We have loved seeing the Scarlet Ibises fly across the Caroni swamp and daily watch brown pelicans dive into the ocean but this morning we saw the coolest thing we have seen in a long time. Leatherback turtles laying eggs and heading back to sea.
At 9:00 last night we went out to the beach with a guide who explained that leatherbacks which can grow to 7 feet long and 3 feet wide and 800 pounds lay eggs 8-10 times per season - laying 80 eggs each time in the hopes that one or two will survive to adulthood. The females come onto the beach, dig a deep hole, lay the eggs and then head back to shore.
We watched for a couple hours last night and then I got up at 5:30 this morning to watch the sun rise and to take some pictures. In the daylight there were only a few turtles (and a lot of well-fed egg-eating vultures) but at night they get 300 turtles and at times we were startled that while we were watching on turtle that another had come up to shore right next to us (remember these are the size of overstuffed armchair).
We also saw some hatched baby turtles which were unbelievable cute and had already survived long odds by hatching.
1 comment:
Dear Dan & Duffy:
Greetings. I am a Training and Development profession living in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.
I am responding to two RFP’s for the Foreign Service Institute for “experiential learning” (ropes courses etc.) in Leadership and Team Building. I can give you the two proposal numbers, one for civil service FS folks and the other for FS Officers, if you wish to verify.
I was wondering if you have a moment to answer two questions:
Q1: What are the particular challenges of leadership and/or teambuilding that you find in a Foreign Service posting?
Q2: If there were one thing you would like FS Staff to know before a posting overseas about the interpersonal/leadership challenges of this assignment what would it be?
One proposal is due Friday 7/30 and the other Wednesday 8/13. I would not mention your comment by name in developing my proposal only by continent: “…from a Foreign Service officer currently serving in Africa”
I am happy to Skype you at your convenience if you don’t feel like putting finger to keyboard.
Thank you.
Roger Kent
Nevada City, CA
530-632-2062
I know not how to aid you, save in the assurance of one of mature age, and much severe experience, that you can not fail, if you resolutely determine, that you will not.
-- A. Lincoln July 22, 1860 Letter to George Latham
rkent@theprojectgroup.biz
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