Eric Poon – Buen Viaje Update
This adventure, so far, was everything and nothing from what I expected. I was expecting, which all came true, to see poverty, weather changing from raining at 70 degrees to being under the boiling sun at 100 degrees, and turtles, of course. What I wasn’t expecting was seeing people with joy despite not having nicely paved roads, roofs with no leaks, constant hot water, and more things that some Americans cannot live without. Also, I wasn’t expecting that so many Mexicans were able to speak English and that they loved Football. I do not know if it is where I am staying at but still, I am consistently amazed. This environment is great. You can feel the friendliness and joy of others. People talk to each other when they are in the store or sitting at a bus stop. They are not shy and concentrated on their phones. Do not get me wrong, a lot of Mexicans have smart phones, which means that a lot of them have their eyes glued to the screen. This adventure was and is everything and nothing from what I expected.
When I first started off on the project, I was happy and full of energy to work, but over the course of three days, that energy teetered. Not because I wasn’t enjoying the work, it was because of the constant rain and powerful winds. Rain was always finding its way into my tent which drenched my items. I have finally been able to find the perfect spot where I am not affected by the rain, but unfortunately, some of my things have a bad smell because of the rain. My spirit is back to where it originally started, full of energy.
The conservation of the turtles is tiring work, partly because most of the work is at night to early morning. It has become less tiring because I have been able to spot turtles, their tracks, and their nests a lot easier. Because of this, I have been collecting, on average, about 500 eggs a night. With these eggs, I sell them on the black market. Sorry, bad joke. If I were to do this, it would land me at least 7 years in jail. I actually relocate them to a protected area where I build them a new nest. This area protects the turtles from predators and poachers. There we can make sure the baby turtles make it safely to the ocean. After that, they are on their own. The biologist said that we can average about 5 female turtles, per nest, will live and come back to the beach to nest. We can average none if this project was not in place.
I am so thankful that I have been able to experience all of this. There is much that I have seen and not written yet, and there is a lot that I have not seen. Thank you to everyone who supported me financially, through prayers, or any other way. I would not have been able to do this without you.