tlasoya's blog

Puerto Lopez is a typical fishing village. It is common to find small-scale fishermen during our trip. This day was special, first encountered a group of fishermen who saw whales and a few feet away, a whale was totally enveloped in a fishnet. Ericka our volunteer was the first to observe this sad spectacle.

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 On Monday the 29^th of August we went back to the school in Rio Blanco to end the mural we had started during our visit on the 4^th of August.

Rio Blanco is a small village situated in the heart of the Machalilla National Park and it has no bus connections, we went by car together with Gabriela and some volunteers from the national park office, who were going to plant some trees there.

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On Friday August 26th, we took the bus with a cardboard filled of painting cans to come back to the school Jaime Roldos Aguilera in Las Tunas where we did a talk about marine mammals three weeks ago (see the blog of August 3). The school could be identified very well from the road but it lacked a bit of colors… So with the children of 5th, 6th and 7th grade we put out to work ... or better into a paint to do a mural dedicated to the whales and the marine biodiversity!

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This week we were visited by Koen Van Waarabeek. I admire a lot of work Koen scientist, biologist when I was trained for my thesis about whales, read a lot about him and his work in Peru. Now that I'm his colleague I am proud of your visit. We enjoy great conversations and had the opportunity to exchange photos and identifying stranding some animals. Say you take every experience.

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 On Monday the 22^nd of August we went to another school in Machalilla, called “Federico Gonzales Suarez”.  It's quite a big school if compared with the others we've visited until now. In fact, it even develops on two floors! Like all schools, in the middle there is a big courtyard where kids can play during the break.

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The day before I got a call very special, it was the Minister of Tourism Mr. Freddy Ehlers. The Minister had heard about the baptism of whales and wanted to be godfather of one of them.  He asked me if we could see whales at six or five o clock in the morning or if they are asleep???.

Of course, I said YES. Because this was our opportunity to discuss the  International Whaling Commission and non lethal use.

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