Time to Go Home....Almost! Our Final Week :)

Well, the time has come for us to get ready to go back home. We have spent our final week taking it easy in Antigua, and we are taking our first flight tomorrow evening, with destination Madrid. After a short stopover, we will then fly to London, arriving at around 6pm on the 16th December. Although we are obviously sad for this trip of a lifetime to be coming to an end, we also cannot wait to get home and see everyone! Six and a half months has felt like an incredibly long time, and I honestly don't know how my brother, Tony, ever managed to stay away for 16 months!!! Let me say a huge thank you to everyone that has followed our blog and made comments....it makes it so worthwhile to know that people are enjoying reading about all of our experiences. Sorry we haven't always kept it very up-to-date...Vic doubted that I would get it finished by the time we left, but I have proved him wrong, and I must say, it is a huge relief to finish it :) We still have to add a few photos and videos, and I guess that will have to wait until we're home now. I'm also certain that the text needs some editing (I bet there are countless spelling mistakes), but after writing an entry, I'm usually too tired to go back and read it through again. It will be fun to read it through from start to finish and recall of the great memories we have made over the past months. We thought it would be a good idea to note down a few statistics from the trip....luckily Vic has already worked it all out and written it in his Spanish entry below, which makes it a lot easier for me :) For anyone considering going travelling, I would thoroughly recommend it, and especially this part of the world. Although tourism is steadily growing here, it is still a relatively undiscovered region and more importantly, it is one of the cheapest areas of the world to travel in, so you can come here for a long time without the need for loads of money. Obviously you need a fair amount, but you can keep to a very low budget by eating the local food everywhere you go and sleeping in dorms!

For anyone really interested, here are those statistics to give you an idea of what the backpacking life is really like: after travelling for 30 weeks, we have taken 120 (disgusting) malaria tablets (between the 2 of us), have broken four pairs of flip-flops (that's just Vic....my Haivanas are still going strong), we have travelled in/on 2 planes, 8 boats, 15 speed boats, 1 quad bike, 1 golf buggy, 2 bicycles, 1 horse, 8 pick-up trucks and 86 buses/shuttles. We have visited 7 Mayan ruins, climbed one mountain (something I will never do again!!!), seen 5 lakes, swam in one lagoon and two rivers, visited two caves and met people from 29 different countries. We have come across several different ethnic communities (including Tsotsiles, Tzeltales, Mams, Quichés, Cachiqueles, Lacandones, Garífunas and Miskitos), studied the Mayan language, Tsotsil, for 3 hours, sunbathed and swam on thirteen beaches (5 on the Carribean coast and 8 on the Pacific), crossed 7 borders, taken about 3,500 photos, visited 7 countries and 5 capitals cities. We have snorkelled 3 times, scuba dived 8 times, taught English to around 70 students, released about 4,000 baby turtles, rescued and buried 241 turtle eggs and unpacked and repacked our bags about 100 times (I argued with Vic that this should be more but he was insistent). We have used 7 different foreign currencies (colones in Costa Rica, cordobas in Nicaragua, US dollars in El Salvador, Pesos in Mexico, Belize dollars in Belize, lempiras in Honduras and quetzales in Guatemala) and tried at least one of the most popular beers in each country (Imperial in Costa Rica, Victoria and Toña in Nicaragua, Pilsener in El Salvador, Corona and Sol in Mexico, Belikin in Belize, Salvavida in Honduras and Gallo in Guatemala, which in fact won a prize in Brussels this year). Finally, we have read 11 books between the two of us, called home about 25 times each and updated this blog a massive 87 times!!!!

We hope you have enjoyed following us on all of our adventures....we have certainly had the time of our lives and we are really looking forward to getting back home and sharing our stories and photos with you all! Next stop: London!!! See you all soon and thanks again for keeping us company :) xxx

Antigua del 8 al 15 de Diciembre. Londres espera....

Ya hemos llegado a la última semana de nuestro viaje y no hay mucho que contar durante esta semana. Fuimos a un museo, a un cine-bar y descansamos. Por lo que vamos a aprovechar esta última entrada para agradecer a todos los que nos habeis seguido en nuestro viaje y habeis contribuido con vuestros comentarios.
En dos días tomaremos el avión de vuelta a Londres y pensamos en muchas de las cosas que hemos hecho, la de gente que hemos conocido y todo lo que hemos aprendido de esta bonita pero olvidada región del mundo. Aconsejamos a todos los que estén pensando en viajar a algún lugar remoto del planeta que lo hagan! Merece la pena y puede ser bastante barato si se buscan los hostales económicos. Para los que se animen, aquí van algunas estadísticas que os pueden dar una idea (aproximadamente) de lo que es viajar como mochileros: Después de 30 semanas de viaje hemos tomado unas 120 pastillas de malaria (entre los dos), roto 4 pares de chanclas (solo yo), tomado 2 aviones, 8 barcos, 15 lanchas, 1 quad, 1 carro de golf para transporte, 2 bicicletas, 1 caballo, 8 pick up trucks y 86 autobuses. Hemos visitado 7 ruinas mayas, escalado 1 montaña, visto 5 lagos, bañado en 1 laguna y 2 ríos, visitado 2 cuevas, conocido gente de 29 nacionalidades distintas, 8 grupos étnicos (Tsotsiles, Tzeltales, Mams, Quichés, Cachiqueles, Lacandones, Garífunas y Miskitos) tomado 3 horas de la lengua Maya Tsotsil, bañado en 13 playas (5 en el Caribe y 8 en el Pacífico) cruzado 7 fronteras, tomado unas 3.500 fotos, visitado 7 países, 5 capitales, 3 veces hecho snorkel, 8 inmersiones de buceo, enseñado inglés a unos 70 niños, liberado 4,000 tortugas, rescatado 241 huevos de tortuga, empacado la mochila unas 100 veces, usado 7 monedas (Colones, Cordobas, Dólares USA, Pesos, Dólares de Belice, Lempiras y Quetzales) leído 11 libros (entre los dos), llamado a nuestros padres unas 25 veces (cada uno) y actualizado este blog una 87 veces. Próximos destinos: Londres 15 de Diciembre. Madrid 27 de Diciembre. Fin.

One Final Adventure: Flores and Tikal

05/12/09-07/12/09

From Lanquin, we took an early shuttle to Flores, a long 9-hour drive away. Anna and Leanne had taken the same bus, so on arrival in nearby Santa Elena, it was time to say our goodbyes. They were heading to Finca Ixobel, where they had both worked together previously, and we were going to base ourselves in Flores, an island in the middle of Lake Peten Itzá, in order to visit the famous Mayan ruins of Tikal. Although we were tired from the journey, we decided to go for a walk and check out the town. We didn't get very far though as Vic managed to notice that a Real Madrid game was being shown in one of the restaurants close to our hotel, so we went in for a drink, and ended up having a light dinner there as well. By the time we had finished, we had gone off the walk idea and decided to head back to the hotel....we had a 5am start the next morning to visit Tikal.

As can be expected when you have to be up at 5am, our driver arrived half an hour late, and having paid everything up front, for a little while we were worried that we had been conned, but eventually he arrived and we were on our way. Tikal is about a 2-hour drive away but most people just do a day trip from Flores, as the hotels in Tikal are extremely expensive. When we arrived, we were pleased to find that there was somewhere we could have breakfast before setting off on the 4 hour tour of the ruins! Unfortunately the weather was awful: cold and raining, and so the majority of us all invested in a bright yellow poncho, only for the rain to stop ten minutes in to the tour.....typical or what?

Tikal is absolutely huge, and one of the most famous ruin sites in the whole of Central America. There are parts that we didn't even manage to see on the tour as it takes hours to reach them! Similar to Palenque and Yaxchilan, Tikal is based in the heart of the jungle.....obviously the trees have been cleared from around the temples and pyramids, but there still exist huge expanses of jungles in between the towering monuments, which provide homes to a whole host of wildlife including keel-billed toucans and toucanets, among others. You can also see turkeys and coatis wondering around in several areas of the site, and our guide even managed to spot a huge tarantula, which people took turns in holding and having their photos taken! I wasn't one of them, and neither was Vic, but I did manage to get at least one good photo! The tallest temple in Tikal, Temple IV, scales to a height of 70m and from the top you get a perfect idea of just how deep in the jungle Tikal is. As far as the horizon, you can see nothing but trees, with a few temples sprouting out in the distance! Our guide told us to sit at the top of this temple quietly and enjoy the sounds of the countless birds that live in the vast carpet of greenery below, but with twenty other people up there at the same time, sitting in silence is pretty impossible, although I did hear a few birds....Appropriately, Tikal is commonly known as 'el lugar de sonidos' (the place of sounds). We climbed up to the top of a few more temples after this one, Temple V being the most difficult to climb, as the stairs were more like a ladder, i.e. very steep, so to get back down you had to climb backwards! It offered another wonderful view though, being the second tallest temple in Tikal at just over 60m.

After an early start and busy morning, we spent that afternoon relaxing at the hotel and going for a walk around town. We were planning to go back to Antigua for our final week, so we had to find out the best way of getting there. It turned out that several agencies offer a bus service to Guatemala City with a connecting shuttle to Antigua, but they don't leave until the evening, so we decided to leave the following evening. It wasn't a very comfortable journey, as the bus was really cold, and the roads were very windy so we were constantly sliding from side to side. It was a relief to arrive in the capital. We had to wait a while for the shuttle, but once it arrived, we were in Antigua in no time. We headed to our usual hotel, hoping that it would be fine to check in so early in the morning. Luckily, it wasn't a problem, and so we were able to catch some sleep before going for breakfast. And so began the final week of our trip.....it's unbelievable to think we have been away for six and a half months and that we have been to so many places and done so many amazing things! We are so glad to have done it though and we're already looking forward to the next time....wherever it may be :)

Flores y Tikal del 5 al 7 de Diciembre

Tras un larguísimo viaje desde Lanquín llegamos a la ciudad de Flores. Esta ciudad está en una isla en medio de un lago. Es tranquila y tiene numerosos sitios para ir a comer o cenar. Había gente montando en barca en el lago aunque nuestro motivo para llegar hasta aquí no era Flores sino Tikal. Una de las más famosas ruinas Mayas de toda Centroamérica. Los templos mayas en Tikal, como los que vimos en Yaxchilán en Mexico, están en medio de la selva. Muy interesante mientras el guía explicaba, ir viendo monos y otros animales. Al parecre tambien hay Jaguares y pumas pero no vimos ninguno. Una pena. Tikal era conocido por los Mayas como "lugar de sonidos". Subimos a una de las pirámides y solo podíamos ver la selva en el horizonte. Nos sentamos todos a escuchar los sonidos de pájaros (a veces se pueden oir los monos howler) desde lo alto lo que tambien nos permitía ver otras grandes pirámides que salían de entre los árboles de la selva. Una de las pirámides era realmente alta y había que subirla por unas escaleras de madera muy muy inclinadas.... un poco de vertigo y ya está. Lo mejor es que echeis un vistazo a las fotos de Tikal en cuanto podamos subirlas....... impresionantes! Después de la visita arqueológica regresamos a Flores desde donde tomaríamos un bus nocturno hacía el sur del país nuevamente. Hacía la ciudad de Antigua donde decidimos pasar la última semana de nuestro viaje ya que es un buen lugar para descansar después de estos seis meses y medio sin parar!

Northward bound: Semuc Champey and Lanquin

01/12/09-04/12/09

Following our excursion to the south of Guatemala to volunteer with the lovely sea turtles, we decided to head north to visit the last few places on our list, with our first stop being Semuc Champey. It was such a long journey that we had to stop over in Antigua for the night, and from Antigua it was still a 9 hour ride to Semuc, so you can imagine how relieved we were to arrive. Semuc Champey is located in the department of Peten, the biggest in Guatemala, and home to several species of wildlife, due to its jungle-like characteristics (although these are more apparent further north in Tikal, which I will get to later). Semuc Champey and the nearby town of Lanquin are located in a valley, so you are surrounded by lush green mountains and colourful plants and trees....it is so beautiful, and very peaceful too. We spent two nights in Semuc Champey in a cozy, little, wooden hut, and each morning and evening, all of the guests would sit down around the two big tables and eat breakfast and dinner together.....it was a great way to get to know everyone! We met Leanne from Australia, who has been travelling the world and working in different places for the past 4 years...she is now headed to the Bay Islands where she is hoping to work as a dive master and maybe do her instructor course. At the same time we got to know Anna from Germany, who has just finished school and is now spending a year in Guatemala before probably heading back to Germany to go to university. She has worked as a model and actress before and starred in a German film in 2007, but she refused to tell us the name of it, which is a shame! We also met a lovely English couple, from Southampton, Nathan and Jo, who are also travelling and making their way to Argentina, where they are hoping to maybe find jobs for a while. If they don't manage to find anything, they at least have something to fall back on, as they make a lovely double act with Nathan on guitar and Jo singing. They treated us to a few songs one evening, and they are really good!

The one full day we spent in Semuc Champey was absolutely brilliant...definitely another highlight never to be forgotten! The reason everyone visits this place is that there is a series of natural pools running through the mountains where you can go swimming. The two different types of stone that form the pools make the water look turquoise, and against the surrounding greenery, they are truly a magnificent sight. Our morning started with a half-hour hike up to a look-out point 300m above the pools from where we could admire the beautiful view and take some photos. Then we made our way back down to visit the pools themselves. The pools form a natural bridge over the top of a 300m long cave, so our guide started us off right at the beginning by taking us to see the opening of the cave, where the river rushes through at high speed. We were going to reach the other end of the cave via the pools :) We didn't start swimming right at the beginning though....our guide took us a little further along before allowing us to get in! The water was cold, but in a really refreshing way, and after the hike it was a welcome relief from the heat. From here, we made our way along the series of pools, with each one being at a slightly lower level than the previous one, meaning that we had to jump or dive from one pool to the next! None of the pools presented any problems until we reached the final one....the drop down into this pool was 13m, and the view to the bottom wasn't very clear, so you couldn't really see what lay below. Our guide jumped off without even thinking about it to show us that it could be done, and so Nathan, Leanne and I decided to give it a go. It took a lot of courage and I stood at the top hesitating for about a minute before I finally had the nerve to jump....and apart from a bit of a sore bottom, I survived unscathed, and I was so proud to have done it. The rest of our group climbed down the rocks using a rope, which is how we all got back up when it was time to go back. Before heading back, however, there was just one more thing to do. We climbed up some rocks (quite painful with bare feet) into a small cave to stand behind a waterfall, and then we had another opportunity to jump, this time from a height of just 8m. I hesitated again but eventually managed to jump, as did Nathan and Leanne. There was no convincing the others to join us :)

Afterwards we walked back to the hotel to order lunch and then went tubing...this involves floating down the river in the inner-tube of a tyre. The river was very calm and so it was a very relaxing ride, although at times we had to be careful to avoid the rocks :) Next was lunch, which we were really ready for by now, as it was about 3pm, but we didn't have much time to relax, as a few of us also wanted to go and visit the nearby cave, and at 4pm we were back on our feet again. The cave was just a short walk away from the hotel, and after our guide had secured our flip-flops to our feet with bits of coloured string (very classy!), we headed into the cave. At the entrance, we were each given a candle, and one by one we edged our way into the darkness. The cave wasn't your typical cave where you have one path to walk along....it had water in it! At first it only reached as far as our ankles, but then it gradually crept up to our knees, then our waists, and Leanne and I being quite short, it came up to our necks a few points along the way. And we even had to swim one-handed at times when the water was too deep to stand up in, keeping the candle above the water with the other hand. There were also a couple of ladders that we had to climb up and down (not an easy feat with a candle in your hand and wet flip-flops, I can assure you), and a 3m high waterfall that we ascended using a rope! We turned around to make our way back after about half an hour....I think the cave goes on further, but according to our guide, the path becomes quite dangerous, so it probably wasn't a good idea for us amateurs to continue! We were pretty exhausted by this point as it had been a very full and active day, but at the same time we all felt exhilirated as it had all been so much fun!

The next day we took a minibus to Lanquin, and checked into a hotel where Anna had been working in November. We had arranged to meet Anna and Leanne later on in the day to visit the bat cave together, which was a half an hour walk away. Before they arrived in the afternoon, we had a walk around town and got some lunch, but most importantly, we were able to watch the world cup draw, which made Vic's day! We were both pleased with the outcome: England ended up in a group with the USA, Algeria and Slovenia and Spain will be up against Switzerland, Honduras and Chile. All going well, we should both definitely make it through to the second round :) After meeting up with Anna and Leanne and before heading to the bat cave, we had to make a small detour to the local police station....while Anna had been working at the hotel, her purse had been stolen and her bank in Germany had asked her file a police report....but having only been in Guatemala for about her month, she asked Vic to help her out with the Spanish and so we all went along! Having heard so many awful stories about the country's police force, we were amazed to find ourselves chatting to two really helpful and friendly guys, who we even had a laugh with when they put Anna's name down as Anna Deutsch, having understood her nationality 'Deutsch' to be her surname :) That kept Anna giggling for a while!

When we finally made it to the bat cave, it was already starting to get dark, so we didn't have too long to wait before the bats started to come out. Positioned just inside the entrance of the cave, we were in a perfect spot for watching the thousands of bats make their way out into the night! It's obviously impossible to tell exactly how many bats live in the cave, but one local was quoted as saying "thousands upon thousands". It certainly took a while for them all to get out.....even as we were leaving after half an hour, they still hadn't all left! On our way back to town, we spotted a sign for a café and decided to have some dinner. The café turned out to be a woman's house, and she seemed please to have some customers! Michael Jackson hits were blaring out of the speakers and the woman's three-year-old son kept us entertained with some Jackson-style moves...he was adorable :) And the food was great too.....our host prepared pork with a fried egg, rice and fried plantains with sour cream....yummy! It was another great evening spent in great company. Anna and Leanne, it was a pleasure getting to know you and I hope we will meet again some day!

Semuc Champey y Lanquin del 1 al 4 de Diciembre

Tras nuestra experiencia con las tortugas en el sur de Guatemala, decidimos cambiar de rumbo, hacia el norte. Nuestra próxima parada será Semuc Champey, en el corazón de Guatemala. Semuc Champey tiene uno de los paisajes más bonitos del país. Es una zona rural a la que se llega por caminos y entre verdes montañas y rios. Nos quedamos en un hostal tipo cabaña donde cenamos con otros viajeros en una especie de cena comunal. Todos los huespedes del hostal cenan juntos para conocerse. Conocimos a Nathan y Jo de Birmingham, Inglaterra. A Anna de Alemania y a Leanne de Australia. Nathan tocaba la guitarra por la noche mientras su novia Jo cantaba. Nathan toca en una banda en Inglaterra y lo hacian muy bien. Leanne lleva años viajando y trabajando por el mundo. Su próximo destino será Hondura donde espera trabajar como master de buceo. Anna acaba de terminar el instituto en Alemania y va a vivir un año en Guatemala antes de decidir que hace en la universidad. Además descubrimos que Anna es actriz y ha hecho una película de cine aunque no nos quiso decir el título. Unos días después fuimos con ella a la comisaria de policía ya que le habían robado la cartera y no puede hablar español todavía. La policía fue muy amable y nos reimos bastante con los agentes que no sabían escribir correctamente su nombre en la denuncia y la llamaron Anna Deutsch (Ana Alemana) haha. Tuvimos dos grandes experiencias en Semuc Champey. La primera fue bañarnos en las piscinas naturales que ha creado el río. Son piscinas a distintos niveles que van río abajo y debido a la piedra de la zona el agua es de color turquesa. Fuimos nadando y tirándonos de cabeza de una a otra hasta que llegamos a una catarata de trece metros. Alli, nuestro guía se tiró y nos dijo que todo estaba bien si queríamos saltar. No se veía muy bien donde era la caída, si había rocas, agua o cocodrilos... hehe. Así que se trataba de saltar 13 metros al vacío, sin ver la caída...... La mayoría del grupo no saltamos aunque Lauren, Nathan y Leanne sí saltaron. Los demás bajamos el desnivel con una cuerda atada a una roca. La caida era impresionante y aunque se hicieron algo de daño al chocar con el agua, al parecer merecía la pena..... quizás la próxima vez salte.... quizás. La segunda experiencia fueron las cuevas. Nos dieron una vela a cada uno y pasamos a una cueva. La cueva no tenía ningún camino como las típicas cuevas que se visitan y te dicen "no salir del camino marcado"..... era toda una aventura porque al rato de entrar empezamos a meternos en agua. Al principio por las rodillas, luego por la cintura, la gente gritando ahh que frío! Y despues por el cuello hasta que llegábamos a zonas donde cubría y teníamos que nadar con la vela por encima del agua para que nos se apagará. Dentro de la cueva llegamos a una cascada de unos tres metros de altura que subimos con una cuerda. Aquí se apagaron algunas velas aunque pudimos darnos luz unos a otros con las que seguían encendidas. Nuestro guía iba dejando algunas velas en agujeros por el camino para tener a la vuelta. Después de una hora caminando y nadando llegamos al final de la cueva..... bueno, al menos al final aconsejable para llevar a gente. La cueva sigue pero se hace cada vez más difícil. Fue una bonita experiencia (aunque probablemente no para claustrofóbicos.) Un grupo de 7 u 8 personas dando luz con las velas y siguiendo al de delante por el agua y con el brazo en alto para no mojar la vela.... haha.
Después fuimos a Lanquín, un pequeño pueblo con otras cuevas que visitaríamos con Leanne y Anna. Lo más interesante de esta cueva es ver la salida de miles de murcielagos a las 6 de la noche. En cuanto anochece empiezan a salir en grandes cantidades. Después de visitar esta segunda cueva nos fuimos a cenar comida casera en una de las casas del pueblo que tenía una mesa fuera para cocinar para turistas.... Tomamos un poco de cerdo, arroz, platano frito con crema y huevos... ummm! mientras el hijo de la mujer de la casa, con tres años, no paraba de bailar imitando a Michael Jackson. En Lanquín vimos el sorteo para el mundial de fútbol junto con un holandés. Nathan y Lauren parecían estar satisfechos con el fácil grupo que le ha tocado a Inglaterra (Inglaterra, Estados Unidos, Argelia y Eslovenia) mientras que yo tampoco me podía quejar demasiado con el de España (España, Suiza, Chile y Honduras.) Al día siguiente marcharíamos hacia el norte de Guatemala, una pequeña ciudad llamada Flores.

Land of the Sea Turtles: Monterrico and Hawaii

23/11/09-30/11/09

Having headed three hours south to the pacific coast and having spent a relaxing afternoon in the tiny beach town of Monterico (just 1,500 inhabitants), the next day we made our way to Parque Hawaii, home to one of Arcas' three volunteer projects in Guatemala. The project coordinator, Eva, a biologist from Poland, made us feel immediately welcome and showed us to a small hut, that we would luckily have all to ourselves for the next six nights...hahaha :) The park is actually located in a place called Caballito, and Hawaii is about a twenty walk away along the beach, that stretches for miles in both directions. Conveniently there is a small shop just in front of the park, so although we made the trip to Hawaii a couple of times for food supplies, it was great to have somewhere close by for emergencies. For example, our milk always seemed to miraculously disappear from the fridge so we would often need to go and by a new one when we came to have breakfast. We ended up putting sealing the carton with sellotape to deter anyone tempted to steal our milk and it seemed to work....I hope that doesn't sound too mean!

Our work at the park mainly involved sea turtles, and olive ridleys to be more exact, although the park is also home to some fresh-water turtles, iguanas, two caimans, several big fish that resembled baby sharks, four very noisy parrots, two constantly hungry cats and two dogs, Ceci, our absolute favourite, and Terri. We would feed the turtles, iguanas and parrots every day. The parrots would eat seeds and fruit, the iguanas, cabbage and fruit, and the turtles just cabbage. The caimans and big fish are given between 50 and 60 fish to eat once a week. Mariachi (one of the park's permanent employees) is usually the one who does the fishing, and so we decided to go with him to the mangrove one day to see how it's done. Mariachi would throw the net into the water and then empty it out on to the riverbank, and it was then our job to pick out the good-sized fish and throw the tiny ones back into the water, plus the several prawns that managed to get caught in the net too! Eva looked after the cats and dogs, but the cats were always eager for more and whenever we sat down for breakfast, the cats would appear on the table without fail, waiting for some milk :) The dogs were much better behaved, especially Ceci, who was an angel. We quickly became very fond of her as she was so affectionate and always seemed please to see us. She often accompanied us on our nightly patrols, and if ever she didn't, it felt very lonely without her. We were sad when we had to say goodbye to her, and even now, we often say to each other that we miss her. She is a fantastic dog, the perfect pet, and we will always have very fond memories of her!

There are two different breeds of turtle that come to make their nests in this part of Guatemala: the olive ridley and the leatherback. The olive ridley is by far the most numerous in this area and they lay their eggs between June and December. An adult can measure up to 70cm in length and weigh up to 50kg making the olive ridley the smallest species of sea turtle. The leatherback is not very common anymore and in danger of extinction and they make their nests between December and February. Leatherbacks are so-called because instead of a shell, they have a thick leather skin. The leatherback is the biggest sea-turtle in existence measuring up to maximum of 3m in length and with a maximum weight of 1000kg, although the biggest turtles to have ever existed measured a huge 5m, and this species was known as archelon.

With this project, Arcas is trying to conserve the sea turtle population of Guatemala and ensure that as many eggs as possible are allowed to hatch, because the odds are severely stacked against these beautiful creatures. Of every 1,000 turtles that are released into the sea, only one is thought to reach adulthood (turtles are considered adults at the age of 7 when they are first able to reproduce). As well as the volunteers that patrol the beaches every night, there are several locals, known as parlameros (the Spanish word for olive ridley is parlamer), who collect turtle eggs in order to sell them on for consumption (yes, people do eat them). On our patrols, if we came across a parlamero, we would try to buy the eggs from him or her at a rate of around 15 quetzales ($2) per dozen, and if unwilling to sell, they are at least meant to make a donation to the park of one dozen eggs. You can usually get the donation if you see them on the beach, but it is quite rare that the parlarmeros bring the donations to the park of their own accord, which is a shame, and something that should probably be addressed more seriously by the project managers. If we were lucky enough to come across a turtle laying its eggs (and we were lucky twice), we would collect the eggs ourselves and take them back to the hatchery to bury them. The first time we saw one, we were with Eva, so she took care of collecting the eggs, but the second time, it was up to us to get them out. The turtle had just come out of the sea when we spotted her so we waited for her to walk up the beach to find a good spot to make her nest. The nests are 40cm deep and have the shape of an upside down light bulb. A normal nest contains around 100 eggs, but our turtle laid 137!!! The eggs resemble ping pong balls, but are heavier, and 137 of them together weighs a hell of a lot, so it was a long walk back to the park, especially for Vic who carried them the majority of the way! Each patrol lasted two hours, one hour away from the park and one hour back. When there are enough volunteers, patrols are made in both directions, one patrol towards Monterico and the other past Hawaii. It's typical that we didn't find our turtle until we were about to head back, meaning that our patrol lasted about three hours, as the nest-making and egg-laying process can take up to an hour.

Back at the hatchery, nests are made in exactly the same way as the turtles make them, and about 50 eggs are put into each nest. After about 45 to 50 days, those eggs will begin to hatch, so another of our jobs was to release all the baby turtles that had been buried a couple of months ago. We had to check the hatchery regularly throughout the day, as the turtles need to be released into the sea as soon as they are ready. When they first hatch, they are very sleepy and don't move very much. You know when they are ready to be released when they are frantically scrabbling around in their small cages, that we put over the nests when the eggs begin to hatch to stop the turtles from spreading out all over the hatchery. This doesn't always work however, and there were times when we would have to walk around picking up as many as 100 loose turtles. And it wasn't easy walking around the hatchery, as there were nests everywhere and you had to be very careful where you put your feet. It was even better at night when you would have to scour every inch of the place with a torch :) During the day there were not usually that many babies to release...the majority tended to be ready early in the morning, or late at night, so at times we would be releasing close to 300 turtles at midnight or at 6.30am! The most we ever released in one go was about 500!!! That was obviously a group effort :) Before we could release the babies, we had to measure the length and width of 10 turtles from each nest and count the amount that had hatched from each nest, noting the date and time. On average the baby olive ridleys measure about 4cm in length and 3.5cm across. Once all that was done, we would carry all the babies down to the beach in a huge bucket, let them out on to the sand and keep an eye on them as they made their way down to the sea. There were always some stragglers and it could take up to half an hour for all of them to make it to the sea, but it was a fantastic experience to watch these tiny little things take their first steps and be swept into the sea! It makes me sad to think that only one out of every 1,000 survives, but I like to think that they're tougher than that and that many more live to become adults. It's true, however, that the first few days of their life are very tough, as they have to swim for hours in search of a safe environment, where there is enough food. And the reason why it is so important to release them as soon as they are ready, is that they are born with a special store of energy that lasts for about 48 hours, which helps them a lot in those first couple of days. They are amazing creatures and we absolutley loved the time we spent with them. It was a really rewarding experience and I wouldn't hesitate in doing it again or recommending it to anyone interested in doing some volunteer work with animals.

After six nights, we were ready to move on. The work at the park, and especially the nightly patrols, had been quite tough, and I had woken up with sore muscles almost every day. We were definitely ready to get back to our nice hotel in Monterico with the lovely swimming pool and so we said our goodbyes. We had another very relaxing afternoon by the pool and because we couldn't get a ride back to Antigua until 4pm the next day, we got to spend another half day there as well, so we were completely chilled by then. The whole time we have spent here on the south coast of Guatemala has been wonderful, definitely one of the highlights of the trip, and never to be forgotten!