Nature Hike, Sangre Grande (Sandy Grandy), and Turtle Farewell – Saturday

We awoke on Saturday morning refreshed after a good night’s sleep, ready to see what adventures our last day in Trinidad held for us. Anticipating the culinary treats our talented cooks were sure to have prepared for us we headed for breakfast. We were greeted with fresh watermelon and pineapple, beans, and a fantastic little dumpling of fried banana bread with a mango cilantro sauce. Delicious! Today we were presented with several options so that our last day in Trinidad was as exciting or relaxing as we wanted it to be. The day’s activities included another venture into the Matura forest in search of Howler Monkeys, a trip to Sandy Grandy in the afternoon, and a final visit with the sea turtles.

While many chose to stay at the guest house, a small group of adventurous souls struck out on foot with our knowledgeable Nature Seeker guide Anderson. We walked through the quaint town of Matura stopping now and again as Anderson greeted friends along the way. As we reached the outskirts of town we spotted a beautiful yellow Flycatcher bird and Anderson pointed out the Poui tree which comes in shades of white, pink, and yellow. The combination of beauty and destruction within this country still had the power to amaze us as Anderson pointed to the yellow Poui tree just on the other side of an Aggregate mining operation. As we wandered along, the road turned to gravel and dirt and the scenery alternated between lush forests and abandoned mining sites. It was heart-breaking to learn from Anderson that these sites will never be restored by the mining company because they just don’t care enough to do so. Even worse, the aggregate they’re mining for will be gone within a five year period of time according to a previous discussion with Scott. Pressing on, we entered the forest and began winding our way through the brush, balancing our way across fallen logs, and attempting to dodge the razor grass, although not all of us were successful. We stopped for a short break at a gorgeous spot that had been successfully reforested with a variety of native plants and trees. Continuing down the hill we reached a spot above a swampy area were Anderson said giant Anacondas lived; this was the point we turned around and re-traced our steps back up the hill. Anderson told us that if we wanted to go explore we could, but he would not go with us because he didn’t want to get eaten by a giant snake and we all agreed that this was a wise choice.

As the trek continued, every now and then we would stop and fight off the mosquitoes as Anderson taught us more about the flora and fauna in this beautiful place. One of particular interest to us at the time was a tree Anderson called a “Crapo” tree (this has to be a common name because a quick online investigation of Trinidad trees revealed no tree by that name). He explained that the seeds of this tree were cooked and the oil the seeds excreted during this process was used to make an insect repellant. I think all of us were wondering if this local recipe would work better than the concoction of Deet we were currently covered with! Although the rest of the hike didn’t produce any Howler Monkeys, we were lucky enough to view some red-headed woodpeckers and an, as yet, unidentified species of King snake. By this time we’d been hiking for 3½ hours and Anderson got a call from Scott wondering what he had done with us! We’d been gone so long we were close to missing the afternoon activities so we stepped up the pace for the last ½ hour and made it back to the guest house just in time!

As the Howler Hikers returned to Nature Seekers, we all got a wonderful surprise - a leatherback hatchling was found on the beach in Zone 12 and brought in for safekeeping until its release later that night! The baby turtle was left behind in the bottom of its nest, but was revived by the Nature Seekers patrolling that morning. It was a great photo opportunity for all of us, and for many, playing with the baby turtle was the perfect ending to our trip to Trinidad.

In the late afternoon, we decided to go to Sangre Grande to look around downtown and buy some souvenirs. It was a bit of a hassle organizing taxis to bring all of us there, but in the end, we were able to meet up in town. Within an hour and a half, we visited the large supermarket where many of us bought spices, chocolate, and snacks, walked around a small plaza where cheap DVDs were found, walked down a fruits and vegetables street, and drank a delicious cup of iced coffee. After regrouping, we managed to take only two taxis back to Nature Seekers, where some began to pack and others prepared for our last beach patrol with the turtles.

A sizable fraction of our group climbed aboard the truck by the time 7pm rolled around (we were set to leave for the airport at 4am, and some had opted to get a decent nights sleep). As on other nights, quarrying trucks periodically roared past and we heard the “whit-whit-whitting” of frogs chirping in water pooled along the patches of mine ravaged soil. And when the truck turned off the main road and on to the dirt path, the nature seekers and students standing in the truck bed moved to where the view was good and the wind felt great (we stood up on the edge of the truck bed and held on to the bars – ducking periodically to avoid the low hanging branches). Halfway thorough the drive, a chorus of hump-backed whale calls erupted from the inner portion of the truck. Those outside drowned them out with their “not-so successful” attempts at impersonating the guttural whooping of howler monkeys.

When we arrived at the Nature Seeker “base camp”, half of the benches were already lined with tourists. In the parking lot, a few more tour group busses were pulling up. We had been warned that the weekends were “crazy” – incredibly busy times. The Nature Seekers leapt into action, laying out their merchandise and preparing their projector.

The group was torn. Most of us wanted to see the tours, but we also wanted a chance to calmly tag and watch the turtles one last time, away from the bustle and commotion of the tour groups. Ronald helped sort out the confusion. A group of five was assigned to a section of Zone 11, a group four took the adjacent fragments of Zones 9 and 10, and two students went with the tour groups on a tour and then joined one of the tagging groups. Zone 8 was designated as a low impact zone for the study of tourist impact on hatchling success, and as a result tours were not permitted in this area. Zones 9 and 10 were areas of high tourist impact.

This was the slowest night any of us had experienced on the beach, and we ended up spending most of our time looking up at the sky and commenting on shooting stars. After about an hour and a half of no turtles in Zone 11, the group moved to Zone 8 (a no tourist zone), where they took over for Ralph, a Nature Seeker in charge of that zone who was being called in to lead tours. While they did see five turtles, only one of them successfully nested. Ralph indicated that the turtles were most likely abandoning their nest attempts in that area because the sand was very loose from previous nights of nesting. In Zones 9 and 10, the tide was high. Through a series of not so nimble horizontal and lateral dashes across the beach, several of us had managed to avoid the waves on previous night patrols. But on our first survey of the beach this night, a sneaky wave caught us and wet some up to their waist (we took the inland route for the rest of the night). Our beach was in two sections, and on each section you could choose a point to sit where you could see the entirety of that section. We chose the Zone 9 section, figuring that the turtles may decide to avoid the red lights of tour groups near the beach entrance (facing Zone 10). After approx 30 min of waiting at this location (with periodic checks of Zone 10), we decided that the high tide may have been making our site unattractive. We moved up the beach to Zone 10.

Soon after we relocated, a Nature Seeker named Simon informed us that a turtle was coming up the beach in our zone. Simon joined Nature Seekers when she was 8. Now 26, she still continues to patrol the beaches. “It is just a personal theory, but I think the turtles know [that the tourists are here],” she said. Ironically, the turtle was body pitting right where we had been sitting some minutes before. The night was slow for all zones, and the tourists were getting restless and impatient. We were instructed to call in any turtles we found.

By the time she started digging, the tourists filed out encircling the turtle. The nature seeker guide tried to motion for people to get behind the turtle. The tourists were slow, but responsive. The wind and the waves were loud, drowning out the words of the Nature Seeker, and making them hard to follow. He talked about the turtle’s biology: how long they live, how many eggs they lay, how deep the nest is, how many eggs will most likely hatch and grow to adulthood. The tour group was very quiet. One individual asked how long it takes for the eggs to hatch. Once she started laying, we moved in: scanning her shoulders and checking her rear flippers. She was a new turtle. Once we pit and flipper tagged her, the tourists were allowed to come close and touch her. One woman darted forward to touch her face, and quickly darted back. Several people took pictures with their cell phones. The tour was interesting to watch, but the crowd was a little much for us. We had been spoiled by three nights of having the turtles practically to ourselves. We watched the stars until the 10minutes before 11pm, when we left the beach for the last time.

Waterfall hike, ice cream and the sea turtle game - Friday

We woke up to a much cooler day, which was a welcomed relief after yesterday’s oppressive heat. We were greeted at breakfast by the warm faces of the kitchen staff, and another sumptuous breakfast. Today’s menu included fresh baked breads (of course), scrambled eggs, fried plantains, and an assortment of fruit and juices. Today we were supposed to have a lecture from Steven Poon from the Forestry Department, but scheduling conflicts prevented that and instead we had the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the WIDECAST Leatherback turtle database. This is the database which the Nature Seekers use to store all of their tagging data. At the end of the season all of the data which is collected nightly in the log books is input into this system and analyzed. Scott was so excited about showing us the system that he couldn’t stop talking about his tremendous brainchild. However, as time continued to tick on, Wendy was forced to stop him in the middle of his lecture to remind us all that is was past lunchtime. Before starting off to eat another delicious meal, the students stopped to peruse the incredible souvenirs the Nature Seekers made, such as t-shirts, jewelry, and ceramic turtle figurines. After cleaning out their stock on souvenirs everyone walked over the guest house for lunch. The menu included such delicacies as freshly caught fish, which was lightly breaded, served with rice and callaloo curry.

At around 13:00, we headed off to Rio Seco for a hike to a potable waterfall. Our guide was the knowledgeable Ronald Williams. While usually in charge of database he relished the chance to get out into the wilderness with all of us. Along the way he demonstrated how to eat cashew fruits. It turned out that the cashew nuts we eat are originally encased in a cellulose covering and surrounded by nasty acids and alkaloids. Workers must break open these nuts with protective gloves so that the acids do not destroy their precious limbs. They are then roasted in order to denature these nasty compounds, which prepares them for human consumption. Attached to the cashew nut is a pinkish-yellow fruit that is actually edible, with a curious, mild citrus taste that leaves mouth tingly and completely lacking of any fluids.

Using the roots of the huge Mora trees as footholds, we scrambled through the dense and luscious foliage to Scott’s favorite waterfall. We set our equipment down and dove into the 22-feet deep pool at the base of the 30-feet high waterfall. The crystal clear water enabled us to visually observe the unidentified fish swimming around us. All the participants enjoyed relaxing in this cool pool, but quickly noticed a rope leading to the top of the waterfall. Several students attempted to scale the cliff-face using a combination of rock footholds and the rope. After reaching the summit, they were awarded with a spectacular view and a thrilling plunge into the icy depths below. Most that attempted the climb were successful. We relaxed for another hour or so in the pool before packing for the long and hot hike back. Fortunately, the truck met us half of the way, saving us from a lengthy journey. As we traveled back towards the village, we sampled some local honeysuckle flowers and picked up a local plant which is used for making tea. We also stopped at a local Maturan’s house and were treated to home-made ice cream, which felt magical after a long and tiring day of hiking. We piled out of the truck in anticipation of a cold treat and were presented with the option of two incredible flavors: sour-sop or cherry-coconut. We were also given the choice of having them in a cone ($5 TT) or a cup ($7 TT), though some succumbed to physical temptation and opted for both.


We arrived at the guest house and relaxed for an hour before dinner, which was another (surprise, surprise!) fabulous meal. The menu included curried chicken and crab, an assortment of fresh baked bread, and interesting mix of vegetables. Once refueled, we prepared for another night out with the Leatherbacks. Due to the large size of our group we usually head to the beach in two trips. As a result, the second departure group was given the chance to learn how to play the “Sea turtle game.” Rhema and Amanda eagerly taught us the game, which though seeming simple proved to be much more difficult. Laughter ensued as the children watched us fumble through the steps. Even Dr. Eckert got in on the game. But as the truck rolled back to the house to pick us up, we composed ourselves for the night ahead.

Friday night is quite popular tourists. We were lucky enough to be treated to the orientation presentation, given by the Nature Seekers before they lead tourists onto the beach for their tour. On the beach, groups broke up and finished collecting data for their projects and assisted in the tagging efforts. Those groups located close to the entrance also had the opportunity to interact with the tour groups and witness how each guide conducts a tour and manages the eco-tourism experience. Though overcast for much of the night and threatened with rain by ominous clouds, luckily, the storm never quite materialized. After a full night on the beach we returned to base camp and loaded the supplies onto the truck for the ride back to Suzan’s Guest House. On the way back, the combination of exhaustion and delirium led students to imitate animal sounds producing quite a symphony on the way home. Tired and excited for our last day in Trinidad we headed straight to bed.

Danielle, Pen & Colleen

Bycatch & Beach Data Collection - Thursday

After a good night sleep we awoke to the sound of roosters crowing and the smells of yet another delicious Trinidad breakfast complete with papaya, pineapple and watermelon. We started our day with a lecture about the leatherback bycatch in Trinidad. Each year countless adult leatherbacks become entangled in fishing gear deployed by local Trinidad fishermen. Once entangled, the leatherbacks cannot reach the surface to breathe and can drown. As a natural extension of his conservation efforts on the nesting beaches, Dr. Eckert became involved with this issue, working with the fishermen to develop new fishing techniques that were not only turtle friendly, but were also more profitable for the fishermen.

After lecture and a yummy lunch the original plan was to go to the Rio Seco Waterfall. We decided instead to leave the afternoon open to work on our projects and explore the area. We heard through a local that a small waterfall was within walking distance of our house, so a group of us that had been excited to see the Rio Seco decided to set out to find it. It was an arduous journey (i.e. 10 min walk), filled with dangerous perils (i.e. cute little neighborhood dogs). But through perseverance and sheer strength of will we finally made it (i.e. a local took pity on us a showed us the way). The waterfall was beautiful and the cold water refreshed us from the hot afternoon heat.

At the beach that night each independent group continued to work on their data collection. The “breathing” group had a hectic night of measuring the average breathing rate of the leatherbacks by counting the number of breaths and time taken during each stage of nesting. It was hectic because we were trying to collect data while also trying to tag every turtle in sight. Somehow they managed with just a single measuring tape between the lot of them! The turtles they observed seemed to breathe more heavily while digging and camouflaging their nest, which may indicate that they are working much harder than when they are laying their eggs.

The “nest temperature” group, comprised of both graduate and undergraduate students, was working on a project that looked at the changes in temperature within the nest after the eggs are laid. The sex of sea turtles is determined by the temperature of the nest, with warmer temperatures producing females and cooler temperatures producing males. They also spend the night tagging and measuring turtles with the Nature Seekers.

The “leatherback temperature” group, which was looking at the fluctuations in skin and body temperature during the nesting process, managed to work on two different turtles for the night. That might not sound like much, but considering the fact that they had only a few hours on the beach, and each turtle can take up to an hour and a half to complete the nesting processes…two turtles was pretty good!

By the end of the night we were all exhausted, but that didn’t stop us from hanging out on the porch after we returned to the house to enjoy each other’s stories from the evening and the cool night breeze before we headed for bed.

Kate, Jing & Nikos

A Tour of the North Coast - Wednesday

Today we headed to the North Coast of Trinidad. The first stop was Galera Point, where the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea meet. Here, among a small forest, of interlocking green Caribbean Almond and Cashew trees, stood a lighthouse of modest proportions. To make up for the heat and jungle-esque humidity, we relaxed on a 60 foot cliff of shale that overlooked an awe-inspiring view of these two monumental bodies of water crashing into each other, and creating deafening waves that made it hard to think about anything else except the wonder of our surroundings. Several of us also hiked down the treacherous path, to the bottom of the cliff, and saw the area’s intertidal zone, complete with several tide pools that housed anemones, crabs, corals, snails, and small fish (Sgt Majors, wrasse, sculpins, Three-Spot Damsels).

Driving onward toward Grande Riviere, Dr. Eckert noticed vultures swooping towards the beach. He requested the bus driver to stop, and while it was slowing to a stop he ran out to the beach, only to confirm his worst fear. Beckoning us out of the air-conditioned bus, Dr. Eckert showed us the other side of Trinidad’s Leatherback turtle population. Instead of a turtle coming out to lay her clutch of eggs, we smelled and saw a decaying corpse, rife with flies. Dr. Eckert explained the turtle was likely entangled in a fishing net and drowned. But then he realized the turtle’s skull was bashed in on one side. This could have only been caused by one thing: humans. He theorized the skull was damaged by a blunt object (hammer), as the fishermen didn’t want the turtle to tear his net. Often fishermen carry machetes and will chop of Leatherback limbs to free them from the nets with less damage to the net by stopping the thrashing turtle. It was not an entirely negative stop here at Mission Beach, because Dr. Eckert spoke at length with a group of local fishermen who were curious about our fascination with the dead turtle. It’s conversations such as this and working with the local fisherman that have made the sighting of stranded turtles more of a rarity.

Around noon we arrived at our final destination, Grande Riviere. Here we met with Nicholas Alexander, the head of the Grande Riviere Nature Tour Guide Association. He gave us the details of all of the management responsibilities associated with facilitating ecotourism at the highest nesting density beach for leatherbacks in the world. This beach is only 0.8km and sees more turtles per night compared to the 7.4km beach of Matura Beach. After the talk and lunch, we made our way to a “secret” freshwater pool, shaded by a dense, lush, cornucopia of green vegetation. Along the way we stopped in the middle of Len Peters’s (the other head of the Grande Rivier project) plantation to enjoy some freshly macheted cocoa. The fruit neither tastes nor looks nothing like a Hershey bar, but more like lychee fruit, gooey and white. The actual chocolate comes from a complicated process of drying seed and mixing ingredients (and used to be the main export of the island until the oil industry took over).

Because two is better than one, we went back to Grande Riviere for our first swim in the Caribbean Sea. As we body surfed and bobbed for air, similar actions were taken by the eager leatherback mothers waiting to nest. As the sun was setting on our day at the North Coast, we were greeted by the sight of several early nesters, the first of an expected 285 turtles that night.

That wraps it up for Team Blogosphere™ . Until then – keep limin’ and refresh your browser hourly!

Team Blogosphere™: Jessie, Mike, and Linette

Bulldozers and Barking Monkeys - Tuesday

We woke up to the sounds of parrots singing in the nearby rainforest, the sweet smell of cake in the oven and a breakfast of fresh baked bread at Suzan’s Guesthouse. After a long night of tramping up and down the Matura beach, the day started off a little later than usual, with a wonderful homemade bread laden breakfast followed by a 10 o’clock lecture in the office turned classroom of Nature Seekers (next door to Suzan’s).

The morning’s lecture by Dr. Scott Eckert focused on the biology of the leatherback and explanations for population declines of this critically endangered sea turtle species around the globe. Scott started out talking about leatherback diving physiology and the first use of Time Depth Recorders on sea turtles off of St. Croix as well as mating habits and male turtle behavior. It turns out that while females make their nesting migrations every 2-3 years males make the same kind of migration every year and hang out around the major nesting grounds until mid to late nesting season when all the females have mated.

From our discussion of leatherback sea turtle life history and life cycle, we could begin to understand better how interactions with humans—at sea and on land at different stages and ages—contributed to the dramatic decimation of leatherback populations worldwide. The factors governing population decline in the Pacific differ from those in the Atlantic Ocean. We were briefed on how population decline models can give insight into which life cycle stage of the turtles was being targeted. For example, the Malaysian population showed a steady decline as a result of legalized egg harvesting. On the other hand, Mexican leatherback populations showed a drastic decline as a result of government subsidized increases in gillnet fisheries on the Pacific coast of South America, which targeted adult populations.

After lunch, we headed over to hike in a nearby rainforest, known to be habitat for howler monkeys—primates with a reputation for a distinctive barking call that can be heard reverberating throughout forests which they inhabit. While walking, we tried to keep our noise levels as low as possible to listen for the howlers and to prevent scaring them away. With the assistance of our local guide—Anderson Innis—we got an instinct of where the monkeys were and headed in that direction. At a great distance we could barely hear the barking sounds. But as we moved closer the sounds got louder and we quickened our paces as we got more excited to find the source and get to them before they moved on. When we finally got to the location, the sounds of monkeys was so loud and overpowering, we looked up at the canopy above us only to realize how small the monkeys really were. One or two males stood up and shook the branches while barking loudly at us—in a seemingly concerted effort to distract us from the rest of the howler family which was stealthily moving away through the forest canopy. Soon, the forest was silent and only the crunch of leaves beneath our shoes and our chatter could be heard as we continued on through the rainforest.

On our walk out of the forest, we walked along a muddy river and got to a point where the forest seemed to stop abruptly and transition to what looked like a massive construction sight—with a giant, yellow Caterpillar excavator dredging sand in a massive clear-cut area of formerly pristine rainforest. On the upstream side of this river—where the forest remained intact—clear water still flowed, while the river’s edge by this now clear-cut construction area was muddied by heavy sedimentation.

Most of us have read about the clear-cutting and destruction of tropical forests, but rarely have we been face to face with the giant machinery actually in the process of transforming these spectacular forests into wastelands of sand, gravel and mud. We learned that this sand mining for construction materials—in Trinidad’s spectacular public forests no less—was happening illegally, for the benefit of a private businessperson who seemingly managed to keep the authorities at bay. As we stood in front of the driver digging away at the river and took photos, he seemed very nonchalant about our presence. We on the other hand, felt a real mix of emotions—thinking back to only a few moments before when we had been basking in the experience of having discovered howler monkeys moving about what seemed to us a well-preserved and protected tract of rainforest.

We trekked back to Suzan’s guest house to clean-up and have dinner before preparing for another long night out on the beach. We divided up into project groups for our additional nights out on the beach, with groups electing to perform simple experiments in addition to building turtle tagging and data collecting skills. Before setting off into our separate groups, we all participated in the relocation of the first nest we saw being laid. The rest was relocated to a spot closer to the entrance of the nesting beach so that scientists and data gatherers could measure the thermal microhabitat of a nest.

One group, comprised of undergraduate students, performed an experiment on the breathing rates of female leatherbacks nesting on the beach, by counting the number of breaths she took during each stage of the nesting process. The largest problem the group faced—like many of the other groups out on the beach that night—was the sheer amount of time that the whole nesting process takes. With their experimental design requiring the group of students-turned scientists to be present counting breaths during the entire nesting cycle, the group only managed to tag 2 turtles and carry out their data collection on one individual. They spent over an hour on one turtle and only started collecting data during the laying process!

Another group of three graduate students, found themselves in a beach zone busy with both nesting female leatherbacks and visiting Trinidadian tourists. While the tourists were busy photographing one nesting female, two more had climbed up on the beach and begun to nest. It seems that despite the vast amount of open space available on the nesting beach, leatherback females seemed to prefer nesting right on top of one another! While one female had just finished laying her eggs and begun to gently tamp down the sand on top of her eggs, a much larger female decided to begin digging her body pit right next to the other female. Facing in the opposite direction, turtle number 2 started aggressively tossing sand back with her front flippers—effectively camouflaging the first turtles nest (and the turtle herself!).

After a long night patrolling the beach, gathering data and tagging turtles, the whole group of students returned to the entry way of the beach—marked by two palm trees—and hopped into our truck/ paddy-wagon for the bumpy ride back to our guesthouse, eagerly awaiting a few hours of much needed sleep.

Shana, Saada & Annie

Whose village is this? - Monday

We woke up to the early calls of the roosters and light coming through the thin sheet curtains. Breakfast of homemade bread, muffins, tuna, beans, fresh papaya, and bananas was served at 8 o’clock. After breakfast we headed next door to the Nature Seekers classroom to meet with Dennis Sammy, director of Nature Seekers. Nature Seekers is a community-based sea turtle conservation project that was started in 1990 in the small town of Matura. Matura is home to 1,600 villagers and each year more than 1,600 nesting leatherback sea turtles, which lead Dennis to pose the question: “Whose village is this?”

Dennis started working with Nature Seekers in 1991 at age 12, the year after the very determined Suzan Lakhan founded the organization. The “mad woman of Matura”, as locals referred to Suzan when she first started her turtle work, spoke to us about sea turtle conservation in Trinidad. Suzan, we all agree, is one of the most inspirational people we have ever met. Her previous boss at a radio station thought she was crazy for leaving a steady job to work on a volunteer project with no funding or support. However, all of her persistence paid off and Nature Seekers is now the largest employer in Matura Village.

Following Suzan’s heartfelt talk we broke for lunch, Trinidadians largest meal. We were served rice, beans, curried soy, chicken, and salad. At one o’clock the lectures commenced again with Dennis and Scott, who overviewed leatherback research in Matura and taught us the ins and outs of sea turtle tagging. We then took a bumpy ride to the beach to see it during daylight hours. Large blue and pink Portuguese man-o-war were scattered on the extremely eroded shoreline. Scott said that in his 20 years coming to the beaches he had never seen them so eroded.

We ate more delicious homemade bread, noodles, chicken, beans, and coleslaw for dinner. This gave us energy for our first nighttime beach patrol.

We broke into groups so we could survey a greater area of the beach. Each group of students was assigned one expert Nature Seeker guide to teach us the tricks of the trade. Within an hour we had all encountered our first leatherback sea turtle. It was truly breathtaking watching the moonlight reflect off their leathery shells as the hauled themselves up the beach. Once the turtles began laying their eggs the turtles were inspected for flipper tags (external metal tags attached to their rear flippers) and pit tags (internal tags injected into their shoulder muscle that can be read by scanners). The tags are used for identification. We all got to practice tagging and measuring the turtles. Needless to say, we all went to bed with smiles on our faces.

Tony, Elia & Lisa

The Adventure Begins!

After a week and a half of intensive sea turtle 101 lectures we finally set off for Trinidad!

Once we arrived in Port of Spain we spent a couple hours getting through customs, changing money ($1 US = 6 TT) and collecting all our field gear. As we filed one by one by the same customs agent (a totally strategic move in hopes of not having to explain our story 20 times), he smiled and said “you are here studying our turtles too?” By 9pm, after loading our luggage into the Nature Seeker's truck, we were on our comfortable 20 person bus, labeled “posh” on the outside front visor (all Trini cars seem to be embellished with a nickname) and headed for Matura. Our bus driver, Walter, turned up the reggae tunes and Scott helped us orient ourselves and explained how we would be traveling east and north to reach Matura on the east coast. After about an hour of twists and turns – driving in Trinidad is always an adventure! – we arrived at Suzan’s guest house in Matura. Suzan’s guest house is right next door to the Nature Seeker’s headquarters and is a beautiful, pale green, three-story house with lots of verandas and porch space. Everyone was shown to their rooms and we all filed back to the kitchen and dining room for drinks and fresh-baked bread and cake, our first taste of the amazing food to come! After a little exploration and chatting on the veranda we all headed to bed excited for our first day in Matura and our first night on Matura beach to begin!

Wendy & Scott