Busy days...busy nights!

Hi folks, from the new interns, now in our second week and just loving every minute of the project....

Said goodbye to Nicole and Ashley, and took over on the craziest of days - I'm glad it was special for Nicole as she's put so much into the project and been super generous towards me and Becky with her time and expertise - so yes, her last day was a well deserved frenzy of activity with 53 whale shark encounters...nuts!! it was whale-sharks nose to tail and we've ID'd over 20 sharks from that day now!

Since she left we've been pretty flat out, with search trips & encounters every day plus back-to-back trips in a single day with tourists coming up from Cabo yesterday morning and another group from here in La Paz in the afternoon.

We were carried along by incredible weather though - flat sea and a clear blue sky that made everything feel perfect....well not quite perfect - that came on the trip back to the marina when our fabulous eagle-eyed captain Kundo spotted four humpbacks along with a lively pod of dolphins! They stayed with us right back through the bay....the sight of those humpbacks arching through the water really is one to stay with you.

Personally I'm very happy right now...enjoying the low key loveliness of La Paz at Christmas as a welcome antidote to the mania of a festive season in London, and surrounded by so much that makes me happy! Much to be grateful for indeed :-)

End of our internship but hello new people!

Ten weeks, where did that go?

The past ten weeks have absolutely flown by and this has been by far one of the best adventures I've been on throughout my travels!  We've had over 350 whale shark encounters, more than 60 individuals, humpback whales, dolphins, a manta, a hammerhead and so many other creatures!  If I weren't already obsessed with whale sharks when I arrived, I certainly would be now.  Those big spotty fish are just incredible.  I have no idea what I'll be doing next but I know there will be more sharks in my future!

We took this photo a few days ago as Manolo left for the holidays and it was the first day out for the new volunteers, Sharon and Becky!  They are getting all trained up and ready to start collecting data about the sharks.  They are both from the UK so the British have definitely invaded the office.  It's also getting a bit colder so the wetsuits are coming out and we are all looking stylish in the sea. 

Many thanks to Darren and Manolo for teaching us about the sharks and getting us out on the water as much as possible!  and thanks to Stephanie for getting us involved with the turtles!  I will definitely be returning at some point and if you are interested in joining the project, just go, you will not regret it!!! You might see a blog or two more from me- I need to write about balloons! 

With so much whale shark love and sadness to leave,

Nicole

Remember that penguin in Happy Feet?

Remember when the penguin gets stuck in a six pack holder?

So we've all heard that we need to stop using plastic bags, single use plastic items, styrofoam and basically all things that are unfortunately convenient.  I get it, I've been trying to use less plastic but by no means am I anywhere near perfect.  I wish I could be but little by little, I am getting better. What isn't convenient is that our trash is going into the ocean and the more we use, the more demand there is to keep producing more, and in the end, more will end up in the sea.  I think what has been opening my eyes more than anything is actually grabbing bits of plastic from in front of whale sharks.  Everyday when we are out on the ocean, we grab bits of plastic out of the sea.  We find plastic bags, shredded plastic, labels off bottles, all sorts of stuff.  We do our best to collect whatever we swim by and sometimes we end up literally grabbing tiny shreds of plastic from in front of sharks.  They don't need to be eating that stuff, it can't be good for the big spotty fish who prefers plankton.

If you haven't yet seen the videos of turtles having straws and forks removed from their faces, I recommend you watch.  Google them. They aren't nice smiling videos but thankfully the turtles were okay.  They will really make you think twice next time you are offered a straw to drink out of a glass bottle.  Just drink out of the bottle, skip the straw.  (this happened to me at dinner tonight, thought twice about it and skipped the straw!) Stephanie has also had us thinking more about recycling and has shown me the places you can recycle here in La Paz!

So what's my point, what am I getting to?  Every single day in La Paz, I pick up these ridiculous 6 and 8 pack holders off the ground (usually outside convenience stores).  I remember them from when I was younger and I remember learning to cut them to make sure they didn't harm any wildlife.  I've read that in the US and Canada, they are now required to be photodegradable where they start to degrade in the sun.  The ones I've collected in Mexico don't have the marks claiming they are photodegradable (maybe they are, maybe they aren't).  What I don't understand is why people can't just cut them up and get rid of them?  I really don't notice them in the states anymore nor have I noticed them in any other country as much as I do in Mexico.  Everyday, they are all over the streets. The trash bothers me but these frustrate me more than anything else.  Google animals in six pack rings. Birds, turtles all sorts of critters.  These aren't easy to snap apart and break, you need scissors or to put in some effort to rip them apart.  Can a turtle put in that much effort with just his shell? No.

These were all collected in 5 mins this morning.

Thanks for reading!  If you see any of these laying around the streets of Mexico (or your hometown), pick them up and break them apart.  Why should the birds and turtles have to wait for them to degrade if they even degrade at all? and please think twice about whether or not you need that plastic bag, straw or fork.


Just wait until I write about balloons!  :)

-Nicole

Tacos del Pulpo

So we've never actually eaten octopus tacos here but the fish tacos are amazing!  From what I've heard, the shrimp tacos are also pretty good!  This is an intern favorite among the street food in La Paz and it's really close to where we live.

If you are looking to visit this taco stand, look only at lunch because they aren't open for dinner.  It is on the corner of Cinco de Febrero and Serdan near the 5 de Febrero Cathedral.

15 pesos for a fish taco, 20 for a shrimp taco.  They can't be beat.

Cabo Cabo Cabo!!!!

This weekend we went on an adventure to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico!  I went diving for most of my time there (surprise, surprise) but there is a ton to do in Cabo!  Darren went paddle boarding and Ashley went snorkeling but there are so many options!

Things you can do in Cabo:

1. Go Humpback Whale Watching (if the season is right)
2. Stand Up Paddleboard near the Arch
3. Go on a tour to the arch
4. Kayak
5. Watch the Sea Lions
6. Dive
7. Snorkel
8. Fly in an ultralight 
9. Lay on the beach
10. People Watch (it’s really entertaining in Cabo and most of the people are just really happy)
11. Be entertained by all of the people trying to sell you things
12. Go Zip lining, ATV riding/Other outdoorsy adventure things

For me, Cabo was like the disneyland of Mexico (similar to Cancun) but less taken over by all of the huge resorts.  The huge resorts are still there just a bit further away from the main city.  

Xochitl was super nice and offered to bring us along to Cabo as her and Darren were going to a birthday party.  Ashley and I stayed in a hostel in town (Baja’s Cactus Hostel) which was just 15 dollars an night to stay in the dorm and nice for a hostel.  The room was big, they had hot water and AC at night once you asked for it to be turned on.  The people were wicked friendly and I really enjoyed my stay at the hostel.  

 My second favorite creature after whale sharks is nudibranchs and I got to see some that I had never seen before! I did a few dives in the corrider and a few in the marine park.  I also found Xochitl’s sunglasses which she had lost on the previous day (the chances of that are definitely 1 in a million) and I should have bought a lottery ticket that day.  I actually found two pairs! We went to look for whales between dives and saw one breath on the surface! We also saw sea lions, massive bait balls of jacks, eels, crabs and other cool underwater critters!  I took about 400 photos, I'll just upload one or two! :)

I also spent some time hanging out at the beach.  It was gorgeous and there was a cruise ship in the port.  The sand there is really nice because it’s not the kind that just sticks to everything.  Good sand = good beach.  I didn’t make it down to the Mango Deck area but from what I’ve heard, it is quite a sight.  

Everyone else left early on Monday but I stayed to dive a bit more in the afternoon.  I took the bus back and again, it was my lucky day! The bus company had a special for three times throughout the afternoon and the bus I wanted to take was discounted to just 190  pesos.  The ride is about two hours, the bus is comfy and I just watched movies on the way back.  

To sum it all up, I loved Cabo!

-Nicole

What do we see out there besides whale sharks?

What else have we seen this season?

Occasionally we see creatures other than sharks (we know they live out there too!).  This season we’ve been lucky enough to swim with dolphins twice.  We usually see them at least once a week but they aren’t always in shallow water and they sometimes swim away as soon as we enter the water.  The first time we actually saw the dolphins in the water a few of them turned, looked at us and they carried on with their swimming.

This past week we had a few guests on the boat with us when Manolo spotted some dolphins very close to the shore.  We got ready to swim with them and when we were just in front of the pod, we jumped in the water.  We were extremely lucky and groups of them just swam by us and played in the sea.  We had a group of three and another pair just swim in between us and create an awesome memory!  You could hear them clicking away and talking to one another, probably about the silly humans swimming in the ocean.  

While dolphins are Darren’s second favorite creature after whale sharks, we should say that we’ve been really lucky and we have seen a bunch of different critters in the bay.  We have encountered a silky shark, a baby hammerhead shark, a yellow bellied sea snake, multiple turtles, a few sea lions, a manta, mobula rays, humpback whales, a guitar fish, the usual porcupine fish and all of the fish that travel around with the sharks.  We’ve been very lucky interns and volunteers this season!!!

Guitar Fish!

Porcupine fish!

and Mobulas! 

I'd post photos of the hammerhead and silky shark but you'd just be looking at poor photography of a blue ocean.  Both were on incredibly rough days and the sharks were lost in the waves.

-Nicole

The whales, the wasps and the wolunteers...

You can thank Darren for the name of this blog post, he thinks his jokes are hilarious. If you've read any jokes in the previous blogs, he's certainly added them. :)

Last week, we had our first day out on the water without whale sharks.  The port was closed in the morning but we were desperate to be on the water (the wind had been keeping us indoors)!  The port opened in the afternoon and we ventured out in somewhat stormy weather.  We searched for the sharks for a bit and finally just jumped in the water for a swim.  Once we were back on the boat, we headed back into shore.

I was staring out at the bay thinking about how we didn't see a single fish that day when all of a sudden a massive humpback breached just to the side/front of the boat.  No one was looking that direction and apparently my eyes got huge, all I knew was I was screaming "Humpback!!!!!".  It jumped out of the water again and gave us a beautiful splash with a breach.  We were all wicked excited and we started moving the boat a bit closer to see if we would see it again.

We then saw it come up to breath and realized it had a second smaller whale at it's side.  We believe it was a mama humpback and her calf.  They were in very close to the shore and just swimming around the bay.  We watched them for a while and another boat checked them out for a few minutes before leaving us alone with the whales.  The baby tried to breach which was adorable, it didn't quite make it all the way out of the water.  We were also able to capture some video when the whales decided to check us out and showed up right next to the boat.  Ashley also got stung by a wasp but she was okay,  she just had to focus her attention on the whales.  I still don't know why Darren called us the wolunteers.  Enjoy the video!  -Nicole

Marine Education at the Orphanage

We spent an afternoon visiting an orphanage last week and had the opportunity to play with the kids and teach them about the importance of a clean ocean.  Before our visit to the orphanage, we created an ocean scene (who knew we were so crafty?!), foam glitter sea creatures, mock trash, paper whale sharks and our greatest accomplishment, the whale shark piñata!

Robyn hard at work glittering our piñata.

When we arrived at the orphanage, we started teaching the children how large whale sharks are and laid a tape measure across the floor so the children could see the size of some of the sharks in La Paz. We then showed the children our ocean scene and Manolo explained that they could each take a handful of items (marine animals or trash) from a bucket and decide themselves where to put it either in the ocean or in the trash.  The goal was to have the children identify which items didn't belong in the sea and they did a fantastic job at decorating our "ocean" and getting rid of all the unwanted trash!  Manolo did most of the talking as we all need to work on our Spanish skills ("Hola, Si! muy bien, Gracias hahaha).

We also made paper whale sharks for them to decorate.  Most of them ended up with blue spots but a few were lucky enough to be coloured orange, red and purple or any other colour and design the inventive children wanted.  Each one was definitely unique!
We also brought a ridiculous amount of glitter to the orphanage and they will probably be cleaning it up for the next year. Our apologies for that!
We sweep the floors in the house almost daily and we are still finding bits of glitter :)

Our final activity of the day was to break open the whale shark piñata that we made earlier in the week!  We lined up the kids in the courtyard and learned a traditional Mexican piñata song while the kids took turns trying to bring down the piñata.  Once he finally exploded, candy flew everywhere and the kids rushed to gather up the sweets.    We hung out for a bit longer playing with the kids and then it was the end of our day.

The kids and caretakers at the orphanage were great and we really enjoyed our visit to their home. We are hoping to do more activities with the orphanage soon! Watch this space..
-Nicole (current intern)

An average Research day

On an average in water day with the project, we leave the house at about 8:15 and wander the few blocks to the marina.  When it's just the volunteers, Darren and Manolo, we board the boat and are we make our way to the research area.  Occasionally we bring guests with us and then we either do a conservation briefing at the office or on the sea.  We generally go out on research trips 3-4 days/week depending on the weather conditions and wind.  The wind hasn't been very nice to us this past week so more time for blogging and office work!

After a ten to fifteen minute boat journey, we are at the search area and we start looking for fins or shadows in the water shaped like sharks.  Darren usually stands at the front and Manolo is usually our captain although we have a few others that sometimes jump on board as captain.  Occasionally Manolo gets in the water and dives deeper than all of us without fins and casually waves back up at us while checking out the sharks.  He is actually a fish.

Everyone is searching the area and we are just waiting for someone to shout the word "TIBURON"! I've made it a game to try to spot a shark before Darren, I think I've only been successful once. We cruise around to the different sharks and take turns getting in the water to collect data.  Someone always stays onboard to records information on the boat about the sharks behaviour, other sharks in the area, the number of swimmers in the water and gps/time of the encounter.  Once the swimmer returns to the boat, we add information about distinguishing features, the size and sex of the shark as well as scarring information.

In La Paz, we are fortunate to have a large concentration of sharks very close to shore making it easy to get out to the animals.  This also means that there are a lot of tourist boats in the area.  The rules in La Paz are quite clear and help to protect the animals but unfortunately, they aren't always followed.  Boat captains need to drive slowly in the area and there should only be one boat per a shark with a maximum of 6 swimmers and one guide.  All boats also need to have a license to be in the whale shark encounter area so if you are going out on a tourist boat, please make sure they have the appropriate licenses.

After a few hours of encounters, usually around 11 or 12, we come back to the shore, help empty the boat and head back to the office.  We grad some lunch (stay tuned for a blog about our favorite restaurants) or a shower and a nap and then start on the office work for the rest of the day.  Each day, we sort our photos into the different encounters and go through the process of identifying the individual sharks.

That's a typical day for us and on days that are too windy, we get caught up on the ID data and adding information to our databases and spreadsheets about the sharks that we've been able to learn about in the bay!

-Nicole  (photos courtesy of Maria!)

Todos Santos

This week, we rented a car to visit Todos Santos, a small town about an hour south of La Paz.  Renting a car in Mexico can be fairly inexpensive and the road is a highway between La Paz and Cabo making it easy to travel. It’s a small town with lots of little art galleries, shops and restaurants.  It’s also home to the Hotel California which we didn’t actually visit. We searched for a restaurant Robyn (our new volunteer) had read about on trip advisor. For a while we drove around and but just managed to see the sights and the restaurant remains a mystery.  

After wandering through Todos Santos, we went to Playa Cerritos a bit further south. Unlike the beaches in La Paz, there are waves here for surfing and swimming.  It’s easy to get to the beach and it’s just a right turn off the highway down a dirt road once you see signs for the beach.  Parking was free and beach access is easy. There is a small cafe/restaurant type thing on the beach here and they have a few places to rent surfboards.  There were also some guys paragliding on the beach.  

I should note that since we had a car, we took advantage of stopping at McDonalds and Starbucks for a change from tacos.  We also ventured to the Mexican Wal-Mart to see what it was all about! I’d post a blog about it but it wasn’t really that exciting. They were blasting the Christmas tunes though so it was nice to hear some holiday cheer!

-Nicole

Marine Turtle Camp!

A few weeks back, Stephanie (she’s amazing and shares our office) took us on an adventure to sea turtle camp.  We visited ASUPMATOMA in Playa San Cristobal where they do amazing work with sea turtles.  When we visited, they were preparing for the 5th annual sea turtle festival which was taking place on Sunday the 8th of November.  Stephanie told us that we’d be able to release baby sea turtles but I didn’t realize how incredible of an experience we’d be having on the beach that night.  Just after arriving at turtle camp, Stephanie walked up to us carrying a green bucket which was full of baby sea turtles.  They were so cute!!!

During an incredible sunset, we were able to release between 70 and 80 baby Olive Ridley turtles.  As the sun was coming down, we set the little guys on the beach a bit back from the waves so they could scurry to the sea.  The reason behind letting them go on the beach and not directly in the water has to do with how they return to the same beach to nest themselves 10 years later.  We made sure everyone made it to the sea and no one was trapped in the waves or surge on the beach.  

After releasing the hatchlings and wishing them well with encouragement, we set off to the corrals on site where most of the nests are located. Stephanie told us about how the nests are moved from their original locations so that the eggs can be protected from poachers, wild animals and happenings on the beach. Each nest is marked with an identification number, the number of eggs and the date that the nest is supposed to hatch.  That night, turtles were starting to come out of one of the nests and we were able to see the hatchlings emerge from the sand.  We counted the hatchlings and then helped dig out some of the sand to free the hatchlings that might not have been able to get to surface themselves (it’s tough work being a baby turtle!!!).  We also removed the egg shells and helped with taking data on the nest.  We were able to release these babies that very night with happy birthdays as they ventured to the ocean.  

 The next morning we woke up early and went out to the corrals to check on any nests that were expected to hatch.  There were four or five with turtles that had come out of the sand.  We helped count the turtles and eggs while checking to see if any insect larva had predated the eggs.  Unfortunately, not all of the turtles hatch or survive so the other part of digging out the nests is to count the hatchlings that haven’t made it and the eggs that are still intact. Every aspect of helping with the sea turtle nests was incredible even when it came to those who weren’t lucky enough to make it out of the nest. When the hatchlings come out of the sand in the morning, they give the turtles time to rest throughout the day then release them to the sea at sunset.  That night, they were having a special release of a few hundred turtles that were hatching throughout the day.

We got involved in the turtle festival by helping prepare arts and crafts and then playing some volleyball on the beach.  After beach volleyball, Ashley, Stephanie and I wandered around with a frame for the turtle camp and encouraged people to have their photo taken in the “photobooth”.  

The staff and volunteers at turtle camp did amazing work throughout the day hosting arts and crafts, face painting, videos, hikes and all sorts of activities.  A group of students from a local university were also there helping out and providing information.  The event is a great fundraiser for the camp and people are excited to be able to visit the camp and the incredible beach where the camp is located.  We left before sunset but I’m sure that those who were there for the turtle release that night got to experience the same magic that we had witnessed the previous evening.  It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had releasing those babies to the sea and wishing them the best of luck on their adventures. 

Once we left turtle camp, we started our adventure back to La Paz.  We stopped at Playa Los Cerritos (see post about Todos Santos) and went for a swim in the waves.  We then returned to La Paz, our hearts full with baby turtles and our cameras full of photos.  Darren had to listen to us talk about the baby turtles for about a week.   Much thanks to Stephanie and the staff at turtle camp for such an awesome weekend!

Nicole

Balandra Beach

The main area of La Paz has the Malecon (a boardwalk along the tourist area) with some small beaches, but the major beaches to spend a day at are a bit further north.  You can easily venture to the beaches with a bus (or consider a cab to save money if you have enough people).  There are a number of beaches to visit, but we’ve been to Balandra Beach twice in the past few weeks.  Balandra is known as the most beautiful beach in La Paz with shallow waters, protection from the wind and gorgeous white sand.  The water is always shallow in the cove area and if you walk around to the second beach, you will see the mushroom rock that has become iconic of La Paz.  

My selfie with the mushroom rock!

How to get there?  Venture to the main bus terminal on the Malecon and check out Eco-Baja Tours.  The schedule is set and the earliest bus each day leaves at 10am.  It’s 83 pesos each way to take the bus and the trip takes about 35 minutes.  You will also pass all of the other beaches (the closer ones are a bit cheaper but you take the same bus).  Since Maria and Robin arrived the other day, we were able to take a taxi for the four of us for 250 pesos each direction.  

What to bring?  Everything you need for the day!!  There is a small cart at the beach selling water (but bring your own to avoid plastic bottles) and some basic snacks but they don’t have much in the way of food.  They also rent kayaks, stand up paddle boards, umbrellas and lounge chairs.  If you get there early enough (the 10am bus has worked for us) there are free Palapas (umbrellas) that you can hang out under and leave your stuff.  The blue umbrellas are the ones that you need to pay to rent.    -

Hope you get to enjoy the beach!
Nicole

The Palapas with the mesh netting over the top are free!  The blue umbrellas cost a bit more.  They also rent chairs for a fee.  

  

Diving in La Paz!

The first weekend in La Paz, we had Saturday and Sunday off and I was desperate to go diving as I hadn’t been in a few months.  I went out with a local dive shop to see the sea lion colony at Los Islotes, on the back side of Isla Espiritu Santo.  The diving was incredible!  The sea lion colony lives at the site and tourists are able to snorkel and dive with the sea lions who have been accustomed to visitors.  It takes about 45 minutes to get to the site from La Paz and there are baby sea lions and adults on the rocks and swimming in the warm waters of La Paz.  In October, the water was about 29 degrees.  In mid November, Robin (a new volunteer from Canada) and Maria (visiting from The Perfect World Foundation) arrived and we were able to venture out to dive with the sea lions again.  The water this time was about 27 degrees and the pups were still young and playful!  They have a tendency to swim circles around you and sometimes gently bite on your fins, hoses or cameras!  It’s an easy, shallow dive site (max of about 15m) on one side in the nursery area.  On the arch side, it’s a bit deeper (goes down to about 25m) but still an easy dive site with incredible rock formations and boulders.  We saw schools of barracuda, mobula rays and lots of tropical fish.  

I’ve also been out diving to La Reina and a wreck, La Salveteria.  The visibility wasn’t as great at these sites when I visited in October, but they were both still full of life.  At La Reina, I again saw sea lions and La Salveteria we encountered lots of porcupine fish.  The wreck is a ferryboat that sank after a collision with the reef in 1976.  It is at a depth of about 18m and is in a number of pieces, each of which have become a home for the fish.  

Before I leave, I’m hoping to do a bit more diving at El Bajo and a few of the other sites.  I’ll update you here with photos and information about those dives (cross your fingers for some hammerheads for me)!  Ashley is also hoping to get certified here so she can start diving in La Paz as well!

Go Diving!
Nicole