On my morning walk to the build site, I heard the clip clop of a horse and thought nothing of it, as I have seen horse drawn vehicles even in the cities of Managua and Leon. This was a bit different, as it was a bicyclist leading a riderless horse and I did not see this until he was almost past me.
At team Omega's house, the addition is going well, with great progress on the wall.
Work continued apace at both houses.
The bricks need to soak in water so that they do not take too much moisture out of the mortar which would then not hold.
And rebar needed to be cut and shaped into the forms needed for the concrete piers that would go on top of the red bricks.
We ended work an hour early today because of the tour to the nature preserve. On my walk back to the hotel, I walked through this group of scrawny free range calves - they are so thin, you can see the bones of their rib cages.
Our special event today was a tour of Reserva Natural Isla Juan Venado. We were told that we would have a chance to help release some 80 turtles into the ocean at sunset.
We went by boat for about six kilometers into the preserve on an inland waterway, and then back to the turtle station.
Here we are heading to our boats.
As we headed out, we came across what looks like turkey vultures feasting on a dead ray.
Here is video of those turkey vultures.
As we continued, we came across a Pelican high in tree as seen in the first video as well as other birds on shore seen in the second video.
We went out to the end, then turned back to a primitive dock we had passed and disembarked. We had arrived where they protect the turtles.
The preserve had rules posted in both Spanish and English on how to handle the turtles that were being released.
This is the 80 or more that we would be releasing.
The release is scheduled at sunset, so it was a most beautiful time of the day.
Here is a close up of the head of one of turtles coming out of his egg that was in one of those burlap bags.
We listened to a short presentation.
And once the sun was finally down, we began.
Here are the two turtles that I released.
And here are a couple of videos of those turtles and others heading out to sea.
There were about 40 - 50 people there (including 12 from our group) and it was just beautiful watching the sunset and the turtles and the people enjoying it all.
Then it was a walk back to the boats and a slow boat ride in the deepening darkness. Because of the tide going out, our boats stopped further out and we had about 200 yards in the mudflats and water to cross while using our cell phones for light.
At team Omega's house, the addition is going well, with great progress on the wall.
Work continued apace at both houses.
The bricks need to soak in water so that they do not take too much moisture out of the mortar which would then not hold.
And rebar needed to be cut and shaped into the forms needed for the concrete piers that would go on top of the red bricks.
We ended work an hour early today because of the tour to the nature preserve. On my walk back to the hotel, I walked through this group of scrawny free range calves - they are so thin, you can see the bones of their rib cages.
Our special event today was a tour of Reserva Natural Isla Juan Venado. We were told that we would have a chance to help release some 80 turtles into the ocean at sunset.
We went by boat for about six kilometers into the preserve on an inland waterway, and then back to the turtle station.
Here we are heading to our boats.
As we headed out, we came across what looks like turkey vultures feasting on a dead ray.
Here is video of those turkey vultures.
As we continued, we came across a Pelican high in tree as seen in the first video as well as other birds on shore seen in the second video.
We went out to the end, then turned back to a primitive dock we had passed and disembarked. We had arrived where they protect the turtles.
The preserve had rules posted in both Spanish and English on how to handle the turtles that were being released.
To protect the turtle eggs from poachers, both human and other animals, they gathered eggs from various nests and put them in bags filled with sand; they were labelled with date, time, location and numbers of eggs. As the turtles emerge from their shells they are then moved to an area to prepare them for being released into the ocean. Since August, they have released some 7,000 or more turtles of about 13,000 that hatched.
This is the 80 or more that we would be releasing.
The release is scheduled at sunset, so it was a most beautiful time of the day.
Here is a close up of the head of one of turtles coming out of his egg that was in one of those burlap bags.
We listened to a short presentation.
And once the sun was finally down, we began.
Here are the two turtles that I released.
And here are a couple of videos of those turtles and others heading out to sea.
There were about 40 - 50 people there (including 12 from our group) and it was just beautiful watching the sunset and the turtles and the people enjoying it all.
Then it was a walk back to the boats and a slow boat ride in the deepening darkness. Because of the tide going out, our boats stopped further out and we had about 200 yards in the mudflats and water to cross while using our cell phones for light.
LOVE the turtles!
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