Two More Turtles

I have now seen two turtles in two trips to the beach. Last Wednesday night I had my first turtle nest and tonight we had another turtle. This one didn't lay any eggs. She just dug a bunch of holes (six, by last count) and then wandered back into the sea. Hopefully she will be back in the next couple of days to actually lay her eggs.

As Lindsey has commented, we only get the weird turtles. Actually, this is quite possibly the second false crawl for this particular turtle, as we had a female come up just after we left the beach last Wednesday who also wandered around in the bushes digging holes without any visible nests being laid.

My favorite part of the evening? Getting to wrestle the turtle. Basically, even though it was a false crawl, we needed to flipper tag the turtle--something that is much easier to do while she is burying her nest and not trying to actively escape you. In this case, the turtle was bee-lining (well, as fast as a marine turtle can) back to the ocean. Keep in mind that these turtles are about three feet long and more than two feet across. They also weigh almost as much, or more, than I do. Holding one down takes a lot of work. Both Chel (BICA employee) and I were holding onto this one together as Lindsey placed the metal tag on the inside scale of the right flipper. This is very similar to the ear tags you often see on cows, but it takes a bit more force to get the tag set through the tough keratin of the turtle scale. 

Between having to reset equipment to prep for the next turtle (Lindsey has to have a new set of data loggers for each nest) and the pouring rain that was blowing in at regular intervals (we were pretty much soaked, even in our rain gear), Lindsey decided to call it a night. We not only got to see a turtle, but we get almost a full night's sleep too! Score! It's a good day.

Holiday!

Ariana the Awesome came to visit us here on Utila. She's been enjoying roughing it in Cuero y Salado and was sad to come to our little island paradise for a few days. Doesn't she look sad to be here?

In honor of her visit, we decided to take a beach holiday. Understandably, Amy and I haven't had much of an urge to spend time on any beach during the day. However, we are discovering that the beaches here are beautiful.

Amy's attempt at photo bombing was thwarted by my snorkel.

Amy

Snorkeling through the turtle grass beds.

Ariana

A grand holiday.

We may just be living in paradise.

Ariana found treasure on the bottom of the sea.

Frozen peach ice teas--the best thing a dollar can buy.

Catching a tuk-tuk back to the apartment--a treat for our holiday (normally we walk up the hill).

Main Street Utila.

The beach is much more fun during the day, at least when no turtles are present. And having Ariana come for a visit just makes things so much better!

Utila Diving

The last couple of days have been busy ones around here. Since, obviously, working most nights every week and starting the daytime turtle projects isn't enough to keep me busy, I also have been doing some diving, which is the thing to do here in Utila.

The whole economy of Utila relies on the dive industry. There are 10-15 dive operators on the island and they all do a thriving business. Amy is working on her divemaster certification right now at a place called Utila Dive Centre and I just finished my Advanced Open Water certification there.

Coolest animals I've seen diving would have to be a five foot barracuda and a Spotted Eagle Ray. My favorite dive so far was definitely the wreck dive. About 15 years ago, a giant cargo ship called the Haliburton was sunk to provide an artificial reef. This was my first "deep" dive as the wreck is sitting at about 100 ft. Dropping down to it was amazing. The water here is very clear, so there is tons of surface light even that deep and it feels like you are free falling. It was one of the most exciting moments I've had while diving. I could see our descent line out of one eye, but there was nothing else around us as we descended. Then, the wreck emerged from the blue. The descent line is tied to the stern wheel house and behind it there was about 50 ft of cargo hold.

The ship is covered in life--a few small corals, but mostly sponges and tunicates (also called sea squirts). A couple of big gropers make their home there, as well as a giant Green Moray Eel. The animals around here are completely different from those around Rosario where I'm used to diving. And before you tell me, "No duh, Robyn, you're in the Caribbean!" I mean that more than just species differences. At Rosario, there are sea cucumbers, sea stars, and other echinoderms all over, you can't dive with out seeing a few hundred. But here I have seen one brittle star and one cucumber over four dives. Near Rosario, there are some fish--you'll see a few on most dives, but here there are hundreds of fish around (most of them quite small, but some, like the grouper or the barracuda, that are very large). It's a lot of fun to see so many new things.

I was going to put up a few pictures with this post, but my camera along with a few other things were stolen off the beach while we were working this afternoon. I still have access to a camera here, but it will be a bit before I get some more pictures up. We didn't lose a whole lot of stuff, but it has been a very frustrating day. Good news is that we finally got the beach profiling and pollution projects started, which means that I will probably have a project to actually write up at the end of this summer!

The Case of the Disappearing Turtle

The story sounds like it should be something straight out of a Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew.

We had our first turtle last night, or rather, early this morning. (The beach is beautiful after midnight, really!) She came up on a "false crawl," which means that she came up and dug a nest, but did not lay any eggs. Amy and I stayed back out of the way during the period she was digging the nest because a) we're the undergrads and b) there are some logistical issues that Lindsey the Grad Student is still working out with the group that runs the beach, so we're all taking a back seat to the beach monitor for now (they have a strict "hands-off" policy--we're here to satellite tag, flipper tag, measure nest depths, count eggs, take hatching blood samples... you can see where a few problems would arise if these goals were not properly communicated). After it became clear that the turtle was not going to be laying eggs and she was moving down through the tree cover to the beach, the beach monitor moved around to the other side of of the brush to follow her down the beach. 

And couldn't find her again. Somehow, a one hundred pound GIANT turtle disappeared. *Poof*

After a few minutes of searching, she came over to tell us that she couldn't find the turtle and we all joined in looking. No sign at all of a turtle of any size. 

Now the plant cover on this beach is pretty heavy, but this is a big turtle we are talking about. On her way up to the nesting site and while she was digging the nest, she was crashing around and making tons of noise. We should have been able to hear her thrash her way down the beach to the water. Yet she was gone. One last bit to make this even more puzzling--there was not a set of turtle tracks going back to the water, only up the beach.

My theories are either gnomes digging under the beach kidnapped the turtle through a hatch door or the secret agent turtle was silently airlifted out by hot air balloon. You can decide which theory you like better.

Tortuga

Your reptile facts of the day:

1. We had a turtle last night. It disappeared somewhere between digging a nest and heading down the beach to the water.

2. We have a gecko living under our couch.

Because the turtle showed up, I got zero sleep last night and am heading to bed right now. I'll post the whole turtle story later this afternoon (or, as I like to call it now, "morning").

Salado Barra

 Cuedo y Salado is a beautiful place. To get out to Salado Barra, the small town out in the refuge, one must ride on an old fruit train for almost 10 km. It was amazing to see the change in vegetation and scenery as we went from the more inland plantations out to the beautiful Mangrove forests.

The house we stayed in is used for the volunteers that come out with FUCSA and Falls Brook, which are the two conservation groups that work in the park. ProTECTOR, the organization I am with, has arrangements to use the house for their volunteers as well. The house used to belong to the manager of the plantations that were converted into park lands. Now, most of the coconut plantations have been returned to forest and the Fallbrook group is working to replant more of the forest, especially the mangroves.

There was running water (some of the time) and even electricity if we hiked down to the Visitor’s Center while the solar panels were running. They are hoping to get more tourists to visit the area and, if they can get the infrastructure for housing such visitors into place, it would be well worth the trip.

We did turtle walks five nights while we were there. One night we took off and the other we could not go out to the beach because we were in the middle of an awesome monsoon. The beach we are patrolling is about 10 km long, but we split it into two sections, patrolling one of them every other night. We begin the walk about 8pm and returned for a few hours sleep at 11 pm. Everyone gets up again at 2am and we again for three hours, returning to the house about 5 am. We then get to sleep until noon or so, before getting up up for breakfast.

The beach walking will take some getting adapting—let’s just say that after this trip, long walks on the beach will be less than romantic for a while. 

 We went canoeing out on Rio Salado. Salado means “salty” and the river is quite brackish. It is a beautiful river. There are Red, White, and Black Mangroves growing along the banks and a riot of other plants. It has both manatees and crocodiles, but we unfortunately did not see either of them. I have been keeping a Honduran bird list and added Boat-billed Heron, White-faced Parrot, and Anhinga to the list while canoeing. We also saw Howler Monkeys and a troop of White-faced Monkeys spent quite a bit of time hanging out above our canoes, watching us.

 White-faced Monkeys and the lovely, enthusiastic Ariana

I have been keeping a Honduran bird list and added Boat-billed Heron, White-faced Parrot, and Anhinga to the list today. We also saw Howler Monkeys and a troop of White-faced Monkeys spent quite a bit of time hanging out above our canoes, watching us.

                                                  Dr. D and our river guide  

I keep being amazed by the huge amount of biodiversity to be found here. Just looking out the window of my bedroom, I get two or three news species of birds every day. Seeing animals like the Anhinga and the Basilisk lizard (also known as the “Jesus Christ Lizard” because it can walk on water), which I had only ever seen in movies before is really exciting. 

Basilisk Lizard

It is also really sad to know how endangered some of these animals are. The Honduras government is very slow to start conservation projects, the existing projects are often not completed, and environmental law is rarely enforced. The turtles I am here to work with are critically endangered, but they aren’t the only ones. We don’t even begin to know all the incredible species that live in the forests, seas, and mountains of this country, but they are becoming more scarce daily. There are many groups that are working to change that and they come from all over the world, but most the motivation for change must come from inside of Honduras, where there is little willingness to put in the work to save such national treasures. Change takes time and community support—from both the grassroots and the government level—and the support simply isn't there. Until things change, animals and plants that are vital to the beauty and health of these ecosystems will continue to disappear without a trace. 

Leaving town.

Finally! Today we head to Cuero y Salado. I am beyond excited to get out of the city and to start doing research! With the Andrews student, Adriana, safely here we are ready to see exciting new places. La Ceiba has been nice, but there is not a lot to do here and we have spent the majority of the last few days at the hotel. I'm sure we won't have this much down time again! 


I won't have internet again until Amy and I travel from Cuero y Salado around July 10. I'll try to get a post up soon after that, but it may be more difficult. After arriving in Utila we have to move into our apartment and work out a few logistics, as well as starting to do all night beach walks with Lindsey.

La Ceiba

I flew into the small airport in La Ceiba yesterday evening. Angela, a ProTECTOR employee, met me there and made sure I got to the hotel safely. There I met Dr. D and Amy. We were suppose to stay last night and tonight, then go to the refuge tomorrow, but it looks like we will be in La Ceiba until Thursday. The student who was suppose to get in today had her flight delayed, so we will be sticking around La Ceiba until she gets here.

Because we are just waiting to go to the refuge, we had a lot of downtime today. We walked to the store to get groceries and some supplies for the refuge, but other than that had a pretty chill day. Amy and I have been taking advantage of the hotel pool--especially since it is very humid here. 

Tonight we have had some heavy rain and lightning which is forecast to last most of the rest of the week. That should make going to Cuero y Salado more interesting--especially the nightly beach walks!

Cuero y Salado is an isolated wildlife refuge. The only way to get out into the park is to take a narrow gauge rail train. Out where we will be staying there is no running water or electricity, but there should be plenty to do and see. I'm hoping for both manatees and crocodiles there, as well as turtles, of course! 

Tegucigalpa to Cuero y Salado

Hello from Tegucigalpa the capital of Honduras and its largest city.

Right now I'm sitting in the airport, waiting for my flight to La Ceiba on the north coast. There I'll be meeting up with Dr. Dunbar and Amy and we will all take a train to Cuero y Salado, a National Park and marine reserve. After that? Sea turtles!

I don't think that I will have much internet access until we travel from the marine reserve to the island of Utila in about two weeks. If I do, I'll try to post a few pictures of this beautiful country.

If you'd like to come join me, it's only a 61 hour drive from San Francisco (according to Google Maps)!

Directions from San Francisco to Cuero y Salado