Work calls in paradise

It poured all day today. Sheets of beautiful, warm rain obscured the outlying islands and indeed part of the hill near the house. Another perfect day to work indoors all day; I even met my deadline 2 hours early!

Someone called the turtle hotline to report poaching activity on a nearby beach (not a beach we work on). Unfortunately, by the time the team rushed down, the turtle had left and the eggs were gone. Apparently, someone passing convinced the poacher to leave the turtle alone even though they took the eggs. This makes me so thankful for the relative safety we provide on Levera beach. On a side note, we volunteers are told not to engage with poachers in any way, but to call or radio the house, and let the cops deal with it.

The heavy rain continued into the night. Usually it is just a passing light rain. I suppose it wasn’t so beautiful when sitting soaking wet on the beach with the wind and sand blowing, huddled under a small tarp that attempted to keep the rain off the team in vain. They came home drenched at 2:30 AM. Fortunately the three turtles that came did so early on, and there weren’t any after that.

To make up for the long night, Kester made delicious pancakes for everyone for breakfast. He generously cooks up this treat at least once week which we eat with the island’s special nutmeg syrup. A note on the coca-cola crates that we use as chairs and legs for the table outside (see photo below): It looks cheap, but its ingenious as the sand from us and the equipment sifts right through.

Breakfast pancake treat!