Saturday, June 9, 2012

Bocas Del Toro - Panama

Arcipelago Bocas del Toro

 @Mareiguana - thanks Riccardo & the crew for the hospitality!RRAAR

A chruch is made of people and not momental stone - this is the most beautiful one I've ever seen

Road to Playa 'El Bluff' home for nesting turtles


Turtle nesting beach
http://www.anaboca.org/

This has been one of the most breath taking experiences we ever had.
After travelling twice, in the middle of the night on a bicycle, for 5km with no light on a off beaten jungle road, we managed to see three turtles nesting.
One Baula (the biggest existing one - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leatherback_sea_turtle) and two Hawksbill (the smallest ones).
Playa El Bluff is a wavy large beach with no light nor population. A small  'Ngobe' community of 20 people lives there and protects the turtles and eggs from human attac.

How does it work?
You arrive at the beach and 4 locals patrol the area all night, you are allowed to walk with them with no light and wait for the turtles.
As said we visited the site twice as the first time we went, although we walked the 4km beach from 11pm to 3am, we were not lucky enough to see a tutle nest. We tried again two days after and guess what?? We were blessed!
The first turtle we say was Hawksbil; we waited untill she started depositing the eggs and then we moved closer. When they are in the process of depositing the eggs they will not move even if attacked.
The turtle will finish what she started!
We moved towards the back of the turtle so she would not be stressed by looking at us and looked at each egg being nested .... 2cm from us. We could hear her breathe and feel each movement.
Under a clear sky in the middle of the night on a desert beach this has been one of my life time experiences. 






Bocas House


2 comments:

  1. mi rilasso solo a veder le foto e ascoltare la musica! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Le foto e racconti più belli devono ancora arrivare!

    ReplyDelete