¡Hasta luego tortugas!

Feliz fin de semana! I wrote this post yesterday but didn't get the chance to post it until today. So, when it says today it was actually yesterday and tomorrow is actually today. Confusing enough? Also, I think I've fixed the photos on my last post so that you can actually see them. 

It is my fifth and final week here at ARCAS and like the turtles that hatch here, I am eager to move forward and explore other corners of the world. 

Last night was my final patrol and although I only saw one nesting turtle, it was a great way to end my stay at ARCAS. The sand reflected the starry sky with a galaxy of phosphorescent algae. Fireflies and bats navigated the warm air as I reminisced the last month. I can't believe I've spent 3 hours a night, 6 days a week for 5 weeks patrolling the beach. I remember my first night of patrol, how terrified I was of the silhouetted men coming and going on the dark beach. Once I became more confident the next week, I approached a parlamero who had just found a turtle in hopes of purchasing the eggs. I asked, "¿Tienes huevos?". He looked at me like I was insane for a moment and then proceeded to sell me the eggs. A few days later, I realized the reason for his puzzled look. "¿Tienes huevos?" translates literally to "Do you have eggs?", but in Guatemala "huevos" is commonly used to refer to male reproductive organs. I had approached a stranger on a dark beach in the middle of the night and asked the equivalent of "Do you have balls?". My most hilarious Spanish mess up to date. 

Today, the park hosted a Feria Ambiental (environmental fair) for the students of the neighboring villages. We planned environmentally themed games for the attendees and it was a huge hit but also a bit of a culture shock. I lead a fishing game in which the kids dangled a fishing line with a clothespin "hook" over a sheet. A volunteer then clipped either a drawing of either a fish, a turtle, or a piece of trash to the line. Each time someone caught a fish, they'd win a ticket for the prize raffle. The goal was to emphasize the amount of trash in the ocean and the importance of sustainable fishing for turtle conservation. While they claimed to understand the concept, I witnessed multiple kids waiting in line toss their snack wrappers onto the ground. When confronted they were quick to pick up the litter but there was a disappointing disconnect between what they were learning and how they reacted.

 

When it came time for us to do the raffle, the kids crowded around me and the 3 other volunteers who had the prizes. I felt like I was in a mosh pit as the hundred or so kids swarmed us like wasps to fruit. My hair was pulled, I was pinched, and a boy tried to climb me like a tree. Because the kids were so violent towards each other during the raffle, we had to cut it short. A mob of desperate kids swarmed us and tried to grab the remaining prizes from the box. All that was left were a few pencils and a washcloth, but their determination was fierce. It was hard to tell whether the kids were so ravenous for prizes out of actual desperation or if they just wanted to win something. We distracted the prize crazed kids with a piñata, which was promptly decapitated and gutted. 

Besides the slight chaos of the raffle and the piñata, the Feria Ambiental was a huge success and I loved seeing the local families enjoying themselves at the park. I took lots of photos on my camera, but I don't have a way to upload them yet. Hang tight and I'll post a photo blog in a few weeks! 

Tomorrow, I'm going kayaking in the mangroves and then I'll pack my backpack for another adventure. In the next 8 days I plan to visit the Mayan ruins of Yaxhá and Tikal, I'll cross the border into western Belize to go caving, then I'll make my way to eastern Guatemala to visit the limestone pools and rivers of Semuc Champay and a Quetzal reserve outside of Coban. I'll then head to Antigua where I'll spend 3 weeks volunteering on a coffee farm and taking intensive Spanish lessons. Life is sweet!

Thanks for reading, I hope you have a splendid weekend. 

I'll definetly miss the mapache pups at Parque Hawaii!

This week in Guatemala City: reckless drivers, a rock star, and chicharron con pelos

This week I visited Guatemala City and Antigua with Lucia, a research assistant at Parque Hawaii and Vanessa, a fellow volunteer. Our trip began on Monday with a frightening shuttle trip from the park to Antigua. The driver took speed limits, turn signals, no passing signs, and any other expectation of safe driving as a mere suggestion. Halfway through the drive we entered a torrential downpour which was not unnexpected, considering it is still the rainy season. Upon entering the storm, we realized the van was not equipped with windshield wipers nor whatever that air vent is called that helps de-foggify windows. The driver was not bothered, but we gringos were about to hacer una grande mierda en nuestros pantelones (Lucia says this sentence doesn't make any sense but what I'm trying to say is we were so scared we nearly shat our pants). Finally, we arrived in Antigua where Lucia's father met us in a car equipped with parabrisas (windshield wipers) and we safely drove the rest of the way to Guatemala City. At least I learned how to say parabrisas. 

Once at Lucia's house, we ate a delicious homemade dinner with her family. Her mother had lived in Anchorage, Alaska for a bit and we had a lovely conversation about the joys of eating fresh salmon and halibut. It was nice to have a family dinner again but it made me a bit homesick for my goofy family. 

Vanessa, me, Alvao and Lucia in Portalito

The next day, Lucia brought Vanessa and I to meet her friend Alvaro at a pub downtown called Portalito for michelatas, an oddly delicious Guatemalan drink made of beer, tomato juice, hot sauce, worcestershire sauce, pepper, and salt. Portalito's claim to fame is that Ernesto Che Guevara hung out there when he passed through Guatemala. While we were sipping our michelatas, people kept coming up to Alvaro to say hi. I didn't understand how he could run into so many friends in the middle of Guatemala City so I asked Lucia how he knew so many people. Casually, she told me he's in a famous Guatemalan rock band called Bohemia Suburbania. The people coming up to him were just his fans, no big deal.

That afternoon, Lucia and Alvaro showed Vanessa a me the highlights of the city. We toured the Palacio Nacional and the Teatro Nacional, both impressive feats of architecture that cost the government millions of dollars. The whole time I couldn't stop thinking of the money and labor that went into those impressive buildings. Guatemala is a country that does not have potable tap water, yet the government does not seem to have a problem prioritizing luxuries for the minority while ignoring necessities for the majority. 

Hanging out in Guatemala City's Central Plaza in front of the Palacio Nacional

A 5,000 pound crystal chandelier in the National Palace

Wednesday was Lucia's birthday and she wanted to bring me to the central market to show me the inspiration for the Guatemalan hit song "Chicharron con Pelos". Chicharron is fried pork rind and it is a typical street food down here. "Con pelos" means with hair, because often times the chicharon still has the pig's hair on it. The market was very colorful and yes, I even ate some chicharron con pelos but suffered the consequences with a mild stomach ache later that night. 

I suggest you watch the music video for "Chicharron con Pelos" but I'm warning you that the chorus will be stuck in your head for the next week. 

Today Vanessa, Lucia, and I got a ride to Antigua where we ate pita bread with felafel and drank chocolate milk. Tomorrow morning the three of us will take a shuttle back to Parque Hawaii and return to our humble duty of saving the world, one turtle at a time. 

Edgar the Parlamero

At Parque Hawaii, the most important work is done at night. As soon as the sun begins to set, the baby turtles in the hatchery begin to crawl out of their nests after 45-50 days of development. Volunteers count the turtles from each nest and take a random sample of 10 hatchlings to measure the shell length, shell width, length from tail to beak, and weight. The babies are on average 7cm long, 4cm wide, and they weigh around 15oz. They flap their flippers confusedly while I hold them between my fingers measuring them. They are adorable, as baby animals characteristically are. After the data is entered, the tortugitas are taken to the beach to be released. This is when I start to feel like a stressed out babysitter  because all the turtles' lives, sometimes as many as 150, are in my hands. The turtles  become disoriented by light and they blend into the the black sand so my job is to blindly herd them to the waves. It usually takes about 20 minutes until the last turtle finds his or her way to the water. 

Baby "liberados" happen all night between patrol shifts. While on patrol, I try to find my "own" turtle to collect eggs to re-plant in the hatchery. Competition to find turtles is tough since seasoned parlameros far outnumber the volunteers and Parque Hawaii staff on the beach. Oftentimes when a turtle is spotted, the individual who finds it will sprint to claim it even if that  means going waist deep into to ocean. For a few weeks before my arrival, none of the volunteers found turtles of their own so the Parque Hawaii staff decided to have volunteers start patrolling with experienced parlameros as a way to educate the volunteers and simultaneously involve and support community members who value sea turtle conservation. 

This new patrol tactic matches me with Edgar, a 55 year old local man who has been a parlamero since he was 10 years old. At first, I am a bit nervous about being paired with a stranger to roam the beach with for 3 hours in the middle of the night but within minutes of patrolling I realize I have nothing to worry about. Edgar is eager to share his knowledge with anyone interested so he is easy to chat with. Edgar can predict the arrival of a nesting turtle by using nearly all his senses. With his well trained eyes, Edgar can spot a turtle in the surf as far as 50 meters away. Although one may presume that visual cues are the most reliable, the most knowledgable parlameros rely equally on their other senses to encounter turtles. Edgar advises me that when walking on the beach, the smell of fish or a pocket of warm air coming from the water are sure signs that a parlama or 2 are about to nest. Turtles often ride the currents to shore, which explains the change in air temperature and smell. Another factor that parlameros believe to attract turtles is stormy weather and wind. Thunder and lightening attracts parlamas and thus parlameros to the beach, making the most meteorologically dramatic nights the most competitive to find turtles. 

This particular night of patrol is overcast with thunder and lightening in the distance. We use no lights while patrolling because it easier to see turtles once your eyes adjust in the dark. I enjoy patrolling in the dark because it emphasizes the lightening bolts that illuminate the beach and the phosphorescent algae that sparkle beneath my toes. I tell Edgar how badly I want to find a turtle and he assures me, "No te precupa, encontraramos una parlama. Cada noche encuentro parlamas." Sure enough, after an hour of patrol we walk right into a turtle track. I run up the beach to claim it, and watch as the meter long, half meter wide Olive Ridley rhythmically digs a nest using only her hind flippers. Left, right, left, right, left, she scoops sand until the nest is approximately 30cm deep with a bowl shape at the bottom. If she knows, she doesn't seem phased that I sit watching. As soon as she begins laying eggs she definitely doesn't notice me dig a tunnel through the sand into the bowl of her nest to collect the eggs. Sea turtle species enter a trance while laying their eggs which makes them particularly vulnerable to poachers, though on the bright side it makes my job of  gathering eggs easy. The eggs come out of her tail 2 at a time. Olive Ridley eggs are the size of golf balls and have soft, leathery shells that will dent in but not break when you hold them between your fingers. After the parlama has finished with the clutch, she excretes from her tail onto the eggs a slimy substance that has anti-fungal and anti- bacterial properties.  I count 99 eggs from her nest to re-plant in the hatchery in the park. The parlama does not rest until after her work is done but her heavy breathing proves that she is tired. Flabbergasted, having just observed the reproductive strategy of a R-selected reptile, I watch her return to the waves . How neat is that?!

Me holding the 99 eggs I collected from the parlama!

The Olive Ridley female returning to the water after nesting.

I am learning more than I expected about wildlife conservation and how communities are effected by it. When I arrived at Parque Hawaii, I imagined there to be an "us vs. them" mentality towards the parlameros. Rather, the conservation workers and volunteers work hard to educate and include the surrounding communities of Hawaii, Cebollito, Mañanitas, Rosario, and Dormido in the sea turtle conservation effort. The park buys eggs at market price from parlameros and offers a program called "Víveres" to further incentivize selling eggs to the hatchery. Víveres allows the parlameros to be paid in staple foods for their eggs. The great thing is that when the parlameros choose Víveres, they get twice as much food than they would be able to buy in a store for their money's worth. The locals appreciate Parque Hawaii's intention to preserve the coastal region of Guatemala's culture of collecting Olive Ridley eggs and in return, many parlameros do what they can to support the park by selling and donating eggs. Now I realize parlameros are not bad guys, they're just people trying to support their families in the only way they know. When I see a parlamero with a turtle on the beach I always go up to chat a little bit and ask if they'll sell their eggs to the park. They're always friendly, cooperative, an patient with my Spanish.

I am very excited for the coming days because I'll be going kayaking in the mangroves with Jean, the volunteer coordinator, who knows a lot about the local ecology and I also will visit Guatemala City to celebrate my friend Lucia's birthday with her family! 

Thanks for reading and have a terrific weekend!

¡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! 

At last, I'm in Guatemala!

I've made it to Antigua, Guatemala and I feel like I'm half dreaming. If this post makes little sense, please forgive me because I don't think I slept last night. I arrived 2 days late because the weather in Kodiak kept me home a little longer than expected but that's okay because everything has worked out better than expected!

I got picked up from the airport in Guatemala City and was entertained the entire car ride to Antigua. Buses and cars were breaking down all over the highway, a man was walking about 10 goats on the shoulder of the road, people collected trash using salad tongs. Clouds of exhaust and stop and go traffic made me a little queezy but luckily, I survived. As soon as the van began to bump along the cobblestone streets of Antigua, I felt relieved and like I've returned home. After 10 years of being away from Antigua, I recognize much more than I expected to. The churches, volcanoes, and markets are all the way I left them. I even recognize the smell of the city. A mix of fresh bread, exhaust, tropical flowers, and coffee is how I would explain the scent. It is cool and humid here, but tomorrow I go to the coast where I am told I will cook.

I have been placed with a host family for the night and they are very welcoming! As soon as I arrived, I was fed delicious fresh fruit and some spaghetti. I'm sharing a room with a girl from Syndey, Australia who is volunteering in a local orphanage. There is another volunteer staying at the house and as soon as he heard I'm going to the coast to do turtle conservation work he said I'll hate it because they have the volunteers pick up trash from the beach. Hah! Luckily, a little marine debris cleanup has never scared me.

After a short nap (my host father blasted Michael Buble the entire time so I mostly just layed in bed and sang along), I walked to the Maximo Nivel headquarters for orientation. I found out I'll be living with a host family with other volunteers which is what I had hoped for. It sounds like I'm going to have a great time in Hawaii working with the locals and the wildlife!

I also got a cheap little phone to make occasional calls home. If anyone wants to write me a letter or a postcard, I have a mailing address now! Email or facebook me if you'd like it.

I have to go back to my host family's house now to eat dinner with them and to get ready to go to the coast tomorrow morning! Thanks for reading :)

10 days with Island Trails Network

A freshly cleaned beach on Shuyak island

Andie, myself, and Maria: marine debris queens

Yesterday, I returned from 10 days of cleaning up marine debris with Island Trails Network on Afognak and Shuyak, both islands in the northern part of the Kodiak archipelago. The experience was fantastic; I got to clean and explore remote Alaskan beaches with a crew of 5 new friends. Wildlife was abundant and seeing animals such as whales, sea otters, seals, sea lions, bald eagles, merlins (the bird, not the wizard), and Kodiak bears became a regular part of daily life. The crew I was a part of worked long, hard hours but it was incredibly rewarding to see the difference we made by ridding beaches of trash. An unexpected perk of the trip was that I got so distracted by digging up seine nets and styrofoam buoys that I forgot to worry about my upcoming trip to Guatemala… the one that I leave in 4 hours for! Wow, time sure flies when you're saving the world. Haha!

Unfortunately, I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked but here are some of my favorites from the trip:

Maria and Lören take an "Afogsnack" on Afognak

The "Island C" before we loaded it with 10,000 lbs of debris in the first 3 days

A whale waves "thank you" to Island Trails Network for all the awesome work they do! 

Marine debris in Alaska and turtles in Guatemala

Although I don't depart Kodiak for another 2 weeks, I really only have 4 days to prepare for Guatemala. On Monday, I will be leaving for a 10 day beach clean up on Afognak Island with Island Trails Network for which I will be part of a crew in charge of clearing marine debris from a remote beach. I expect to find debris from the Japanese tsunami of 2011 as well as from local fishing vessels and container ships. In 2012, I did a 5 day beach clean up in Halibut Bay, Kodiak with the Youth Conservation Crew I was a part of. Cleaning marine debris is hard work but the humbling and rewarding aspects outweigh the negatives. I am looking forward to this experience to make a difference and to visit a new part of the Kodiak archipelago.

The beach in Halibut Bay is so remote that the only way to reach it is by float plane or boat. I estimate that no more than 50 people per year visit Halibut Bay, yet the 5 mile long beach is blanketed with marine debris, mostly plastics. It upsets me that such a remote beach is plagued by consumerism.  

The sun sets over the Katmai Peninsula on the mainland from Halibut Bay.

I should probably be packing for Guatemala and/or my trip to Afognak. Instead, I'm doing some research on Guatemala. Here are some quick facts about the country:

• Guatemala is located just south of Mexico and north of El Salvador and Honduras in Central America
• The majority of people speak Spanish, but there are 23 official languages
• Population ~ 14,647,100
• The per capita income is ~ $5,300
• Guatemala is the 2nd poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti
• The main industries are sugar, textiles and clothing, furniture, chemicals, coffee, and tourism
• Guatemala is considered 5th on the list of biodiversity hotspots in the world

While I'm in Guatemala, I'll spend 8 weeks volunteering for a conservation organization called Arcas in Hawaii, Guatemala which is a tiny village on the Pacific coast. Hawaii is only 8km away from Monterrico, a popular beach getaway for tourists and Guatemalans alike. Parque Hawaii is a 3 hectare park dedicated to conservation of wildlife. Crocodiles, iguanas, and Pacific leatherback and olive ridley sea turtles are the primary subjects of research and conservation in Hawaii, where there is even a turtle hatchery. My job will include turtle egg collection, beach patrols, assisting with research, environmental education with local students, community development through teaching English and organizing beach clean ups, and talking to visitors. I am hoping to be placed with a host family, although there are volunteer dorms they may have me live in if there aren't enough available host families. I'll take Spanish lessons a few times a week and I look forward to the constant language immersion! 

After 2 months doing turtle conservation work in Hawaii, I'll have a month left before my flight home. My current plan is to spend some time in Antigua, Lago Atitlan, and Xela. In those areas there are plenty of volcanoes to climb, lots of Spanish immersion schools to learn from, and salsa dance lessons to take! 

See you in 17 days, Guatemala!