The next few days are going to be a flurry of activity on SV Khulula and in the area surrounding San Juan del Sur.
One of the frustrating aspects of our relatively rapid circumnavigation of the globe (trust me, 3 years is fast!) has been that it has been difficult to connect with local people heading up conservation efforts, even generally connecting with locals.
We try to spend most of our time in remote islands and bays, so when we do enter a more populate urban area, or town even, our time is limited. Between re-provisioning, boat maintenance, and catching the next weather window, we often don’t have as much time as we would like to connect with local people. When the mission of our trip comes up, people invariably “know someone who knows someone” doing something remarkable in the area of conservation. But then we find ourselves having to pull up anchor and move on.
With our time in Central America finally a bit more relaxed, Bryson took the opportunity to search out local groups on our route who we could connect with to learn from, share our findings with, and lend any support we could.
This effort paid off hugely, first in Costa Rica with Terra Nostra, and now in Nicaragua with Paso Pacifico.
Today Bryson, along with our two friends Grace and Kathy, joined two members of Paso Pacifico to explore two beaches south of here in a national park. We’ll see what they find.
On Monday next week Paso Pacifico is again hosting us, organizing 2 school presentations, a beach clean up, and a few other activities, the details of which we don’t know yet. By then Ryan will be back on board, which we’re super-stoked for, along with documentary film maker Andy Naysmith, camera in hand!
So we’re really happy to have been welcomed into Costa Rica and Nicaragua by these groups and their associates. It has left us with renewed energy and inspiration to meet so many people intent on affecting positive change.
We’re still looking to connect with similar groups in Mexico, so if you ‘know someone who knows someone” let us know.