Sigh….our last night on Matura Beach. Tonight we experienced why Nature Seekers is su
ch an incredible organization and how they have been so successful at getting their conservation message out. Weekend nights are one of the biggest for guiding visitors on the beach to view nesting turtles and tonight more that 100 Trinidadians came to see the amazing phenomena of nesting leatherbacks. It has become the weekend “thing to do” in Trinidad, and often involves entire extended families (and Trinis have big families!) complete with picnic food and great enthusiasm. However, this isn’t to say that the festive atmosphere is to the detriment of the turtles. All visitors must have a permit to enter the protected area and then must be guided by the members of Nature Seekers.
After traveling a long, rough dirt road to reach Matura Beach, all visitors are met
by a Nature Seeker and assembled at their assembly theater, where they are given a presentation on the turtles and guidance for behavior on the beach. Then the visitors are divided into small groups and escorted to the beach to view leatherbacks. Our task was to observe how the guides educate the visitors about this ancient creature as well as to witness their people management skills. It was amazing to view the experience of folks seeing the leatherback for the first time – and at how much Trinidadian’s cherish the opportunity. The guides are amazing. Visitors hang on every word and some guides even go so far as to quiz the visitors on what they are learning! It’s truly a classroom on the beach and all leave excited about the turtles. Is it any wonder that the killing of leatherbacks has declined to near zero!
So, now we are headed home! After too short a night, and many hugs and promises to sta
y in touch with our new friends in Matura, we boarded “Crazy Horse” (Mr. Paul’s bus) at 4:00 a.m. for the long and winding drive to the airport. We’ll miss Trinidad, its warm and friendly people, beautiful wildlife and scenery, and most of all the turtles….but we have open invitations to return any time….maybe some of us will take up that offer! Until we do, we will always remember this trip each time we reach into our pockets and find residual sand from rolling around on the beach tagging turtles, scratch that hard to reach mosquito or sand fly bite or hear steel pan and Soca music. Scott and Catherine.
ch an incredible organization and how they have been so successful at getting their conservation message out. Weekend nights are one of the biggest for guiding visitors on the beach to view nesting turtles and tonight more that 100 Trinidadians came to see the amazing phenomena of nesting leatherbacks. It has become the weekend “thing to do” in Trinidad, and often involves entire extended families (and Trinis have big families!) complete with picnic food and great enthusiasm. However, this isn’t to say that the festive atmosphere is to the detriment of the turtles. All visitors must have a permit to enter the protected area and then must be guided by the members of Nature Seekers.After traveling a long, rough dirt road to reach Matura Beach, all visitors are met
by a Nature Seeker and assembled at their assembly theater, where they are given a presentation on the turtles and guidance for behavior on the beach. Then the visitors are divided into small groups and escorted to the beach to view leatherbacks. Our task was to observe how the guides educate the visitors about this ancient creature as well as to witness their people management skills. It was amazing to view the experience of folks seeing the leatherback for the first time – and at how much Trinidadian’s cherish the opportunity. The guides are amazing. Visitors hang on every word and some guides even go so far as to quiz the visitors on what they are learning! It’s truly a classroom on the beach and all leave excited about the turtles. Is it any wonder that the killing of leatherbacks has declined to near zero!So, now we are headed home! After too short a night, and many hugs and promises to sta
y in touch with our new friends in Matura, we boarded “Crazy Horse” (Mr. Paul’s bus) at 4:00 a.m. for the long and winding drive to the airport. We’ll miss Trinidad, its warm and friendly people, beautiful wildlife and scenery, and most of all the turtles….but we have open invitations to return any time….maybe some of us will take up that offer! Until we do, we will always remember this trip each time we reach into our pockets and find residual sand from rolling around on the beach tagging turtles, scratch that hard to reach mosquito or sand fly bite or hear steel pan and Soca music. Scott and Catherine.
1 comment:
Wow, that was fast. Glad it turned out well and it looked lovely. Bon Voyage!
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