Salsa and the Environmental Center

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Yesterday, we met up with Bree a little after 4pm to walk over to the center. The volunteer villa as I think I'm going to start calling it is not actually in Katelios. It's in another little village that I can't remember the name of, separated from Katelios by a good sized hill. We hiked up and over via a relatively wide two lane road overlooking the bay. The sun had come out but a steady breeze kept it cool.

We arrived in the environmental center a quarter of an hour before five. It's a one room affair with a play scape out front. Inside there are various displays concerning the flora and fauna of the area. A preserved male and female loggerhead are the highlight of the displays. There was also a lot of good information. However, the majority of the pictures were faded and washed out. A British couple came in just after we opened.

Manu arrived towards six and gave us a rundown and some history. The center had been an abandoned school house that the founders of the Katelios Group refurbished in 1994. Lately the local municipality had been taking great strides to remove the group's presence by leasing a portion of the school house as office space  therefore forcing them into the current one room. The municipality also built a play-scape where there had been a garden with displays. Manu had plans to replace many of the displays and pictures, but he was holding off until the results of the litigation with the municipality where finalized.

Manu also went over the schedule. Shifts would be divided between working at the center and the beach. The center was open from 9:30 – 1:30 and 5:00 – 8:00. Between 2 and 5 is siesta time and most places are generally closed during that period.

Until we saw the first signs of nesting we'll have a beach patrol from 7-10ish in the morning and 5-8ish in the evening. Night patrols would begin once we get enough people and we sight the first signs of nesting. In the meantime we would pick up litter on the beach during our patrol.

Manu rolled out around seven just before we heard the first thunder rumbling. By eight it was a steady down pour. We ran to the restaurant next door and had dinner. Bree had seen a sign for a club offering salsa lessons on Thursday night so we went in search of it. We found it but unfortunately the dance floor was outside and currently covered with a centimeter of water. We told the lady tending bar that we would try back next Thursday and headed back into the rain and dark towards home. Upon arriving back we were considerably soaked.

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