The Final Day

Hi I'm James the eleventh and final blogger, last night was another slow patrol, only one turtle was seen which meant that a lot of tourists flocked to see this one. My group was also lucky enough to see some hatchlings coming out of the sand. 

Again we returned to the facility early due to a lack of turtles, tourists and poor weather. Today was a really chilled and relaxed day as it is our last full day together as a team. This morning some of us got up really early after just a few hours sleep and took part of the morning nest count on the beach. Some saw some juvenile green turtles, unfortunately one had passed away.

 Once every one was rested and had had a decent amount of sleep, then we met and decided on what we were going to do, we chose to go swimming where we had been kayaking a few days before, this meant that we could go swimming in the sea for the first time on the trip. When we got back to the guest house we had an meeting with Dennis and Ronald and then played a game of Turtle Trivia which Kelsie's team won. Some of us then went to the store to buy snacks for the flight home, Marc definitely bought the most. We've just got back from our final patrol this evening which turned out to be yet another slow night, but it was nice to spend a final night as a team out on the beach. We only saw one adult but it was nice to see a final turtle laying before we leave. Its now 2am and everyone is packing and trying to fit everything into our suitcases.

From all the teens I would like to thank everyone from Earthwatch and Nature Seekers for making the trip such an amazing and unforgettable experience, we've had some amazing moments and made life long friends. There have been times where we have all missed our family and friends, but it has been a trip that I will certainly never forget! We're all really sad to be leaving tomorrow and intend to make the most of our last few hours together.  

Game on! Nature Seekers vs. Earthwatch

Hey! I'm Kelsie.
Today was a fun day.  All of Earthwatch had a football (Soccer for the US readers) game against all the Nature Seekers.  The loosing team had to buy the winning team ice cream and naturally, the Nature Seekers won.  The score ended up being 3 to 0 or 3 to 1 if you count when a picked up the ball with my hands put it under my shirt so no one could get it then tossed it in the goal with my hands.

Practicing for the soccer game

Tas, Kelsie, Dilly watching the turtle lay eggs

Girls night! Kelsie, Becca, Rachel, Dilly

Turtle watching has been pretty slow these past few days.   It has been somewhat stormy and we have called it in early because of the lack or turtles and tourists.  Last night it started down pouring and I was on paradise patrol.  We all ran into the forest and ducked for cover under palm trees.  Grave yard has been getting the most turtles lately.

It is sad to think that tomorrow is our last day! I have had such a wonderful time on this trip and I have made some amazing friends.  I will surely miss everyone and everything here after our journey is complete.

Another nest excavation and kayaking

Hey everybody I'm Colin

This post is a little late because yesterday we got back a bit late and I didn't have time to start this. Although we're coming to the end of the trip but but we're still having fun with the exception of a few bad sunburns.

The other night there were only a few turtles the entire night but we got to have coconuts again and had a great time.

Our van ride to the beach

 

Yesterday we did another nest excavation, but this time we went a lot farther and my group went to the very end of the beach. Once again it was messy and hard work but it's important work.

Ayinde's first nest excavation

After nest excavation we went to go kayaking down a river and swimming afterwards. It was a great way to clean up after nest excavating. The water was great and refreshing but I just wish that we could have stayed a bit longer.

Oli and Kelsie going down the river

Turtles in limbo - and happy birthday Tas!

Hello world, this is Marc.

We had a great time last night, even though we saw no turtles, because we got to eat coconuts on the beach. We were lucky to avoid rain as rain has threatened for a while now.

After another amazing brunch, we went to Sangre Grande, a town 20 minutes from the guest house, where we were able to buy some souvenirs for our families. All the girls obviously had a great time shopping for clothes while us boys went to Jap's for some fried chicken.

In the evening, we prepared a surprise birthday party for Tas! We had pizza, ice cream and cake!

We then danced to music from Trinidad and beyond, and did the limbo, during which Ayinde and Dilly impressed us by going amazingly low!

Oli

Ayinde

We are now heading out to (hopefully!) tag some more turtles.

Hopefully these last few days will be as great as the rest of our trip. And Happy Birthday Tas!

Human knots and nest excavations

Hi I am Rachel the seventh blogger!

Yesterday July 22nd, we awoke at 11am and had a delicious brunch. The food here is surprisingly delicious and healthy filled with beans, rice and pork! After brunch we had a team meeting and did a hilarious game of trying to pass an apple to one another down a line without using our hands! It got quite gross after a while once the apple fell on the floor and had bite marks on it! Haha! We also played a team building game called 'human knot' were we all held hands and tried to untangle ourselves without letting go.

Human knot!

In the afternoon we drove to Matura Beach and got the pleasure to excavate Leatherback Turtle nests, luckily it wasn't to hot yesterday so the sun didn't seem to harsh while digging. Excavating the nests was fun but very dirty work, we had to count how many eggs were rotten, undeveloped, yolk-less or dead. It was pretty disgusting every time I had found a rotten egg the smell was overpowering, but I could not help but to laugh when James while poking an egg to see if it was rotten, got yoke juice all over his face! After we had finished collecting the data of how many types of eggs were in the nests (each group did about ten nests) we all gathered back up in the truck and went back to the villa for dinner. Luckily we all got a chance to change so we didn't smell like rotten eggs while eating.

Oli (left) and Reon (right) excavating a turtle nest.

That night we went out to search for nesting turtles again. It started to rain lightly on and off on the beach and lighting was in the sky, although it was a rare night and we didn't find many turtles (my team found none - that was the first time that happened on our trip so far!) we still had fun running up and down the beach and playing the card game UNO during our break. (I won the first game!)

A baby iguana cooling himself in the ocean waves last night.

That night there seemed to be a brownout in the villa and there was no running water to take a shower with, but this morning the water came back on again and we all rushed to shower. (Some of us still smelled like the turtle eggs from the day before.) Now, after being showered and fresh and clean we are off to go to a nearby city to shop Sangre Grande. So far our trip as been swell what I love most about these fun loving teens that I am with is that even if we are sweaty, dirty and tired we still manage to keep up our good spirits and have fun no matter what!!

Looking for Juvenile Turtles

Hey I'm Becca, the sixth blogger.
We're now half way through the expedition... It's amazing how quickly the time has gone!
I don't want to be repetitive so I'll try keep this brief:
 Last night we were at the beach again but we shuffled up our groups so that we could get used to working with different people. We are slowly being given more independence and tourists have even started asking us questions, making us feel very expert and important.
Most groups saw one or two turtles, which they tagged and measured, but one group saw 14!! And as a result returned tired and sweaty from running between multiple turtles at one time!

In the morning we were allowed to lie in again for brunch at 11:00. After that we had a much needed DEEP CLEAN of the room and when we swept the floors we discovered a whole beach full of sand that had built up over the last few days.

Then after lunch we went down to a coastal outlook north of Matura beach to try to spot juvenile Hawksbill and Green turtles who come to Trinidad from Barbados to feed on plankton. They occasionally popped their heads up above the water to breathe. However, not all of the group were lucky enough to glimpse them because they come up so quickly.

We then played group games until supper and are now preparing for our next night on the beach.

The group at the juvenile monitoring outlook.

Matura National Forest Waterfall

Although few nesting turtles were seen last night it was still a huge turtle rave where this team's previous record of saving baby turtles was 122 by the group called "turtle savers" was broken, and boosted up to 190 baby turtles in one night. We got back to our rooms at an hour of the night which doesn't exist to most people, but were still in high spirits because we were told that we could sleep until 11 o'clock the next morning.

The group before starting beach patrol last night.

Even though the team had the extravagance of sleeping in, most still got up at nine and ten o'clock. The brunch was to everyone's taste as the cook yet again pulled brilliant dishes out of their seemingly endless hat. Barely 30 minutes after we had eaten our fill, Ronald got us into the truck to bring us to an arduous trek with a very rewarding prize - a swim at the fabled waterfall pool in the middle of the Matura National Forest just 20 minutes from Nature Seekers headquarters. Many slipped and slid in their eagerness to get to the cool water.

Hiking to the waterfall through Matura National Forest.

Everyone gazed at the bottom of the 22 feet deep pool (and fish all around) with the aid of goggles that Dilly brought with her. We did a bit of everything there but the leaders refused to let us jump off the 30 feet tall rocks surrounding the waterfall. On the way back our chauffeur let us have a quick dip in Matura River to let us clean our shoes and have cherry-coconut ice-cream.

Swimming at the falls.

After that it was a lazy day until we had a beautiful fish dish for dinner at 17:00. We are due to leave at 19:00 for the beach where we hope for a fantastic night of turtle tagging.

Alexander putting a flipper tag on a nesting Leatherback turtle.

Today's post by Alexander

Leatherback Sea Turtle laying eggs on the beach.

 Hi I'm Oli the third blogger
Last night was another typical night on the beach, but it turn out to be the most successful night yet with all the teams seeing and tagging a turtle. We arrived at the beach a little later however as we missed the first bus, we wasted no time in getting down to the beach, with different guides this time as the original guides were off duty.

 Towards the end of the night one of the teams came across a Hawksbill turtle and all of the teams congregated to tag and photograph this rare sighting. We were lucky enough to see the female lay her eggs and not turn back to the ocean.

 Today was a very relaxed day which began with us all watching a documentary on the impacts of fishing on the Leatherback turtles and how scientists are finding ways to use sonar to prevent the turtles from becoming ensnared in the fishing nets.

Dilly, Tas, and Colin trying the pomerac fruit.

Later on in the day the whole group tried a new fruit called pomerac which the locals recommended  with some salt. This was while we waited to have a lecture from Ronald about turtles, where we learned a lot of interesting facts such as there is 6 different genera and 7 species of marine turtle. All together today was a very relaxing day which allowed us to prepare for the long night ahead.

Baby Leatherbacks on their way to the water.

Hello, I am Tas, the second blogger.
Last night was the first night we spent with the Leatherbacks of Matura. After a bumpy (and loud) ride in the van to the beach, we met our first sea turtles: a few babies in a bucket. These we hovered over for a good 15 minutes, before we split ourselves up into several groups to patrol the beach. At approximately 8:15 PM, we set out to try and find some adults, which are gargantuan compared to the small creatures we had just observed.

Thus began our nearly four hour work-night. I can't give an account of every group's experiences, but I do know that one group encountered a large amount of hatchling turtles, and another was able to see one turtle lay a clutch of eggs. Unfortunately, every turtle my group encountered turned and fled back to the sea. Hopefully tonight they won't be so offended by our presence.

We didn't finish our turtle-seeking until after midnight. Tired, we all piled into the van and drove home, where we promptly fell asleep after showering.

Today, we woke up and ate breakfast at 8 AM, and then headed over to the Nature Seekers office next door. There, we were instructed by Ronald, a Nature Seekers staff member, on how to successfully tag a turtle. In short, it involves knowledge, an arsenal of special tools, and some upper-body strength.
After a more excellent food at lunch, we ventured to a nearby river to swim and relax for an hour or two. We suffered one casualty: a boomerang.
Now, after a few rest hours, we are preparing to have dinner as I type this.
I hope you have enjoyed my completely improvised post!
Tas 

First Day in Trinidad!

 Hi I'm Dilly from Wales and I'm the first volunteer to blog. :)
Today was our first full day in Trinidad, which began the same way as it ended...very humid!  We started off our day with a beautiful breakfast prepared by our local cooking staff in the guest-house.  Then traveled down to Matura beach for beach orientation.  It looks just like the postcards, thanks to the community which do their annual rubbish picking in order to make the turtles more comfortable whilst nesting.

Here's a picture of an infertile Leatherback turtle egg, which we found on Matura beach.  I think that the turtle lays her infertile eggs last, on top of her fertile eggs, so that if predators happen to find the nest, they'll go for the top ones, which are infertile, therefore protecting the hatchlings.

We then took a detour to a local river where we went for a refreshing swim to cool off from the blistering heat.

Dennis the principle researcher and Ronald  the secretary of the Nature Seekers then gave us a talk on the expectations of our next couple of weeks and some facts on Leatherback sea turtles. I learned that for every 1000 turtles, only one makes it to adulthood!  We also learned about the Nature Seekers organisation who have been partnering with Earthwatch since 2003!  Please like their link on Facebook since they do such important work to preserve 25% of nesting sea turtles in the world! http://www.facebook.com/NatureSeekers  Keep reading our blogs for the next couple weeks, to follow what we're doing!
Dilly :)

Hi All! We've all arrived safely, and are getting settled in now. We have orientation to the research today, and plan to start work on the beach this evening. The photo is a view from our guest house this morning, we were greeted by some excellent rooster crows. More later!

Recent news about Trinidad sea turtles:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18778013

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/07/10/leatherback-turtle-eggs-crushed-trinidad.html

Countdown to Trinidad!

Ok, we're all set to go!

We just have to pack that extra sun block, games, notebook, and a rain jacket!

We look forward to meeting the group at the POS airport on Monday afternoon. Our hosts will take us from the airport to the Guest House by taxi, and we should arrive there by 6 p.m.

Safe travels to all and let us know if there are any last-minute questions!

Abby and Caroline