Rio San San, Bocas del Toro Province, Panama

5grainne91 5:00 PM Apr 13, 2014

manatees and turtles! amazing experience!
We emailed Elizabeth a few days before we wanted to go which she replied quite promptly, but did try the contact box first and don't think it worked. Email direct. Paid $75 for the boat, manatee tour, and twin room breakfast and dinner. Definetly good value for money. We arrived around noon and Elizabeth showed us lots of info about the national park and how they are looking after the animals. After we headed out onto the boat to the accommodation and on the way we saw a sloth really close up! Once we put our bags into our accommodation we were shown around the turtle volunteering station and given some fresh coconuts! After we headed to the manatee platform and the manatees arrived after 5 minutes! We got to watch them for two hours which was just amazing to see in the wild! We had some down time back at the accommodation before having a lovely dinner and then at around 8pm we headed out with a guide, Elizabeth and a masters student to go on a nighttime patrol of the beach looking out for leatherback turtles! We walked for about 45 minutes when we found one laying her egs too close to the water, we all helped collect the eggs to bury them back at the turtle station where they will have a much better chance of surviving. To be part of that experience of watching the biggest species of turtle in the world lay her eggs and help try to save their species was truly a wonderful experience and we feel extremely lucky! Thank you Elizabeth!

5Maderku 5:00 PM Sep 5, 2014

The Amazing Humedal San San Pond Sak Wetlands and AAMVECONA
Where do I begin to tell you how wonderful this place is? Firstly, not only was seeing the manatees great, they also have a turtle conservation project that desperately needs volunteers (they are not government funded but run by local volunteers) and the people running AAMVECONA retreat are wonderful! Contacted Elizabeth via e-mail ([email protected]), arranged arrival for 4PM. As far as I know you can also show up (not sure about weekends) and you will be attended to. First a boat ride (40 min.) to the oceanfront retreat deep within the wetlands during which we saw about 15 sloths and many birds. Then settled into a comfortable room for four (with mosquito nets). They also have running showers and western toilets. A nest of baby turtles was sheduled for hatching that evening, so after writing down information on an excavated turtle nest (they count the hatched and undeveloped eggs, information in why they did not hatch, etc.) we had dinner (food was truly amazing - better than the restaurants we had eated at) and then went to count, weigh and measure baby turtles and let them find their way to the ocean. After that we went on a 3 km walk down te beach to check if any turtles are laying eggs. The season for the egg laying is March-July, hatching August-September. We saw 3 poachers during our walk. The poachers will kill a nesting turtle and get $75/kg for the shell and 0.50 cents for one egg plus they will enjoy eating the meat. It is a reality of this place and that is why AAMVECONA and what they do is so important!!! Next day in the morning we went to see the manatees (saw them within first 20 min.) As others in this TA review have explained how it works, I will not go into more details. All I will say is that I wanted to go there to see the manatees and we planned to leave after that, but fell in love with the people and the baby turtles so ended up staying two more days! This organization, this place and the people who run it have a genuine spirit. They truly care and believe in what they do. This is one of the very special places that has not been touched by the volunteering frenzy yet but they do need help! If you are in the area (only about 2h from Bocas del Torro and 1h from the Costa Ricca border), please stop by and lend a hand, or donate! Thank you again to our amazing "guide" and overseer Jose, Don Alfredo, Elizabeth, Don Cano, Don Ramos and all the rest! :)