Day 7 – Biocultural Diversity

At the Centro de Visitantes, we received a presentation by Robert, accompanied by Isabel from the organization Tortugas Pedasí. Tortugas Pedasi is a community-based non-profit founded in 2012 that serves through environmental education. During this presentation, Robert talked about how the 7 species of turtles– all of which are endangered– 5 are found in Panama, 3 are found in Pedasi; Olive Riley, Green, and Hawksbill turtle. He discussed some threats to the turtles, such as poaching, capture by fishing gear, coastal development, climate change, microplastics, and predators such as coyotes, crabs, and racoons. 

Following the presentation, we had a short bus ride to Playa El Toro to clean up the beach and save some turtles! We collected many bags of trash, even finding some hidden gems such as hermit crabs, abandoned huts, and a swing! This experience highlighted how all of the trash that we produce doesn’t always end up where we think it does. Robert highlighted how 11 million metric tons of trash is dumped in the oceans every year, equal to one truck of trash being dumped in the ocean at every minute. During the whole cleanup, everyone was discussing how they weren’t going to use styrofoam or plastic straws anymore.

We headed back to Villa Tableña (the hotel) after the Beach Cleanup where Ilca and Lionela prepared our lunch! Our options were chicken or beef with rice, beans, and salad. 

After our delicious meal, we decided to get seconds (as always). Once everyone was done eating, we started to call home! During this time there was an INTENSE game of monopoly, where Zayna is very disappointed she couldn’t get houses due to not having Virginia Avenue.

Some options for free time after calls were to explore the town in small groups, go to McDonalds, or play basketball in the pool. 

Many of us chose to visit McDonalds, on the way there, visiting the Las Tablas sign! We were so captivated by the variety of options, the new flavors, and overall experience of McDonalds in Panama. Once we came back, we jumped into the pool with everyone else!

At 6:00 we had dinner, consisting of chicken, rice, plantains, and salad. Afterwards, we had our Nightly Meeting, passing on the torch to the new LDD’s!

Hope y’all enjoyed! 

Sincerely, 

Lucia and Zayna 🙂