It's A Parade!

Tonight was interesting. For the last two weeks a drum corps has been practicing at the school down the street. Over and over and over again. And they're not all that great, well, were not all that great. Practicing up to six hours in one day helps you get good, apparently.

I walked down into town for supper and got trapped by a parade. It's almost Honduran Independence day, and apparently they start celebrating early. The crowd was loud and excited. All the children and some of the adults had different colored lanterns lit by candles. These clever little contraptions had cellophane tacked on wooden frames to create lamps that look like porch lights, but a myriad of different colors. They were quite beautiful and someone even had one that was made to look like a star.

In the middle of the crowd was the drum corps. When I walked up someone was yelling something that sounded inspriational, but I wasn't listening all that closely. After a few minutes of this, the drum corps started up. They sounded great! Way better than anything I had heard so far and I had had no choice in listening to much of their practicing. They even had a variety of steps to go along with the music. The piece ended and during the applause, someone started lighting off fireworks in the middle of the crowd! They shot up over our heads, above the buildings to explode high in the sky with a double bang. Everyone cheered. And then took a step back as more were set off.

After the last flare had dusted the sky with its sparks, the drum leader started blowing his whistle. The drums started a new tune and the flag bearers started pushing their way through the crowd. The street wasn't wide enough for a full crowd AND the marching group, so half the crowd was pushed in front of the parade and the rest trailed around behind. It was quite the sight!

I stayed where I was standing, off to the side until everyone had passed. Then I went and got myself baldeadas for supper. Yum! My only regret is that I did not have my camera along with me, so I don't have any pictures of the proceedings. You'll just have to take my word for it when I say that it was one of the happiest and liveliest crowds I have ever been a part of.

Hatchlings!

This week was a mixture of crazy busy and boredom. Amy and her sisters left in a flurry of packing and goodbyes on Tuesday morning. That same morning (and nearly simultaneously) we had our first nest emerge! Amy is still sad because she missed it by just a few hours.

When Lindsey got the call that there were hatchlings, she and I headed to the beach. We ended up digging up the nest there and then, because it was infested with ants. Sadly, the ants had already killed several hatchlings that were still buried. However, we did have a mess of cute, wiggling baby turtles!

Having been up all night for the past couple of nights watching the nest, Lindsey and I were both exhausted. It was decided then, that the hatchlings would be held overnight, we would process them, and they would be released the evening of the next day.

Getting everything set up.

Overall, the data taking went smoothly. For Lindsey's project we weighed each hatchling, measured the length and width of its upper carapace, and took a very small blood sample. This sample will allow Lindsey to figure out what gender each hatchling is.

Turtles don't have a gender determining chromosome like you or I. Instead of being XY or XX, their sex is determined by the temperature that the nest is incubated at. The top of the nest will be slightly warmer because of the heat of the sun and so the turtles that hatch out of eggs from the top of the nest will be female. The lower eggs are colder and will then develop into male turtles. Lindsey has placed data loggers in each nest that will allow us to measure these temperatures. When she compares this with the number of males and females from the nest, she can then develop a temperature profile that will allow us to predict the gender ratios for a nest, without needing to do the extra work with blood samples.

Lindsey was slightly afraid that this little guy would bite her. He wouldn't keep his mouth shut!

Five more to go!

It took us about six hours of lab work to process the fifty-one hatchlings, but we enjoyed every minute! Unfortunately, neither Lindsey or I got to go out and release them because we were still processing the blood samples. Next time I will have pictures!

We now have about a week off before our second nest emerges. I'm using it to get caught up on sleep and enjoy a little more of this beautiful island I get to live on!