped after about 15minutes to change all four bald tyres. We were not asked to leave the vehicle whilst they did this and they raised it up with all of us inside! We then stopped about 5 or six more times to pick people and supplies up for the village along the way.
Then came the river crossing....over a rickety bridge built by all the surrounding villages and supervised by the mayor only 6 weeks previous as it gets washed away every rainy season and at that time lanchas (small wooden boats) are the only way across. The bridge by this point was already leaning to one side and the timbers were starting to split, the lady next to me said she was scared and worried it might break....but we made it across anyway and after a few more deliveries later, we had arrived.
The village of La Barrona where the project is based is very remote and small. The
villagers have a hand to mouth existence with fishing in the mangroves and collecting turtle eggs to sell as their main source of income. Olive Ridley turtles nest on the beach of La Barrona and this year there has also been two Leatherback turtle nests. Leatherback turtles are extrmemly rare inthe Pacific with a population decline of 99% with harvesting of eggs being a significant threat to thier population. It is now illegal in Guatemala to harvest eggs from any species of turtle except Olive Ridleys (the most abundant sea turtle in the world and therefore less of a conservation priority), however the Palermos must donate 20% of each nest to Govenment run hatcherys to ensure the population and the egg collecting can continue in future. However in reality this figure of 20% is rarely reached and 12 eggs per nest is the average donation. With the average clutch size of 85 eggs and the often quoted phrase of "one in a thousand hatchlings will make it to adulthood" this small donation seems significantly short of what is required to maintain the population. Last year in La Barrona the collaboration rate (eggs donated by Palermos from nests) was at 75%
with an average of 17% of eggs donated from each clutch. Akazul, lead by Sarah and Scott in La Barrona is working hard within the community to provide education through workshops, English classes, sea turtle festivals, Akazul football team, kids clubs and a community library with the aim of working with the community and encouraging consistent donations to ensure a future population of turtles within La Barrona.
The house is based in a disused restaurant, hammocks swing from the rafters of the palm thatched roof and chickens, stray dogs, bats and ducks are among the regular visitors. The house is surrounded by cocnut trees and is located 100m from the beach in the heart of the community and has a purpose built education centre with life size models of all four species of sea turtles and information boards in Spanish for the locals to read. Classes are run each week for adults and children from La Barrona and neighbouring villages.
It is coming to the end of the nesting season and only one or two turtles emerge from the sea each night now. However on my first night patrol I was lucky enough to see an Olive Ridley
for the first time. In fact I heard it first, its flippers were flapping back against its carapace as a man carried up the beach into a ready made indent inthe sand, made to encourage it to lay. This is quite distressing to see happen as it is completely un natural. However Olive Ridleys seem to be laid back turtles, the turtle was not affected by being picked up and she did lay. We then tagged her, got a 20% donatation from the Palermo and she was left to make herown way back to the sea with shooting stars flying from every direction as se entered the waves. We took the eggs back to be buried at the hatchery, ready to hatch out in approximately 55 days.
The beaches of La Barrona at night are a busy place to be with Palermos on bicycles, motorbikes, on foot and on horseback all looking for the same thing, female turtles full of eggs. In the high season when eggs are plentiful the price given to a palermo for a dozen eggs is 8 Quetzals (its about 12Q to 1GBP).
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It brings it all to life.