The Environmentalists is a German website that features environmental projects all over the world and provide an easy way to make donations. Ya’axché Conservation Trust is currently featured on the site - have a look!
Me and Sergio have found a pretty nice apartment in Punta Gorda, will have it from the 4th of march. Fairly central with stove, refrigerator (yeay!) and access to a laundry machine. It will cost BZ$350 per month (about 1200SEK). Looking forward moving there!
The picture was taken in PG last week.
The original of this track is brilliant, listened to it in the car on our way to Blue Creek on Saturday. There is a river flowing out of a mountain and you can swim and climb hundreds of meters in, which we did. Without the head torch it was pitch black and you could hear waterfalls somewhere in the distance. Next time we should bring more headlights so that we can go further. I also saw some cichlids (fish) in the lagoon further downstream.
Today, I went with the extension officer, Kenny to visit a couple of farms. The farmers are using a mixed cropping system where many species are grown together. I saw cacao (the picture), pineapple, coffee, banana, plantain (banana for cooking), papaya and many other fruits and vegetables. There are some more pictures on Flickr.
I thought it would be a good idea to update the background image of the blog and my homepage (erikhammar.se). This image was taken on the savannah on our way to Bladen last week. It will take some time to load the first time as it is rather big (1.1MB).
The bus stop in Punta Gorda where we normally get on the James Line bus to the field station. Apparently, someone set fire to the roof which was made of palm leafs, not much left of it. Behind is the Caribbean sea.
Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) in a tree covered in epiphytes, Punta Gorda. The picture was converted to black and white in Aperture.
Male Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus) in Punta Gorda, just outside of the café Snack Shack (they have really good buritos!).
Me and the ranger Abelino crossing Bladen River, I forgot that my phone and notebook were in the side pockets of my trousers, luckily, they both survived.
Photo by Sergio Rejado.
I just got back from Bladen which is a large, protected area only accessible by the rangers who guard it. We joined the rangers for two short patrols in the jungle. There are plenty of pictures on Flickr from the jungle (in Bladen) and from the savannah which you have to cross to get to the ranger check point where we stayed. I saw a lot of birds, frogs and a small lizard as well as fresh tapir and jaguar tracks. I also had a swim in Bladen river which runs through the area.
It was very humid and hot, and with a decent amount of horse flies and ticks. The ticks didn’t like me very much but they were all over Sergio. The Haglöfs boots I bought for Belize worked flawlessly, walked around in pretty deep water and stayed dried the whole time. They’re currently covered in mud so they will need some cleaning later. I almost forgot, I also saw a hummingbird! Really nice to see it flying in real life. Now we’re about to leave for PG where we will have dinner and hopefully some cold beer.
The track in the picture is of a tapir.
This is taken in the “chocolate factory” mentioned in the previous post. They buy the cacao beans from local producers and produce a wide range of chocolate products, including cacao soap. I tried the 70% chocolate and it was very good! I will probably become a chocolate addict while here. In the picture, roasted ground beans are pressed to extract cacao butter.
Today, me and Sergio (another volunteer) went to PG with two guys from UK working on a documentary about volunteering. The easiest way to travel is by hitch hiking, we were able to catch a ride that took us almost all the way to PG. We bought food, visited a chocolate factory (very small scale) and spent some time in the PG office. Tomorrow, me and Sergio will be going to Bladen, a large protected area north of the field station where we will join the rangers on their patrols for a couple of days. There are more pictures on Flickr, most of them taken in PG.
