Miles for Smiles

Hi there all,
I am doing an internship with York University at Caño Palma Biological Station in Tortuguero, Costa Rica. We have a project to support local communities. We need your help. Take a look of our poster invitation. Please open it!

Miles for Smiles

I f you are interested in more information about my internship go to these links

http://www.juanzuloaga.blogspot.com/


http://www.coterc.org/?p=842#axzz0uXDnD3hY

Sea Turtle Hatching

Hi guys,
The morning sea turtle patrol saw a hatched nest so we started excavation.
The purpose of this excavation is to establish how many baby turtles have hatched from the nest.

We found a baby turtle alive!!!

Baby turtles try to make their way through the beach, tides and finally go out to the open ocean.

We found something rare...twins!!! Unfortunately, they could not survive.

Biodiversity, Cano Palma & Us

Hi amigos,

Take a look of Costa Rican biodiversity

TROPICALISIMO........

Hi Everyone,
A warm hug from these TROPICAL lands....
I am in Caño Palma Biologial Station located in the northern coast of Costa Rica

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It takes 5 hours, 2 chicken buses and one boat to get here.

The Canadian Organization for Tropical Education & Rainforest Conservation (COTERC) is the host organization. The station is located in the lowlands close to the Caribbean coast home of a dense tropical rainforest. Canals and Caños dissect this sandy area which is the main communication system between local communities.

San Francisco is the closest small village (3 min by canoe or kayak and 10 min walk) and Tortugero village (8 kilometers, by boat) which is the entrance to the Tortuguero National Park.

The Place

The station has all the facilities you need to conduct your research. So far so good.

Cabins
There is enough room for more than 30 people on this station.

My suite
All inclusive! Cockroaches and mosquitoes are your uninvited and loyal guests. Humidity is extremely high and my bed sheets are wet all the time. No worries, the sand in my bed and body will distract this wet sensation.

Dinning, working and chatting table
This is the main area of the station where important (and non-important) things happen such as meetings, dinner, chatting, music, and much more.

We are so lucky to have internet in this are. Three computers with wireless is a miracle. It will be more complicated when more volunteers arrive to the station but for now we have fair enough access.

Daily schedule
There are many domestic things to do in the station. (cooking, gardening, raking, and cleaning). All people are encouraged to volunteer in all these activities.

Kitchen
Vegetarian! This is the paradise for you. Our diet is basically vegetarian. Good for me. I would like to lose these extra kilos that I gained in the last two semester sitting in front of a computer.

My research and activities

Sea Turtle Monitoring Program
This is a conservation program of the sea turtles that nest in this area. We walk 9 miles all nights on the beach. Starting at 10:00pm and ending up at 2:00am. However, it might be extended if you have an encounter. Tagging and measuring turtles, counting eggs, locating and relocating nest are some of the activities during these nightly walks. The director of this program is training us as sea turtle patrol leaders. Next weeks we are expecting more volunteers and we have to lead these groups.

We are so lucky, after one month we have seen 3 Leatherbacks. This is a massive animal! Prehistoric! These animals are carrying the evolution itself!
Just to get some context. Once females reach maturity and mate somewhere in the ocean they come back to these beaches to nest. It might take 25 years or so, after hatching, to come back and nest. They have to survive endless natural and anthropogenic threatens. But they are survivors. They are committed with life.
We are not allowed to take pictures so I stole one from internet. Just imagine. We spent 1 ½ hour watching (of course taking the scientific information required) this majestic animal nesting.
Remarkable and unique experience!

Mammals Monitoring Program
This program has some delay in its implementation. Instead, I am walking (twice a week) the trails around the station. The purpose is recording all mammals’ tracks on these trails. Collared peccaries (pigs) and coatis are the most frequent visitors to this area.

In addition, I have installed a camera-trap which uses an infrared sensor to capture elusive and nocturnal animals. I will post photos and clips as soon as I have them.

Community engagement

We will be working with the school board of San Francisco village in conservation, environmental and educational projects. Some of the ideas we have so far are:

• Zero plastic bags: we are promoting fabric shopping bags in this community. We have purchased fabric and hired local women to saw these bags. We will be distributing fabric shopping bags within the community.
• Donate your binocular and guides for children: we have asked a local lodge to put a donation box in its common areas. It will allow international tourists to donate their binoculars and field guides (i.e., birds’ guides). Donations will be directed to local schools to support education in natural sciences. We would like to promote the appreciation and protection of wildlife in this area.
• Bird watching and extracting: we are planning to have bird watching and extracting (using midst nets) activities with children.
• Others: we will have a formal meeting with the school board of San Francisco to identify conservation and environmental projects where COTERC and York internees should participate and support.


Biodiversity

For those who like biodiversity here is a bunch of photos that I have taken: next blog

First day

Hi Everyone,
Some comments about my arrival to the Biological Station in Costa Rica



Travel
Sunday (mothers' day).
It took 5 hours, two chicken buses and one boat to hit Caño Palma Biological Station.





People (and..)
Mike Dunn and his two colleges (Maggie and Jack - the dogs) gave us a warming welcome.

Sea Turtles
We had a lunch-dinner then took a short nap. Why? We have to start at 10:00 pm our first walk on the beach looking for sea turtles.
We walked for 3 hours (6 miles) with no lights in complete darkness. Just thousands of millions of stars were illuminating our clumsy walk. No turtles today. We were looking for sea turtles nesting in this area (counting eggs, tagging turtles and collecting biometric data are part of our night patrols). In particular we are looking for the following species.

Leatherbacks, green turtles and hawksbill turtle



We will have to come to the beach tomorrow night and the night after tomorrow and so on.

Biological Station
Our suites are loaded with all amenities (Cockroaches, mosquitos, etc) but still good place to spend my next three months

Exploring San José for a couple of days

Hi Everyone,

I arrived to San José de Costa Rica last Wednesday. Just 5 hours from Toronto.

Well, this is a ´TROPICAL´ city. When I say tropical is more than 28 Celsius, rain and high humidity. For instance, if you want an extreme adventure just try to cross a street. This is pure adrenaline! Taxis, buses and motos will try to kill you.

Streets are plenty of curiosities.

People quitely rummor that some nights (specially during new moon phase) trees walk around the city. Trees are so excited and dance all the night as in remote times. This exciment extends until sparks of sunrise emerge from the east and trees don´t have time to come back to their original place.

Coffee farmers still using ´ecofriendly´and colorful transportation....

Food. This is real food. Take a look, just for 4 dollars. ´Casados´(which means married in spanish) is the typical dish in Costa Rica based on Rice and black beans. Ask for sweet plantain.Uhmmmmmmm!!!

Costa Rica, Tortuguero (York University - COTERC), Internship - Summer 2010

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to my blog!

I will be in Costa Rica for the next three months starting on May 5th, 2010. The Canadian Organization for Tropical Education and Rainforest Conservation (COTERC) is the host organization based in the north-eastern coast of Costa Rica at Caño Palma Biological Station.

We (Juan, Masao and Carla) will be working on:

• the ongoing sea turtle conservation program,
• the ongoing large mammal monitoring program,
• tree nursery and reforestation activities,
• environmental education,
• poaching assesment,
• community engagement,
• and much more.....

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