At 9am in the morning, we went on a mangrove tour, and I swear it's one of the more difficult hikes I've been to. Grampians pinnacle was the toughest so far, and this would come in second. There were so many logs and roots on the ground that it's so difficult to make a route out of it. There were so many branches WITH SPIKES. WTHBBQ!!! and there was this branch that sprung into my face from the person walking in front of me. Booohoooo. Luckily it wasn't straight to me eyes. I felt like I'm risky my life every moment on this volunteering trip. Sighpie I admit I'm a weakpea and I wanna go back to civilisation.
Then we have to climb up a super steep slope and I had to use 4 of my limbs to get up there risking my life. And when u get up, you gotta get down. Super thank God that I made it with just a little sting on my middle finger. Some of them fell flat on their butts with keys in the back pocket. Ikr, super ouch.
Here's some photos of the mangrove.
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| The national tree. They make soap bars off the bark. |
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| lemon/lime tree so delicious. |
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| mangrove |
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| mangrove with those sticking out roots |
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| How beautiful is the view from up here. Risked my life for this shiat. |
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| going downhill some cray shiat |
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| Me at the foot, and some peeps are still coming down. look at that steep shiat!!!! |
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| Back to the beach. Those doggies were hiking with us and once they come out they just went to soak themselves in the water. |
Had a short break after the morning hike back at the station. Because it's Tasha's 20th birthday today, not only do we eat cakes, we also had pizzas!!! Some of them went to buy the pizzas back to the station for everyone during lunch time. Speaking of that.. I haven't paid. But I'm not sure how much and pay to who.
After that, we watched a video about Ostional (the place I'm at now) and went to visit Dennis and his handicrafts. His work station was so simple and every piece of furniture is made from wood by themselves. He's really good and I ordered one leatherback turtle necklace made of white & Brown coconut pine wood. Most of them are made from either cow horn or cow bone. He'd polish it to give it a really nice clean smooth texture, but as a more committed vegetarian, I feel weird having part of an animal with me. Haha. Wood it shall be. Even necklace also must be vegetarian lol. Did I also mention that Tasha is an animal lover and vegetarian? So yea, I haven't had fish ever since we left Heredia!! Ok lah, it's not that bad.. I was so sick of having fish everyday I'm Heredia and sometimes for both lunch and dinner oh gosh.
And hatchery shift with Zoe from 3-6pm. Heh. I thought it would be another quiet shift with nothing going on in the hatchery. But holy mama, when I did my last round of inspection at 5.30pm, I friggin saw a baby turtle!!! But only half its body was above the surface of the sand and it was just right outside the cannister! It wasn't moving at all. I was so scared I thought it was dead or stuck and hurt by the cannister. They're supposed to be coming out on the surface area covered by the cannister. But because the sand were so soft and people walking around the sand changed the shape of the cannister slightly. I asked Zoe to come in to see and she said the second one is coming out! Omg and I had to run back to the station to inform someone about it. (Fyi, it takes about 15 mins to get from the station to the hatchery by brisk walking. Probably 20 mins by strolling)
Wade (my proj leader) was by the beach outside the station. While I was panting and catching my breath with sweat trickling down my whole body (hell weather really), Wade was so calm and told me to fill the bucket with wet sand and transfer the babies in the bucket using gloves. He also said that he'd send someone over in a bit, which didn't happen in a bit.
How awesome, I have to run back to the hatchery to help Zoe too! Omg, and the sun was setting. How apt was the timing right! I was just running and imagining myself running something like great ocean road marathon along the coast haha. I know it doesn't make sense and it is still hard to believe I'm living by the beach now.
Tasha and Grace came over to take over our shifts and also helped us transfer the babies. Lucky Tasha bday and leatherbacks are hatched!!!!
I quickly went home for a cold shower (no hot water here). And had dinner carbs loading again with pasta and plantains. The fresco (sweet water, usually served with meals) was really good today! Usually I don't like it but only drink out of courtesy. But I had 3 glasses of the lime/lemon fresca today!
Met Zoe and walked to the hatchery together and surprise surprise the hatchery is like a zoo now it was so damn crowded!!!!! They were measuring the length and width of the babies and weighing them too. Some of them had their plasmas (??) opened too wide, like premature babies (they were supposed to ba hatching on 3 Feb). But the boss said to release them anyways. We all got gloves on and I'm so glad Elmer passed me a glove and I get to send a baby off. I struggled to pick a baby turtle up because I can't see clearly in the dark and I was also quite scared of holding something so small and vulnerable. Ok eventually I did and quickly put it in the sand and my eyes had to be focused on the baby. Because it was so dark and we can't use lights, I can't even take my eyes off it for a second. Otherwise it would be really tough to find the turtle again.
I was following it and there were also other turtles going in all directions and it's so hard to be focused on my turtle whilst moving further away to give space for turtles going in other directions. And we had to be behind the turtles at all time to avoid making them blur. Apparently they see big things and will get confused.
Eventually mine made it with the waves tumbling in and washing it into the sea. Well done buddy! Hehe. Hopefully it'll manage to survive into its adulthood.. more will hatch in the next few days because there were 90 eggs buried in there.
When we got back to the hatchery, another surprise can you believe it????! Another nest of black turtles (another species) hatched and they were all climbing up from the sand like a troop of army. There were 60 of them!!!! Hahah poor friends on duty have to measure and weigh them accordingly. Zoe and I headed back cos we need to recharge for our morning shifts. Mine's at 6am and hers at 9am, taking over Steph and I. But Zoe did a 12mn-6am hatchery shift the night before and her eyelids were already halfway to closing lol.
Couldn't really sleep well because Tasha didn't come home at all.
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