¡Bienvenidos a Parque Hawaii!

I've arrived safely at Parque Hawaii, via a van with the door tied shut with twine. At the moment, I'm one of 10 volunteers from the US, Germany, England, France, Canada, Israel, and Guatemala. Most of the volunteers stay in a bungalow provided by ARCAS, the organization that runs Parque Hawaii. To maximize my exposure to Spanish, I'm staying with a host family 10 minutes by bike away from the park. My host mother's name is Karen and she has a 6 year old son, Jonathon. Karen's husband is in Maryland doing construction work. They are very welcoming and offer me fresh coconuts from the trees in their yard. Deliciosa!

Daily life as a volunteer at Parque Hawaii begins with chores such as feeding the animals, helping prepare breakfast, checking the turtle hatchery temperatures, accepting turtle egg donations, burying eggs, doing exhumations of old nests, and my favorite; releasing baby turtles. Besides having the largest sea turtle hatchery (tortugario) in Guatemala, ARCAS cares for vulnerable and endangered animals including parrots, iguanas, parakeets, baby raccoons, caimans, green turtles, chamarro turtles, sabanera turtles, and galapago turtles. I love that I get to observe and care for the animals. 

After the morning chores are done, a group of 3 other volunteers and I go to one of 5 local schools to teach English or environmental education lessons. The students are eager to learn and thankfully, they are accepting of my less than perfect Spanish. I am inspired by their ability to sit still in a hot, humid classrooms and study diligently without complaint. 

At night, all the volunteers split into pairs and patrol the beach looking for turtles and parlameros, the local men who collect turtle eggs to sell in the market or to tourists. The most common species to come lay its eggs at the beach here is the Olive Ridley sea turtle though on occasion a leatherback will arrive. In Spanish, Olive Ridleys are called Parlamas, hence the name parlameros. I have yet to find my "own" turtle to collect eggs from. So far I've only seen one that was already done laying eggs, which the parlamero agreed to sell to the hatchery for 8 quetzals ($1) per dozen. The turtle had layed 8 dozen eggs so the parlamero did pretty well. 

Eating turtle eggs is popular in Guatemala because they are said to be an aphrodisiac but since Guatemala has a population growth rate of 2%, the highest in Latin America, the practice seems a bit unnecessary. Since all turtle eggs will be harvested due to the high demand, the goal of patrolling nightly is to get as many of the fresh turtle eggs as possible to the tortugario to increase hatching rates. In the wild, the hatching rate of turtle nests is about 50%. At the ARCAS hatchery, the hatching rate is 87%. If the eggs are sold in the market, the hatching rate is nonexistent. No matter how many turtles hatch, only 1 per 1000 will make it to adulthood. Most baby turtles are eaten by predators when they enter the ocean and others are killed by fishing operations. Turtle life is tough! 

I am still learning the basics about turtle and reptilian biology but I hope to be able to share some interesting facts soon! So far the most fascinating thing I've learned is that the temperature of the eggs during incubation determines the sex of the babies. At ARCAS, we try to maintain a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius to hatch equal amounts of both sexes. In nature, there are more females than males with a ratio of 10 to 1 (lucky guys!) but since sea turtle populations are rapidly declining most hatcheries try to equalize the output of sexes in order to ensure that there are enough males for the females to mate with. 

Sundays are the only days the volunteers have off at ARCAS so it is time I sign off and find a liquado. Thanks for reading!