Day 10 Morning - Conservation Work with ConScientia

The morning of our second to last day brought us the promise of doing some conservation work. After breakfast, we got on the bus to drive to the work site. Daniela explained to us what ConSciencia is: a team of young adults who work in different fields to try and bring environmental change to Peru. She made a point to mention all the different ways in which we can help with the environment; it’s not just a matter of going to plant trees or recycle. Other facets of the movement exist, too, like raising awareness through photography and social media.

  

Their major goal is to try and teach young people, like us, about how we can help to keep the environment green for years to come. The worksite looked very barren when we had arrived. There was a lot of sand and trash, and very little was left to hint at what sort of greenery used to exist there. That was the motivation behind the project we were visiting, started by ConSciencia. They started a small plantation with about 500 trees of trees native to Peru, in the hope that they could restore the plantation’s natural beauty.

 We played a few team building games at first!  Christian and Tracy did a great job in leading us in this first one!  We had to flip the tarp we were standing on without anyone stepping off the tarp!!

We learned how to identify the four main types of trees that ConSciencia grew, with characteristics ranging from thorny branches to red bulbs used as spices. Then, we recorded the age and condition of each tree.

We might have tested our balance a bit as well!

This is what happens when Dmitry places soccer - well when he chases the ball into the bushes!

Day 10 Afternoon - Some lessons and some fun!

After lunch and spending some time relaxing at the work site, everyone headed back to the hotel, where we got to listen to some really cool PowerPoint presentations from the ConCiencia crew. One of the members talked about her scientific work and research with sharks, and we learned about many of the species's endangerment due to commercial and recreational fishing (In some countries where shark fin soup is a delicacy, sharks are caught just to have their fins cut off, and then they're sent back to die off in the sea without them. How sad is that!?).

Fun Fact: Contrary to popular belief, only very few species of sharks actually attack humans, and even these sharks only attack because humans don't know how to deal with them. If you encounter a shark, DON'T MOVE! Look them in the eye, stare them down, and it'll probably just swim away!

When the presentations were over, we still had some time before dinner to walk around and explore a little of the Ancon District. Many of us hitched a bike ride around town, and we got to try some really weird flavors of ice cream like lucuma (a tropical fruit found in Peru). 

We then returned to the hotel for some homemade food served by the hotel owners themselves. And once we had treated ourselves to a really tasty meringue tart for dessert, we spent the rest of the evening playing cards before sleeping away our final night in Peru...