Last night!

So yesterday Greta, the manager of my project, came up to Mayto for a bbq and brought along with her all the food I could every want and more. She also brought 2 volunteers, Jo and Georgia, who are with Outreach but are working in orphanages in PV. We had a great time and ate until are stomachs were hanging over are pants. Last night I was on patrol and since Jo and Georgia had never seen sea turtles before, Jorge said they could come along, so we all hopped into the quad bike and went on our way. It was magical! We got to see this turtle come out of the ocean, dig her nest, and then start laying her eggs. We all took turns taking photos and catching the eggs. When she was done we watched her go back to sea. THEN THE SKY OPENED UP! It was pouring and we were soaked to the bone (mind you this is the first time I have forgotten my rain slicker and the only time it has poured on me during quad bike patrol). We went on for a bit longer and got another nest, but then the lightening startied striking around us and Jorge thought it would be better if we returned back to camp bc Jo and Georgia were soaked through. All-in-all a great/interesting experience!

I tried to upload a video but it didn´t work so I´ll try again later!

PICTURES!

Since You´ve Been Gone.....

So I was actually given my "chore of the day" which consisted of cleaning out the old nests. Israel is given funding from various organization and in return must provide them with accurate records showing turtle mortality, turtle successes,a nd unhatched eggs. For the most part, it was horribly disgusting. We pulled out moldy egg after moldy egg, some with moldy dead turtles and swarming with maggots. But then, surprisingly enough we pulled out several babies that just hadn´t made it up to the top yet. They probably wouldn´t have survived had we not intervened. Now, I´m all about survival of the fittest, but since we have already defied nature and dug up the nests, protecting them from humans and dogs, we might as well go the whole 9 yards and excavate the nests the day most of the turtles hatch to avoid unnecessary deaths. After excavation, a group of tourists arrived and we sent the babies out to sea. A storm was brewing so they had to fight some pretty big waves, but the were determined and charged in!

Yay for Sundays (19/09/2010)! It means total relaxation! I really enjoyed myself. Kerry woke us up with exciting news...they had discovered 17 nests! The downside was that I had to leave my comfy bed earlier than I would have preferred to help. Afterwards, I went for a swim with Marilyn and Jon and even got a little color. Don´t worry Mom, i put on SPF 50 all over my body and SPF 70 on my face. It´s a wonder the sun could even get through. That afternoon the sky opened up and poured. I was able to start, and finish, a new book. That night Andy discovered that a colony of ants discovered her stash of sweets so now we are headquarters for the time being.

On Monday we had a group of 35 students from PV come to the turtle camp. They had nonstop fun...we had nonstop work. Andy and I were on bathroom duty and they managed to completely make a mess of the newly cleaned bathrooms and block all 4 toilets within the hour. This probably isn´t hard to do, but since I´ve been here almost a month and it hadn´t happened it was a bit annoying. Their tents were set up close to Marilyn and Jon, and I think Jon was very close to using his military training to shut them up. On an exciting note: Jorge found a box turtle on morning patrol. When Israel saw how excited I was, he showed me their collection of turtles (seriously it´s taken this long?). They have 2 box turtles and a central american wood turtle! And to top it off Jorge gave me a passion fruit from his garden! Turtle patrol started off a bit slow bc there was a quad bike ahead of us getting to all of the nests. When they finally turned off, we ended up getting 9 nests! I even got to see a green see turtle. Unfortunately she didn´t ended up leaving us any eggs bc we spooked her (figures). On the way back we stopped and said hello to the high school group. Three of the girls (the "popular" girls of course) started flirting with Christian and asking for a ride back to the camp. They even had the guts to say that I should walk back so they can ride back with him. I cooly said, "No thank you. I´ve already done the walk." That quickly shut them up bc they assumed I didn´t know any Spanish. Well, you know what they say about assuming :)

Not much happened yesterday except I RAN FOR 40 MINUTES ON THE BEACH! Oh and the high school group left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Later that evening I was bending down to pick up something I dropped underneath the table by my tent and a black widow lowered herself down to say hi. Joel came to my rescue and killed it. Thank goodness!

Well that´s a short peek into the life of Cybil. I might go to PV tomorrow with Jorge...still not sure though. My next patrol is tomorrow morning!

Ok...a little better update

Ok everybody! Sorry about the lame updates. Everytime I get on the computer, I just babble bc I have to pay for my time and get really flustered. Now I am using Israel´s computer so I´m not as rushed, but I still can´t hog the whole thing bc that´s just not cool and I am trying to repair American stereotypes (so I can´t be as selfish as Iwould normally be).

I left off saying that I got to see three turtles and even managed to be able to catch the eggs as one of the turtles laid them. It was amazing! And of course I was being made fun of because I was taking so many pictures. It actually turned out to be more flashing than pictures bc my camera was having a rough time focusing. So storms have been rolling in on a pretty regular basis around 1 or 2 in the morning, so the other day I was unable to do my turtle patrol at 2 am...unless Iwanted to be struck by lightening and I´m not sure mom and dad would approve. Luckily the weather subsided so our person on duty for morning patrol was able to go out and save some turtles! YAY!

Yesterday (17/9/2010) Kerry, Andrea, and I hopped a ride to El Tuito with Israel and his family. We only got stuck in the mud once! All I can say is thank goodness there wasn´t a huge drop off on either side bc there totally could have been and then we would have been in trouble. El Tuito is a town about an 1.5 hrs away and looks like NYC compared to the 5 buildings of Mayto...but in actuality it´s just an ugly little town. They were still having bicentennial celebrations when we were there. Men were dressed up as women and they were throwing flower at each other and a huge parade was making its way through the streets. I´m not exactly sure how that fits into independence, but when I find out, I´ll be sure to let you know. I ended up having amazing food and an ice cream bar with choc and almonds...YAY! When we made it back to camp, we found out that the neighbors had shot our camp dog, Chatha ("flat face"), in the mouth/face area after getting into their duck pen. She is doing well and is starting to look like her old self, except of course for the lack of teeth on one side of her mouth. I have made a personal note to avoid playing with the neighbor´s ducks from here on out. They might not be so nice as to shoot me in the mouth.

This morning I was on morning turtle patrol. Since Israel went on to PV after El Tuito, Joel had to step in and take me on my patrol. We got 3 nests and even managed to save one turtle who was, in my opinion, being very last minute. Oh well, if I was a turtle, I´m sure I would be the one waiting until the last minute too. When we got back to the camp 2 turtle nests had hatched and one of the nest had managed to escape the little fence Israel had put up around the nest so they were all over the place. It was the best easter egg (except no eggs) hunt ever! Another nest ended up hatching out later so we have muchas tortugas to release esta noche! Still working on the ole spanish!

Other than that, life is pretty chill and I am enjoying my time. My next turtle patrol will be Monday night. I´m hoping to get good pictures so that I can post them sometime next week. I was able to skype my mom, dad, and dave so that made me really happy! Oh and I saw my first scorpian here...def will start wearing shoes at night :)

Love to all!

Tortugas mas!

So last night (15/09/2010...also Mexican Independence Day) was my first night turtle patrol via quad bike. This time Christian was my partner and we say 3 TURTLES! One turtle was in the middle of laying her eggs so I got to actually catch the eggs as she was laying them. It was amazing! I tried to get picture but found out too late that I needed an extra light in order to get a good picture. Next time (which may be around 2 am!!!!!!!!!!) I will be prepared!

Since I´ve been here we have managed to release 5 sets of baby turtles! Everytime I let the little ones go I feel like a camp counselor sending her campers out to face the world. Glad they made it, but super nervous about what lies ahead for the little guys...especially the huge wave up ahead. Releasing them never gets old though. We´ll see if I am singing the same tune at the end of my stay here.

Camp life. Hmmmm well camp life during the day is still pretty relaxed. We normally get about one task during the day (cleaning bathrooms, raking the property, scrubbing kitchen stuff) and then we are on our own to swim in the ocean, read a book, whatever!

As I said before, I might be going out early this morning bc the conditions are just right (windy and quarter moon). Wish me luck! I´ll post pics later!

First turtle patrol!

Hey everybody!

Well it´s official! This morning I had my first official turtle patrol...meaning it was organized and we followed through. Apparently during the month of September the turtles tend to beach as far away as possible due to the the way the tide is flowing. By the end of my stay, they should start beaching closer to the camp. Anyway...back to the turtle patrol. We´ve been waiting for these quad bikes to show up so we can do the full 12k of beach. I was second leg with my partner Jorge. We didn´t actually get to see any turtles but we did happen upon a nest of 127 eggs (woohoo!) and we ended up chasing a fox from another nest. Unfortunately only about 10 eggs were left from that nest :( Since those eggs were already so far along we were not able to move them so we had to bury them again and make a fake nest just in case any other animals decide to come for a midnight snack. It was funny because while I was digging up the nest I told Jorge that I felt like I had hit the Easter bunny jackpot and he looked at me strangely. Then I explained about Easter and how for some odd reason we´ve assigned a rabbit to the holiday even though it´s not about bunnies at all and he just looks at me and starts laughing and saying, "Cybil, rabbits don´t lay eggs." I was so shocked all I could do was sit there thinking, "Wow! He must think I´m a huge idiot." When we got back to the camp to put our eggs in the nursery, some of the babies were hatching from another nest. So after burying ours we helped dig up the hatching. Now they are in the kitchen waiting to be released tonight! EXCITING!

Other than that, I was on bathroom duty, but I finished that early on. YUCK! Don´t exactly know what to do for the rest of the day since I already finished all 6 of my books that I brought with me.

A little better update...

Hi everybody!

So life has been crazy and laid back all at the same time. We haven´t done too much turtle work yet bc the camp director had to get get his wife and kids from PV bc a bridge collapsed there before I left and they were stuck on the other (wrong) side.

So let´s see where did I leave off? Yes. We had a flood and now all is well. Mother nature has managed to right herself and there is now a sand bar between the 2 stretches of beach. This is nice bc I hate smelling like poop on a regular basis and might have completely given up internet completely to avoid smelling like it. We still have to wade or kayak across the river to the road that gets into town but you can´t have everything. I have managed to go for a couple of swims in the ocean...my main motivation being to get rid of the pink eye that was immediately passed onto my on arrival. Oh yes 22 years without pinkeye and I get it when I come to Mexico. Many of the staff asked me if I had been smoking something but when my eyes started to swell shut they quickly knew what the problem was. Running in the mornings for a half hour to an hour has been my favorite time of day, because everything is so beautiful. I spend most of my days cleaning the camp which is not that exciting even if it is in mexico. At night I am lulled to sleep by the waves and a good book :) When I actually start doing turtle stuff I´ll have more to write about. Until then take care!

Much love!

Hey everybody!

So this is going to be really short! I got here safely and have a bit of adjusting to do. I live in a tent on the beach (love!), outdorr bathroom and shower (growing on me...def not like the awesome on ein Kenya), lots of bugs (hate! my knew perfume has become (100% deet). Love the staff. Released baby turtle the other day and saw a green sea turtle. The lake/swamp flodded and washed away a giood chunk of the beach and now I have to wait for low tide to wade across a nasty river to get to the internet. It´s very isolated here (more so than Kenya) so I don´t know how often I will be able to write. Love you all and have to get going before tide changes again or I´ll be washed out to sea...

More later!

A day of mishaps...

After having a few days of success, Marilyn, Jon & I decided a food stand nearby the house. We thought our spanish was doing fairly well, but we quickly learned that we definitely need some extra time with our spanish teacher Lupita. We were trying to order a vegetarian meal (probably would have been better to ask for a meal without meat...¿Comida sin carne?) and ended up with a whopping plate of meat in front of us. Needless to say we were surprised with the outcome. We ended up taking the meat back for the fiesta (Marilyn is a vegetarian) that night and ordering some quesadillas for us to eat instead.

Well I am starting to feel a little more at home here. The people are lovely and are willing to help you out, given they know English and you know a little Spanish. I have managed to run in the mornings a few more times since my first day here. The track is quite the happening place in the morning. I have to make sure I get up early enough or the traffic makes it a bit hard to get to there. Each run is a little better. The first day I felt like an elephant was on my back...now I only feel like a large man has decided to hop a ride.

Tomorrow we leave for the turtle camp. It´s about a 3 hour ride. We are taking a bus, so that shoud be an adventure. I am really looking forward to seeing Mayto (Maito). Everybody raves about how beautiful it is. I´m hoping to be able to load some pictures on soon!

TURTLES HERE I COME!

So....

So I was going to try and limit internet, but since I will have to start abiding by the 30 mins/week in the Turtle camp on Saturday, I decided to take advantage of the internet cafe down the street :) And since the bridge into PV collapsed yesterday, Greta has not been able to make it into the city to do a few last minute things with the 3 of us.

I really enjoy being with the other volunteers with my group. Jon and Marilyn are super nice and allow me to tag along with them bc there are only the 3 of us and Greta says it´s a good idea to travel in pairs at the least. We´ve been in to PV a couple of times...people pretty much think we are a happy family until they here my American accent and know that there is no way I could possibly be their child. Yesterday we went in search of some yummy authentic food and found this lively little bistro by the river. During our lunch we had a visitor...AN IGUANA! It was Marilyn and Jon´s first time seeing an iguana so they were really excited, and being the reptile love that I am, I was excited too. The staff must have been confused as to why we were jumping up and running over to take numerous pictures of an iguana, but whatever.

Spanish lessons have started and I feel like I have run a marathon after each session (we started a day earlier than expected). I am pleased to find that I am understanding more than I thought I would be, but it is still hard to find the words when I am conversing with our teach Lupita.

Well I guess that´s it. Nothing too exciting right now. I am hoping to drop off my laundry and go to this burrito stand my other roommate keeps raving about for lunch.

Love to all!