Episode 22a: Turtles in Panama (Part 1) Folge 22a: Schildkröten in Panama (Teil 1) Επεισόδιο 22α: Χελώνες στον Παναμά (Μέρος 1) Episodio 22a: Tortugas en Panamá (Parte 1) Épisode 22a : Les tortues du Panama (Partie 1) Episodio 22a: Tartarughe a Panama (parte 1) 第22話a．パナマのカメ（前編） 에피소드 22a: 파나마의 거북이 (1부) Aflevering 22a: Schildpadden in Panama (Deel 1) Odcinek 22a: Żółwie w Panamie (część 1) Episódio 22a: Tartarugas no Panamá (Parte 1) Эпизод 22а: Черепахи в Панаме (часть 1) Avsnitt 22a: Sköldpaddor i Panama (del 1) Bölüm 22a: Panama'daki Kaplumbağalar (Bölüm 1) Епізод 22а: Черепахи в Панамі (частина 1) 第 22a 集：巴拿马的海龟（第 1 部分） 第 22a 集：巴拿馬的海龜（第 1 部分）

Nick: Today Wendy and I are talking about another one of the great animal experiences that we’ve had during our travels. Nick: Today Wendy and I are talking about another one of the great animal experiences that we've had during our travels. And it was the time that we spent a few days volunteering at a turtle conservation project in Panama.

Wendy: Yes, and it was a great experience, one that has really stuck with me. Wendy: 네, 정말 좋은 경험이었고 지금도 기억에 남습니다. Венді: Так, і це був чудовий досвід, який мені дуже запам’ятався.

Nick: Right, so it was quite a few years ago now but we still remember the details quite well. Umm, and so it was in an archipelago on the Atlantic … off the Atlantic coast of Panama, and basically there was a conservation project where, uhh, people who were travelling in the region like we were could go there, spend a few days and you would pay for accommodation and food, and, so that was the financial contribution that you were giving to the project and then in return they would, umm, teach you what they were doing and then you would be able to go and participate in the work that they were doing. Umm, and so it was in an archipelago on the Atlantic … off the Atlantic coast of Panama, and basically there was a conservation project where, uhh, people who were travelling in the region like we were could go there, spend a few days and you would pay for accommodation and food, and, so that was the financial contribution that you were giving to the project and then in return they would, umm, teach you what they were doing and then you would be able to go and participate in the work that they were doing. Il s'agissait d'un archipel de l'Atlantique... au large de la côte atlantique du Panama, et il y avait un projet de conservation où les gens qui voyageaient dans la région, comme nous, pouvaient se rendre, passer quelques jours et vous payiez pour l'hébergement et la nourriture, et c'était donc la contribution financière que vous donniez au projet et en retour, ils vous apprenaient ce qu'ils faisaient et vous pouviez ensuite participer au travail qu'ils faisaient.

Wendy: Umm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, there are lots of, you know, opportunities to volunteer and nowadays that’s become a really popular thing for travellers to do, umm, ‘voluntouring' it’s sometimes called. Ja, ik bedoel, er zijn veel, weet je, mogelijkheden om vrijwilligerswerk te doen en tegenwoordig wordt dat een heel populair iets voor reizigers om te doen, umm, 'vrijwilligerswerk' wordt het soms genoemd. It’s this combination of volunteering and tourism. 바로 자원봉사와 관광의 결합입니다. And some of them can be good and some of them can be not so good, but I thought this was really well run and, you know, it’s true that they probably needed our money more than they needed our actual help. Uhh, I mean, we did help, which, you know, we can talk a little bit about what we did, you know. We did, uhh, help them in their work with this conservation of the turtles. But, you know, given the time that they had to spend teaching us what to do when we were there for just a few days, that probably wasn’t all that helpful for them but it was a wonderful experience for us to be up close and personal with the turtles. Aber angesichts der Zeit, die sie damit verbringen mussten, uns beizubringen, was zu tun ist, als wir nur ein paar Tage dort waren, war das wahrscheinlich nicht allzu hilfreich für sie, aber es war eine wundervolle Erfahrung für uns, aus der Nähe zu sein und persönlich mit den Schildkröten. 하지만 우리가 단 며칠 동안만 머물렀을 때 거북이들이 우리에게 무엇을 해야 하는지 가르치는 데 시간을 할애해야 했기 때문에 거북이들에게 큰 도움이 되지는 못했지만, 우리에게는 거북이를 가까이서 볼 수 있는 멋진 경험이었습니다. And then we also, you know, contributed money, umm, which helped to keep the project going, so I thought it was a great system, really. Und dann haben wir auch Geld beigesteuert, ähm, was dazu beigetragen hat, das Projekt am Laufen zu halten, also dachte ich, dass es wirklich ein großartiges System ist. 그리고 우리도 돈을 기부해서 프로젝트를 계속 진행하는 데 도움이 되었기 때문에 정말 훌륭한 시스템이라고 생각했습니다.

Nick: Yeah I think in this case it was a win-win. I mean, they got funds that they … or some funds that they really needed and we got a great experience out of it. 그들은 필요한 자금이나 정말 필요한 자금을 지원받았고, 우리는 이를 통해 좋은 경험을 할 수 있었습니다. It was very much a grassroots or quite a basic, umm, project, or certainly the facilities were very basic.

Wendy: Yeah, yeah they were. I remember the shower was just like an outdoor, uhh, cubicle with a bucket, basically. Ich erinnere mich, dass die Dusche im Grunde wie eine Außenkabine mit einem Eimer war. Я пам’ятаю, що душ був схожий на відкриту, е-е, кабінку з відром, по суті. You would just pour a bucket of water over your head. Umm, and, yeah, you had to be willing to rough it, you know, to be used to camping and we weren’t camping, we were actually living in an actual building with a bed, umm, but it was very basic accommodation like you said. Ähm, und ja, man musste bereit sein, es zu rauen, um an Camping gewöhnt zu sein, und wir zelten nicht, wir lebten tatsächlich in einem tatsächlichen Gebäude mit einem Bett, ähm, aber es war eine sehr einfache Unterkunft wie du gesagt hast. Nous ne faisions pas du camping, nous vivions dans un bâtiment avec un lit, mais c'était un logement très basique, comme vous l'avez dit. 네, 캠핑에 익숙해지려면 거칠게 지내야 하는데 저희는 캠핑이 아니라 침대가 있는 실제 건물에 살았지만 말씀하신 것처럼 아주 기본적인 숙소였습니다. Гм, і, так, ви повинні були бути готові до цього грубо, знаєте, щоб звикнути до кемпінгу, а ми не кемпінгу, ми фактично жили у справжньому будинку з ліжком, гмм, але це було дуже просте житло як ти сказав. And the one thing that I really remember having difficulties with was there was this type of bug that lived in the sand, like a sand flea, and it would bite me, umm, every time I stepped into the sand and so I had these bites all over me and that was a bit hard to deal with. Lo único que recuerdo que me costaba era que había una especie de bicho que vivía en la arena, como una pulga de arena, y me picaba cada vez que pisaba la arena. So yeah, you have to be willing to deal with some, you know, uncomfort … discomfort. Тож так, ви повинні бути готові мати справу з певним, знаєте, дискомфортом... дискомфортом.

Nick: And so basically the place where we stayed and the actual headquarters of the project are at one end of this very long beach. The beach is about six kilometres long. And most of the work of the project is doing these patrols every night up and down the beach. And they have do this in a series of shifts, and so if there are volunteers like us at the time, we can join one of those shifts and that’s how it works. And so on our first night we woke up at one o’clock in the morning, and then there was a biologist named Viktor who was in charge of the shift and so the three of us - the two of us and Viktor - went, uhh, up and down the beach. Und so wachten wir in unserer ersten Nacht um ein Uhr morgens auf, und dann gab es einen Biologen namens Viktor, der für die Schicht verantwortlich war, und so gingen wir drei - wir beide und Viktor -, ähm , den Strand rauf und runter. And so because you’re walking in sand and because you can’t see anything, you’re not walking as quickly as you otherwise would, and so it takes about two hours to go all the way to one end and about two hours to come back. Und weil Sie im Sand laufen und nichts sehen können, gehen Sie nicht so schnell wie sonst, und es dauert ungefähr zwei Stunden, um bis zu einem Ende und ungefähr zwei Stunden bis zu einem Ende zu gehen Komm zurück. And so you’re doing this for four hours in the middle of the night. And then there are other shifts that - or, at least one other shift - that left earlier in the night so that you have the whole night covered.

And the purpose of this is to monitor the turtles that are coming to lay their eggs and to protect them and their eggs from poachers who are in that vicinity and they’re also looking out for this and trying to, essentially, take the eggs, and also to even kill the adult turtles in some cases. And at this particular project they had done quite well and they were quite proud of the work that they’d been doing, that there hadn’t been very many at all - or in fact none at all until just before we got there - umm, reportings (reports) of poaching on their beach. A v tomto konkrétním projektu si vedli docela dobře a byli na svou práci docela hrdí, že na jejich pláži nebylo zaznamenáno příliš mnoho - nebo vlastně vůbec žádné, až těsně předtím, než jsme tam přijeli - hlášení o pytláctví. And at this particular project they had done quite well and they were quite proud of the work that they'd been doing, that there hadn't been very many at all - or in fact none at all until just before we got there - umm, reportings (reports) of poaching on their beach. Et pour ce projet particulier, ils avaient bien travaillé et ils étaient assez fiers du travail qu'ils avaient fait, qu'il n'y avait pas eu beaucoup - ou en fait aucun jusqu'à ce que nous arrivions - humm, de rapports (rapports) de braconnage sur leur plage. Ve bu özel projede oldukça iyi iş çıkarmışlardı ve yaptıkları işten oldukça gurur duyuyorlardı, biz oraya varmadan hemen öncesine kadar plajlarında çok fazla kaçak avlanma ihbarı olmamıştı - aslında hiç olmamıştı - umm, raporlar (raporlar).

And so on that first night we walked all the way up to the end of the beach, so it took us about two hours, uhh, and we did see the tracks of a turtle that had come up for the previous, or during the previous shift, so we’d missed it. The turtle had already laid her eggs and had gone back, uhh, into the ocean, and so we thought, “Oh, maybe we won’t get one tonight then,” because it was quite rare, I think, to have two in one night. So then we walked all the way to the end and all the way back, and when we were nearly back where we had started, umm, we saw a mother turtle, a leatherback turtle which is the largest of the eight types of marine turtles, that had come up to lay her eggs. And so it’s really quite amazing because the turtles have these flippers which they use to swim in the ocean and that’s the main purpose of their flippers. Taigi tai išties nuostabu, nes vėžliai turi šiuos šlepetes, kuriuos jie naudoja plaukdami vandenyne, ir tai yra pagrindinis jų šlepetės tikslas. But they also have to use their flippers when they’re on sand to move, but it’s very, uhh, awkward, it’s kind of very uncoordinated, and so they make these huge, enormous marks in the sand, uhh, and it’s quite interesting to see them move using, uhh, limbs that aren’t really suited for that and are far more suited to swimming.

Wendy: Right, yeah, I mean people might be more familiar with a river turtle, for example, uhh, which does … those types of turtles do actually have legs, they have four legs, so they can walk. Now they walk very very slowly and they still look a little bit clumsy on land, but, you know, they can actually walk around on the land and also swim very well in the water whereas sea turtles, they spend almost all of their life in the sea, swimming, and really the only time that they come up onto the beach is to lay their eggs. So their bodies really are not built to walk on land and, uhh, it’s very difficult for them.

Nick: And so it was quite interesting that Viktor was telling us that you can tell, that he can tell, which kind of species of turtle it is, simply by looking at the tracks because different turtles use their flippers in different ways to, kind of, waddle up the beach. And so for example the leatherback turtle, umm, uses both flippers at the same time but other types of turtles … the hawksbill, I think uses one flipper at one time and then the other flipper, and so then that creates a distinct track.

And so we arrived just in time to see the turtle digging the hole so that she could lay her eggs. Umm, and actually there was a problem though because on the sand there was a lot of driftwood, umm, which is wood that has come up from the ocean and the tides bring it up onto the sand. Ähm, und tatsächlich gab es ein Problem, denn auf dem Sand befand sich viel Treibholz, ähm, Holz, das aus dem Meer gekommen ist und von den Gezeiten auf den Sand gebracht wurde. 사실 모래 위에는 바다에서 떠밀려온 나무인 유목이 많아서 조수가 모래 위로 올라오는 문제가 있었어요. And so right where the spot where the turtle had chosen was not a particularly good one because there was a lot of wood or there was at least one piece of wood in the way that was making it difficult for her to lay her eggs, or to dig a hole to lay her eggs comfortably. Und genau dort, wo die Stelle, an der sich die Schildkröte entschieden hatte, nicht besonders gut war, weil viel Holz oder mindestens ein Stück Holz im Weg war, das es ihr schwer machte, ihre Eier zu legen oder zu legen grabe ein Loch, um ihre Eier bequem zu legen. And so there was a possibility that she might have given up and gone back and tried a different place elsewhere on the beach later that night. Und so bestand die Möglichkeit, dass sie aufgegeben hatte und später in dieser Nacht einen anderen Ort am Strand ausprobiert hatte. Uhh, but it turned out that she was able to lay the eggs and she laid quite a lot, I think. Ähh, aber es stellte sich heraus, dass sie die Eier legen konnte und sie hat ziemlich viel gelegt, denke ich.

Wendy: Yeah, 90-something. Wendy: Ja, 90-etwas. Ninety-five or something like that. Fünfundneunzig oder so ähnlich.

Nick: And so sometimes they’d come out two at a time and we could see even though it was dark. Nick: Und so kamen sie manchmal zu zweit heraus und wir konnten sehen, obwohl es dunkel war. Nikas: Ir kartais jie išeidavo po du ir mes matydavome, nors buvo tamsu. We were right up close to it and we could just see them coming out into this hole that she had dug, uhh, and so it was really amazing to see it. Wir waren ganz nah dran und konnten sehen, wie sie in dieses Loch kamen, das sie gegraben hatte, ähm, und so war es wirklich erstaunlich, es zu sehen. Estábamos muy cerca y podíamos verlos salir por el agujero que ella había cavado, así que fue increíble verlo.

Wendy: Yeah, yeah and she goes into kind of a trance, so she wasn’t bothered by the fact that we were there. Wendy: Ja, ja, und sie gerät in eine Art Trance, also hat sie die Tatsache, dass wir dort waren, nicht gestört. I think she was probably not even aware, really, that we were there. Ich denke, sie war sich wahrscheinlich gar nicht bewusst, dass wir dort waren. Umm, we had to be very careful not to disturb her in the time when she was crawling up the beach, but she once she actually starts laying the eggs, then she wasn’t bothered because, like I said, she’s in this trance and, uhh, she’s, you know, doing something very instinctual for her. Ähm, wir mussten sehr vorsichtig sein, um sie in der Zeit, als sie den Strand hinaufkrabbelte, nicht zu stören, aber als sie tatsächlich anfing, die Eier zu legen, war sie nicht gestört, weil sie, wie ich sagte, in dieser Trance ist und Sie tut etwas sehr Instinktives für sie. So were actually taking the eggs out because we needed to, uhh, move them to a safer location because the poachers would be able to see exactly where they … where the eggs were because, you know, she makes these tracks, like we said, on the beach, and it’s very obvious. Also haben wir die Eier tatsächlich herausgenommen, weil wir sie an einen sichereren Ort bringen mussten, weil die Wilderer genau sehen konnten, wo sie waren ... wo die Eier waren, weil sie diese Spuren macht, wie wir sagten, am Strand, und es ist sehr offensichtlich. So we wanted to move them. Also wollten wir sie bewegen. Part of our job was to move them, umm, to the hatchery where they could hatch safely. Ein Teil unserer Aufgabe war es, sie in die Brüterei zu bringen, wo sie sicher schlüpfen konnten. Uhh, so we were actually … you know, she had already dug this hole and she was dropping the eggs in and we were taking them out almost as quickly as she was dropping them in. Ähh, also waren wir tatsächlich ... weißt du, sie hatte dieses Loch bereits gegraben und sie warf die Eier hinein und wir nahmen sie fast so schnell heraus, wie sie sie hineinlegte. Uhh, então nós estávamos realmente ... sabe, ela já tinha cavado este buraco e estava a deixar cair os ovos e nós estávamos a tirá-los quase tão rapidamente como ela os estava a deixar cair. Uhh, but she was unaware of that, uhh, and she probably would have been very angry at us if she had been aware, but we were doing it to save her babies. Ähh, aber sie war sich dessen nicht bewusst, ähm, und sie wäre wahrscheinlich sehr wütend auf uns gewesen, wenn sie es gewusst hätte, aber wir haben es getan, um ihre Babys zu retten.

Nick: OK, so it turns out that this is going for quite a while, so we’re going to, uhh, stop it here but we’ll have another episode where we continue the rest of this story, including talking about seeing baby turtles. Nick: OK, es stellt sich heraus, dass dies eine ganze Weile dauern wird, also werden wir hier aufhören, aber wir werden eine weitere Episode haben, in der wir den Rest dieser Geschichte fortsetzen, einschließlich des Sprechens über das Sehen von Babys Schildkröten.

Wendy: Yes, which was definitely a highlight of the experience. Wendy: Ja, das war definitiv ein Höhepunkt der Erfahrung.