On the front lines of a quiet culture war (sea turtles)

This past week I had a very turtlely week and learned of a quiet battle that is being faught every night on the dark beaches of this lovely country. Please excuse the lack of photos...a sore point as I lost some great shots with the theft of my camera from my hotel room.

I spent my week traveling to learn more about sea turtles in order to teach about them in my community of fishermen. Sea turtles are an important part of the ocean ecology, and not all that well understood because of the range of thier travels, the lenght of their life span, and the difficulty in following an aquatic animal in the world´s oceans (especially when they are too small/young to tag). All 7 species of sea turtles in the world are in danger of extintion, and about 5 of the species are known to lay eggs on the coasts of Panama. These include the Olive Ridgley, Hawksbill, Green, and Leatherback, which is the largest of the turtles who´s shell alone can reach 6 feet long.

I started the trip with a visit to San San Pond Sak...which is a wetland park located in Bocas del Toro, very close (3km away) to the Costa Rica border. It is a wildlife preserve focusing on protecting both sea turtles and manatees. While in Bocas del Toro, I got to see and hold my first baby turtle, a leatherback who emerged from his nest a day or two before his siblings....so we only got to see the one baby. Oh boy, was he cute. He had his own paparazzi of people accompanying him to the sea.

(imagine a couple of photos of a turtle baby here)

The egg laying season was finished on the Caribean side...so I went home with my friend and fellow PCV Cassie to her site in Veraguas, on the Pacific side. Together we did some work, some teaching, and went walking the beach in the middle of the night looking for turtle eggs. Sea turtles in Panama face many risks here in addition to the natural risks found in the wild, including:

• human consumtion of eggs (also collected to sell at $1 for 3 eggs for eating)


• dogs eating eggs


• removal of sand from beaches for making cement for construction


• eating turtles for thier meat


• getting accidentaly caught in gill fishing or lobster nets
  

In Cassie´s community there is a small group of people who walk the beaches to collect turtle eggs and protect them in a fenced area of sand. Your typical turtle nest has 100-120 eggs and is burried 12-20 inches deep. They are at the greatest danger from humans the 1st 24 hours after they are laid when the tracks made by the mother still are visible. Each night there were more footprints in the sand in the middle of the night than at any other time of day.

In my three nights of walking the beach I saw about 8 sets of turtle tracks who´s nests had already been robbed. One night I got up at 12:40am and walked with Cassie. We saw 4 nests that I don´t think were robbed but we did not manage to locate the nests to collect eggs. The rising tide was limiting our time...it was raising a river between us and bed. The river went from knee to belly botton hieght in the time we were out there.

While walking back to the river we encountered a turtle who had arrived while we were down the beach a ways. She was just finished laying and in the process of covering the nest up when we arrived. She was not a very large turtle...we couldn´t measure her as she was not in her egg laying state any more when we appoached. It was awsome to sit in the weak moonlight and watch her finish shuffeling and packing sand to cover and hide her nest. We then walked behind her as she went to sea.

(imagine a photo of a green turtle and me here)

After she departed we used a stick to poke the sand and figure out were the nest was...it took 4 trys to find it as she had already filled it in when we arrived. We then collected her eggs (suffering 40ish bug bites along that tender strip of back that shows when your shirt rides up as a reward for my efforts leaning over the nest). We carried them back to the protected area (including wading the now waist high river) and reburied them at the same depth in the same within the fence.

(Imagine a photo of a dirty happy bugbitten April with a while pingpong ball sized egg in her gloved hand here)

All in all, three nests were collected for protecting in my three days of walking the beach. The turtle volunteer group estimated that 15 nests were lost to poachers or dogs while I was visiting. Add those losses to the following facts and you start to see why this is an important issue for the species:

• 1 turtle hatchling in every 1000 lives long enough to reproduce. This is one egg for every 10 nests. For Leatherbacks the number is closer to 1 in 10,000.
• Turtles don´t lay eggs every year....they sometimes skip 1-2 years between laying.
• A turtle must live 9-40 years before it can reproduce...most species averaging 23-25 years before they reach sexual maturity.

Add all the above together and a turtle must survive to reproductive age and lay 10 nests over the course of years in order to beat the odds so that one of her offspring survives.

We saw and talked to a couple of people who were walking the beach to illegally collect eggs. In some cases they responded with exactly what I expected...denigal that they were out to collect eggs (as if walking the beach with a stick in hand...used to poke and feel for the nest... at 2am is normal Panamanian behavior and had nothing to do with turtles). We also got told that the eggs collected were for personal consumtion and not for sale. There are Panamanians out there who don´t have enough food and turtle eggs can be an addition to the diet...but I think that they are the exception, not the majority.

It is a quiet and secrative war being faught over turtles and thier eggs...but yet there are nightly manuvers on both sides. There are very few confrontations in the night. The local volunteers lack the authority to do anything other than talk and it is hard to do when it is your nieghbor you are addressing. The authorities lack the resouces to be out observing and enforcing with frequency. Thus, at the moment the poachers are winning and the world´s turtles are losing.

Stay tuned...this is surely not my last visit to the turtle beaches of Panama...and I am deturmined to get sea turtle pictures!

Olympic Update

For those of you who are watching the Olympics you may have seen the Olympic moment that has rocked this istmas....

Ships in the canal blew their horns and people in Panama City streamed out onto the streets cheering at 9am on August 18th when Panamanian long-jumper Irving Saladino's clinched Panama's first gold medal ever. This gold is Panama's third Olympic medal ever -- the only other medals were by sprinter Lloyd Labeach who won bronze medals in the 100m and 200m sprints in 1948.

Not only were there celebrations...but the whole nation took the day off last Thursday the 21st to celebrate the victory. Schools, goverment offices and some stores were closed. So far the only parts of the olympics that I have seen are 300 replays of the gold medal cerimony, one competitor for syncronized swimming, the men´s 2000 meter race, and a couple of women throwing/hurling heavy balls attached to cords. All in all an interesting experience.

The most interesting part of the coverage was that some of the channels that carried the awards cerimony for Saladino blacked out (literally with a big black digital square) the head of the man who placed the the medal on Saladino on the olympic podium. I never did get a clear answer there...but it seems that there was some contraversy over wether Panama´s Olympit athletes would get funding to aid thier trip...and this guy was part of it. Very strange. I don´t know if I will ever understand clearly why he deserved to go headless in the eyes of some TV executives here.

The best part was seeing the medal ceremony when they played the national anthem of Panama. I have always been a weepy sap for the national anthem of the USA... I feel the emotion well up everytime I hear it, even more so for special events like Olympic victory. It was funny (in a good way) to see the medaling ceremony for Saladino and find myself having the same emotional responce for Panama and their national anthem. No, I can´t sing it all...I don´t really want to. But I do feel enough connection to feel the welling up of happieness and pride like that.

I doubt that I will see much more of the games...but I have managed to hear that Phelps is rocking the swimming world again. Congratulations to both Saladino and all the other athletes who are wowing the world.

Not everyday is a good one

This will be very short...as I need to catch a bus in 20 min. Not every day is a good one...yesterday was very very hard.

I spent the day in a bus with great people...but it was 8 hours in a bus with not enough knee space and my ankles swelled up again (the 3rd day in a row and today promises the same).

I then went out to eat and the food was just ok, not as good as normal for my favorite restaraunt.

I then went to a movie and saw x-files....not a good film and the air conditioning was COLD...I think that they wanted us to feel the wintery setting of the movie.

I then went back to the hotel room with friends to discover that why we were out we had been burgled....my beloved camera, it´s special waterproof box, all of my rechargable batteries and the charger, and $60 were gone. In total we estimate a loss value of over $600 of small stuff. Not to mention that the thief also took my trust in my favorite hotel and some valuable photo memories with them. THe door had been locked and not forced, draw your own conclusions.

It was a hard day. I am ok, but thought you should know that while I do try to keep this blog on the upbeat side of life...there are hard days too. More at the end of the week when I know more. Thinking of you all today with a bit of homesickness....

April

PS:I am traveling to a town without cell phone signal so don´t be alarmed if you call to talk and cant get me. I will call you back.

Coaster Ride

Part 3 in the "What is your commute like?" series...adventures in transportation with Peace Corps volunteers in Panama.

In this addition, let us look at a really common form of transportation in Panama...the Coaster Bus. In terms of size here is a breakdown of public transportation options here in Panamá:

• Big bus (like a Grey Hound bus)- These run the big city to city routes that serve lots of people. Some have air-conditioning that will freeze your toes and many show movies...mostly either copies of what is in the theater (I just saw Batman 2 times...once in the theater and then on the bus the next day) or some old violent action film. Vin Diesel, the Rock and such "actors" are common bus fare.
• Diablo Rojos (retired and highly decorated but rundown school buses from the USA)- these run in and around Panamá City and the surrounding towns. They are cheap and can be scary in how full they fill up....like 3-4 adults and 3 kids to a seat and the aisle crammed full of standing passengers. No A/C.
• Coasters (small buses with bench seating maybe 1/4-1/3 the size of a school bus)- These serve popular routes in towns and out of towns to surrounding communities. Can be standing room only full for short trips, but longer trips only the seats will be filled...well maybe one or two more people sitting on buckets. May or may not have A/C.
• Chivas (pickup trucks with benches in the back) - like the video in Part one of this series. Chivas serve communities that need 4 wheel drive to get there or have too few people to warrent a coaster. No A/C.

The video below was taken on my coaster ride between Port and Santiago. Before you watch you should know that the coaster is practically empty when I first get on. It fills up as we go along, stopping frequently to let people on and off (sometimes stopping every 15 feet because anyone can ask to get on or off literally where ever they want to...arg). This video was shot when the coaster is at its almost fullest state. By the time I get off almost 1/2 of the people will have gotten off before me.

This is really common in Panamá. I have ridden standing up for a good distance, but am lucky that where my common stops are the bus is not too full...so I pretty much always get a seat. I have also see men give up seats for women and older men....especially for women with children. I have seen strangers take bags or babies onto thier laps to help out other passengers. I have had other women offer to hold my bags on the rare times that I have had to stand. The one and only time I have gotten stuck sitting next to a guy who was rather intoxicated I could tell that the other passengers were watching out for me...and when a seat opened up they aided me in moving away from him. It can be quite a friendly place to be on those buses.

In terms of carrying stuff...since this is the common method of transport, bringing cargo with you is quite common and readily accepted no questions or usually no charge (something big like a mattress might get a charge if the driver is cranky that day). People and drivers are quite helpful with cargo and I have never had a theft problem yet...knocking on wood even as I type.

Overall, the bus system in Panamá is cheep and easy to use. It is not always fun...and occasionally quite squishy...but always ready and fast. Where in the USA can you travel 120 miles for $7.50 on public transit with no pre-planning? Makes me not want to come home to my beautiful vegitable oil drinking VW Beetle....almost. Stay safe out there. Please use your seatbelt...seatbelts are not common here and I miss them a lot.

Olympics sightings?

This one is dedicated to Todd in thanks for his excellent question.

Yes, the olympics have started...or so we have been told. I wouldn´t know anything about that other than Panama does have a team representing in the games (at least that is what people in the States have told us when we talked)....and that is the full sum (to date) of my Panama olympic team knowledge.

I am guessing that some of my nieghbors are watching the winter version of the summer olympics...winter because of all the snow they will see from the bad TV reception that they get out in our neck of the world. Also, the only TVs on the isla are small (9inch) black and white TVs...so the snow doesn´t help an already tough situation. However, some people can and do watch a limited amount of TV. Remember their electricity is from solar panels and if the charge for the day runs out....no lights tonight. They can and do run generators as well...but gas ain´t cheep here these days.

We can listen for news of the olympics...and read papers. We sometimes have access to TV with cable in hotels. I have faith that if any athletes from the USA do anything termendous (or termendously stupid) word will trickle to us from our community...it usually does. Since they can keep up with all the radio guys say in rapid spanish, they have more patience to listen for more news than I can.

So, if you are watching the olympics out there...please do chear for Pamana when you get the chance!!

House Update

We have now been living in our island community for a year, and in our own house for 9 months. We are finally getting close to having the house "done".

If you don´t remember what it looked like before you can see some older pictures of the early kitchen, fully outdoors, at our post from January on cooking: http://ak-panama.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-and-how-do-we-cook.html, and some pictures from when we first moved in at http://ak-panama.blogspot.com/2007/11/some-house-udpates.html or even before we moved in, http://ak-panama.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-housethe-first-step-of-many.html

For those of you who don't remember (it was a very long time ago), the house was just two rooms with doors that opened onto a BIG porch of about 28' x 30'. Well, we used one of those rooms for storage/toilet room, and the other one for a bedroom. This left our kitchen and main living areas out in full public view. My neighbors are great people...but I was getting tired of being in full view 95% of my awake time in my own home. People could walk by and see us anytime.

So we added bamboo walls to divide the space, provide a bit of privacy, provide an indication to neighbors of what was outside and what was our space, and provide a way to open our bedroom door without being right next to the path and fully outside. We also did not want to make permanent changes to the community's building, and these should be fairly easy to remove.

We cut the first batch of bamboo, about 60 twelve-foot pieces and a few longer, at January's full moon (supposedly the bamboo does better with insects / lasts longer if cut at full moon, but frankly, there is a lot of powder coming out of the slats on a daily basis) and a second batch of 10 pieces in April.

A view from the outside looking at hammock area. We have 4 hammocks hanging...so we can welcome guests easily.As you can see below, the walls are only about 5 feet high...high enough to be taller than most people in the nieghborhood when you add in the step down off the cement pad. You can still peak through some spots, but those areas that look into private areas were built with closer or overlapping bamboo.

Kevin made the three walls for the four-foot square shower first and we put those up. Then he made a 13 and a 14 foot section for dividing the house, a 7 foot section to angle off the "bathroom" area, and a ten foot section to go from the wall by our door to the first post. We put all those up and were missing just the wall by the kitchen, on the back side, but we were loath to lose the light and the ability to toss stuff out. So we finally built a half wall with a two foot stretch that is full height, for blocking wind from the stove.

In the photo above the shower is just behind the curtain and the kitchen is to the right. The sink is multi-purpose: dishes, teeth brushing, clothes washing. Anything too yucky for the normal sink is done on the outside faucet in the lower left corner of the house. The big silver can on the counter is a water filter. We do fine healthwise without it, but water without floaty bits just is more fun to drink.

I have also made things more interesting by hanging 4 hummingbird feeders up with great success. (Thanks for the feeders Mom!) Most moments I can look out and see between 1-9 hummers hanging out nearby the house. If you were to add in the major hummingbird flight paths (red lines) into the house diagram you get something like this: (no joke...they really do fly right through all the time!)

The only path missing is the occasional circular loop into the bedroom and back out.

We also have started gardens to grow vegetables. Growing food here is easy and hard at the same time. Easy with temperature, sun and water (except sweet corn, which apparently needs longer daylight hours; OH we miss sweet corn!). Hard with too much water, and plenty of pests and fungus and other plant problems to deal with. In addition to the beetles that most USA gardeners are used to battling, here we get to fight leaf cutter ants for our food....great fun to watch them when the leaves that they are carrying are not from your garden. Our garden is protected from scratching chickens, munching horses, horsing around dogs, and running kids by a "fence" made from a retired fishing net. The garden looks tiny and sad so far, but all that can change in just weeks around here.

This is an experiment to grow tomatoes next to the house under the eave where they are protected from too much rain. The rain increases fungal and mold problems in tomatoes. We will see...and so will all of our nieghbors who are watching our strange ways with great interest.

So that is our home-sweet-home. I am still looking forward to coming back to the style of houses that I am used to in the USA, but for now we are very happy and reasonably comfortable.