BIOCULTURAL DIVERSITY (No. 2)

HEYY YA’LL!

This is Ceren Duzgun and Gabriella Tiesling and we were the leaders of the day today!!!! It was such a great, at the same time tiring day. After finishing our Community Action Project, today was the first day we got to sleep in until 7:00 AM. After having a challenging time waking up in the morning, we came down to breakfast. Later on, we for the first time, initiated a morning wake-up stretch following up with a mental health check-in. We, then, headed to the bus around 9:00 AM for an hour and a half drive where we played some music and some people caught up on some sleep. Then, we arrived at La Playa Venao where we met Scott Crystal, the founder of “Save the Turtles.” A non-profit organization dedicated to protecting one of Panama’s most vital nesting sites for the Olive Ridley Sea Turtles among other species. Over the past two years, they built two nurseries to protect the embryos of these turtles and help them successfully make it to sea once they hatch. After having an insightful conversation with Scott, he led us down to the beach to give an illustration of a mama turtle’s nest. We then dipped our toes in the ocean. After taking a group photo with Scott and giving him his present, we made our way back to the bus. We took a little longer time at the coffee shop to support the local business and then headed to the souvenir shop full of hand-made items by the locals. After handing them our wallets, we went back to the hotel around 3:00 PM to eat lunch which was an hour late from the originally planned time. After lunch, we had free time where people went out in groups to local shops and walked around. Once everyone came back we sat down together to reflect on our biocultural day. We discussed the interconnectedness between biological diversity and cultural diversity. Later on, we had our nightly meeting where we discussed our day and passed the torch to Andre and Amandre who are the leaders of the day tomorrow. Today was the first day we had dinner after a nightly meeting due to eating lunch late. Now, we are enjoying our last few hours of free time before we go to bed.

Thank you to all who are reading our blogs. We miss you all and want to be back but we are having an incredible time here too.

Ceren and Bella <3