Walk to School

So... a friend of mine was walking to school. She was looking up at the trees, her mind wandering, when suddenly she noticed a 10 ft. long boa spread all the way across the road. A few days ago I was walking home and saw a huge turtle hanging out in a drainage ditch. Last week a group of monkeys were spotted by the road. I figured I'd better post some photos of the walk to school.

Coffee Plantations line the road.

heros on a half shell... turtle power!

A few weeks ago a good of us went on a turtle rescue trip. These poor little guys have such low survival rate and are a protected species here in Costa Rica. Between pollution, predatory fish, birds and fishing, few will make it to adulthood. After they hatched from their eggs, we set them about 10 meters from the sea. They need to "imprint" the beach by taking their first scooting steps on the sand. This way they will be able to return to this beach during mating and to lay
their eggs.



Step one to rescuing turtles ... save the eggs from dogs and poachers. We arrived at 7:30 pm and went to work almost immediately. We split up into patrol shifts. All night we roamed up and down the beach searching for turtle's nests. Once we found the nests we quickly dug up the eggs, some times as many as 100, and brought them to the hatchery. During our roaming we often encountered huge mama turtles laying their eggs. This was a remarkable experience. Here, in the moonlit sky, a massive prehistoric creature breathes in strong rhythmic inhalations as she gives birth. There is silence and the sound of the sea. The sky is dotted with shooting stars. The turtle herself is in a type of trance. When she is finished, she rocks back and forth on top of the nest, securing her babies in the sand.

We spent our days working in the hatchery. After taking the eggs from the beach, we dug deep holes the shape of a T and placed the eggs inside. The holes are covered with sand, and in 45 days the babies come pouring up from the earth. in the late afternoon or night they are brought out to the sea. The work at the hatchery was difficult, digging and hauling in the hot sun, but we cooled off with most needed dips in the sea.




Here's part of my "international" turtle rescue crew that made the hard work seem easy. Upeace is great in that you meet people from all over the world. In this photo you see Brazilians, a Canadian, a South Korean, a girl from Iceland and a girl from Thailand. Thanks Rotary for helping me (and the baby turtles) enjoy international fellowship and exchange.

World Food Day

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN is celebrating world food day on October 16th as a way to raise awareness about the problems associated with food security.

I wrote a short piece for the Peace and Conflict Monitor. You all can check it out at :
http://www.monitor.upeace.org/innerpg.cfm?id_article=548

I will be writing and article every month based on a UN theme. Scope it!