23/11/09-30/11/09Having 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!
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