Day 265

October 1, 2012

This past week was spent traveling all over Panama with the Panamanian equivalent of the EPA (ANAM). We started off at 4am on Monday. Three community members and I stood on the side of the highway with all our stuff, waiting for the ANAM bus to pick us up. Remember that meeting my dad and I went on a couple of weeks before, well we went there and then another hour in boat. Our destination was the ANCON Natural Reserve, which is the largest private protected area in Panama and is included in the National Park System.

We pulled up in the boat and all hopped out on what looked like a deserted beach. We were told that we were going to camp, so we all scouted out spots on the beach (turns out we didn’t have to camp, we had to suffer through sleeping in the cabanas meant for tourists—it’s a hard life). We spent the afternoon walking around the reserve and just hanging out. Unfortunately, we had to get up early the next morning and head out.

Wednesday morning started off our travels again. We got up at 3am to catch the first bus to the city, where we met up with the rest of the ANAM crew to head to the beach on the other half of the country. After a 12-hour bus ride with made it to the site of another PC volunteer. There is a turtle conservation and education center. The first night we just headed to bed. The next day was an all day long conference where we learned about making stoves, making soap out of used cooking oil, the national parks in the area… We then hiked up to a waterfall and swam in our clothes.

That night, all of the PC volunteers headed out to the beach to look for turtle nests. Within a couple of minutes, we found two nests side by side. We took out the eggs and started walking down the beach to the turtle nursery. On the way, we came across a turtle laying her eggs. We waited for her to finish and collected those eggs as well. When we reached the nursery, we found that one of the nests had hatched, unexpectedly. Half of the group rounded up the little turtles in the nursery and passed them to the rest of us outside to set free on the beach. Needless to say, it was a good night.

Four different types of turtles lay their eggs on this beach, and none of these nest will hatch unless they are collected and replanted in the nursery. Local dogs scout out the beach and eat all the eggs, and those that aren’t eaten by dogs are collected and sold on the black market. It was really cool to be able to be a part of their sea turtle conservation project.

We hit a rock on the way over, so the men had to flip the boat and repair the hole. 

Two members from my community, Manolo and Jose. First time in a boat for the both of them,
and the farther east they have ever traveled.

The three men to the right are all from Loma Bonita, chit chatting about the Darien.

A couple of lost eggs, sad.



Bag of turtle eggs




A couple of little turtles that escaped the nest. They are now swimming out in the Pacific.