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

Whale Shark Boot Camp

Hola,Welcome to the Whale Shark Research Project intern and volunteer blog.  Here we will be posting information about what we’ve been doing, special events and the city of La Paz.  The WSRP volunteer program was developed to build a connection between a working research project and an opportunity for passionate volunteers to join and help with the conservation of these vulnerable sharks. How this works is two volunteer interns join the project for ten weeks and volunteers come for a minimum of two weeks throughout the season to help assist with the daily research duties. Darren and Manolo are here year round to run the project and study the sharks. Look here for updates from the interns and volunteers!

We arrived here in mid October and started the internship program with the Whale Shark Boot Camp!  While it might sound like a difficult work out program, it was in reality a great way to learn as much as possible about the sharks and our part in the research program. 

Day 1 involved just getting acquainted with the city of La Paz and all its beauty.  

La Paz is a good size city with a definite tourist area (the Malecon), beaches a bit further north into the city and true city areas with businesses and shops.  Day 2 we started with the presentations about whale sharks.  We learned about the size of sharks, what research is being done and how we’d be getting involved in the work during our stay.  We learned about how to take photos of the sharks for identification and how to interact with the animals in the water. 

Then it was time for some practice with Wally. 

Our first time out on the boat, we ventured to the marina carrying our whale shark Wally who is made out of recycled PVC pipes and canvas.  The team took us in the water to practice taking photos of Wally’s sides for ID and to practice our duck diving skills for whale sharking. 

Manolo is a free diving instructor and kept casually photo bombing our ID shots when we’d snorkel down to the side of Wally.  Darren had the job of swimming around pulling our super realistic shark around so we could chase it around in the waves.  Once we were happy with our ability to take ID photos we returned to shore for much needed Tacos!

The next day we went out on the sea to start taking photos of the real sharks.  We had eleven whale sharks on our first day,  It was amazing! 

The following days were full of presentations on how to use the different software to identify the sharks and create fingerprints. Finally, we took a test with practice sharks (hint hint… Darren tries to trick you on the test) and made fingerprints for the test photos to see if we have learnt anything during our boot camp training. 

Looking at our first day of data and were able to learn which sharks had been seen in the bay and get our first look at real marine science.  The next part of Whale Shark Boot camp was a presentation from Manolo on free diving where we talked about breathing and equalization techniques to help us with our work in the field.  We also learned about the different types of free diving and how people train and get involved in the sport of free diving.  After this we spent some time in the pool practicing static breath hold techniques.  

 The final part of whale shark boot camp was climbing what I’ve affectionately named the Mount Everest of La Paz (the real name is el cerro de la calavera). Darren kept talking about the incredible sunset views from the top and while hiking isn’t my sport, Ashley, Darren and I ventured to the top of the mountain or hill as they like to call it.  We made it to the top by going up the steepest part only to find out there is a much easier trail at the back of the mountain.  From the top, we took some quick sunset photos (it was gorgeous) and were able to see the outlines of a few whale sharks in the bay!  See photo below!