Fun times in Guatemala

This summer I spent 6 weeks of my summer vacation traveling around Guatemala and El Salvador, and one part of my trip was a stay at the turtle hatchery in Hawaii, Santa Rosa, Guatemala, operated by ARCAS. Before my arrival in Hawaii I was expecting to spend most of my time playing with baby turtles on the sunny beaches. The hatching season, however, started a couple of weeks after I left Hawaii again, which meant that I did not get to see any baby turtles. Nonetheless, I had an amazing time! The park is beautiful and the little houses the volunteers stay in are comfortable. All of the staff and the other volunteers were really friendly, open, and made for a fun time for sure. Work was very different from what I thought it was going to be: instead of doing turtle/ animal related work we mostly did chores around the park which was fun, and then patrols along the beach at night where we actually did get to see turtles laying their eggs- an amazing experience! A couple of weeks before I got to Hawaii, a dead Leatherback Turtle had been washed up on the beach, so in order to preserve the shell we had to inject it regularly with Formaldehyde and clean it thoroughly. Another day, all we did was to sand down coconuts to make necklaces from them. A few days we spent building a new cage for an injured pelican that had been found on the beach. Every day the work in the park was interesting and fun, and never before have I spent time this relaxing and yet rewarding at the same time. Additionally, the meals we had with everyone (volunteers and staff) sitting around the big table in the main area, the beach volleyball matches (“It’s out if it hits the coconut!”), the bonfire, and the kayak tour through the mangroves- all of these events made it an unbelievable experience!