Dear nature fans, here are Rasmus and Mischa, live from the Costa Rican rainforest,
The new year will hold many new tasks, experiences and surprises in store for the Guardians of Finca Curré (Forest Guardians), but first we would like to report on the last few months of 2015.
After the familiarization and planning phase, we put our plans into practice:
The Guardianes team patrolled the entire Megalindero, i.e. the outer boundaries of the “Los Guardianes” protected area, including that of our sending organization “Tropica Verde”. For example, the use of a weather protection tarpaulin was essential, which we were able to buy thanks to the donations on the Betterplaces website.
Exciting find during the patrol!
One of the tasks during the patrol on the Megalindero was to measure our boundary lines using a GPS device. We managed to do this provisionally with the help of a cell phone app. However, we have now been donated a professional GPS device with which we will carry out the measurements more precisely. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the donor once again!
Rasmus tests the mobile camp!
During our first overnight stay in the jungle, we learned how to set up the mobile camp and how to find suitable wood to make a fire in the humid rainforest.
The highlight then happened on the subsequent night patrol! We were able to track down poachers by the barking of their dogs and chase them out of the protected area with noise!
Finally, we visited a hut with a picturesque canopy view on Jeff¨s Finca, a neighboring finca of the project area, which Jeff would like to make available to us in the future as accommodation for the patrols. We are delighted with this generous offer!
After the fun came the office work: we volunteers analyzed the video footage from our two GoPro cameras and edited it into a short film. Unfortunately, our technical options here are very limited: The regular crashing of our computer and the long way to the internet cafe make it difficult to work efficiently. Nevertheless, this part of the work is coming to an end and we hope to be able to publish our first “Los Guardianes” presentation video on the Internet soon.
Just one of the many impressive views around Finca Curré.
So we were able to devote ourselves to the Christmas festivities with peace of mind: We baked cookies for our host family, which are a rarity here and were eaten with great pleasure. On Christmas Eve, we had a cozy get-together with our host family to eat the Costa Rican specialty tamales and later met up with friends to drink mulled wine.
It’s high season in Puerto Viejo at the moment, which means there are lots of tourists on the farm to look after. Just the day before yesterday we were able to inspire a Russian nature lover with a day patrol through the rainforest for our project!
During our night walk together, we were able to see shrimps in the river and other small animals, as well as a full-grown caiman in one of the finca’s lagoons!
We wish everyone a happy new year,
Mischa and Rasmus
