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Published: March 24th 2008
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Hola amigos!
Ok, so much to tell you!
I have just left the National Park in Gandoca after 2 weeks of Turtle Conservation. Sorry I havent been in touch as frequently as before, but the station is in the middle of nowhere and we just had a shop, a bar and a telephone in the village, so no Internet!
The Turtle Project was absolutely amazing! Its really hard work, as I said, but seeing the big leatherbacks was absolutely worth it! We have finally finished building the first hatchery on Friday, just before I left. I think there is space for about 100 nests, same for the 2nd one which will be build round about now.. The Hatchery is a place where the eggs that cant be left at the original place where the Turtle nested will be relocated to. Its being watched 24/7 in 6 hour shifts! Mega boring!!! Once we left equipment on the beach, someone had to watch the Hatchery, even without actual nests. I did it once, the 6pm - 12am shift! I have never been bored so much in my life!!!! And the bloody sandflies nearly ate me alive!!! I have got about 40 bites
Martina carrying sand...
wet, heavy sand that is!!! from mosquitos and sandflies on my legs and arms! Not a pretty sight! And before you ask, yes, I did wear a long sleeve shirt and long pants! Unfortunately we werent allowed to use Mosquito repellent, as the Turtles can smell it and stuff. So even on the patrols, we had to cover up at all times.
Believe it or not, but I actually got used to the 4 hours patrols in the end, mainly because the beached changed nearly every day in shape and the sand got much harder, so easier to walk on. I actually enjoyed it in the end! Although, all of the romantic ideas of walking along the beach at night and watching the stars that may have excisted in my head are totally gone!!
Did I mention that the sand on the beach is black? Quite cool actually! So I saw 3 turtles in total and actively helped with only one! Unfortunately we always arrived to late to see the turtle digging the hole and laying the eggs, but I got to help digging them out, getting covered in sand and relocating the eggs. The shell is by the way really soft and I did
actually fear to squash them! But I obviously handled them like raw eggs, literally!! Also, the bag with the eggs, although we only had 49 eggs, plus 11 yolkless ones, was really heavy! Normally the Turtles lay about 100 eggs in one go and return about 10 days later for another load. Quite impressive!
So, to sum it all up: I had a brilliant time, but decided to leave the project now, after only 2 weeks to return in May for the baby turtles. It takes like 60 days for the babies to hatch and the first nest was found in mid Feb, so I wouldnt have seen the little ones in the next 2 weeks. So, i definitely recommend this project, but be prepared to eat lots of rice! And being here for already 6 weeks, being fed rice for nearly every meal, I have finally had enough!!!! No more rice! (Note to parents: Dont prepare any meal with rice for the next year!!!! PLEASE!!)
having left the project has another good side- effect, I joined some girls from the project for a trip to Panama. I am now in Bocas del Toro, right after the border. The border
A turtle!!!
Not a real one, but pretty close! People got bored during Hatchery Watch by the way is another experience!!! Its jsut a long bridge out of wooden lathes!!! I was sooo scared to fall down and then some huge lorries easily drove across! OMG! Panama so far is really nice and quite different to Costa Rica. The buildings are more colourful and kind of colonial style. People are really nice and the food is good! got a bit too much sun yesterday but it all turned nicely brown. We went to a beach with lots of starfish! So cool! The are soo big! I did want to touch them, but couldnt remember if they were poisonous. Does anyone know??
Mhh, what else? Oh, for some reason most of the travellers here are girls! You hardly see any guys! And lots of the girls are german and for some reason I always bump into girls that are also called Katrin, Katharina, Karin or something similar!! Never knew how popular my name was in he 80s...
Ok, better go, the sun is waiting.. ;-) Hope you are enjoying snow and Easter eggs!!! Am jealous! Really wanted to search for eggs in the garden but not possible for obvious reasons here...
So, before I forget: Happy
Easter -- Feliz Pascua!
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Igel
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Hi Bar, Hope you are still having a fab time, have enjoyed looking at all your piccies. Enjoy the sun, its freezing in Aberdeen! And my tv blew up last week. Igel