Beatriz Carmena shares with her how her love of turtles brought her to be a pioneer in eco tourism
hello and a warm welcome to the Align with Aline podcast I'm delighted to introduce you to the wonderful Beatriz Carmena now Bayer treat was originally born in Spain and with her passion and love for Turtles and the environment and making the world a better place that we live in she is now based in Mexico offering beautiful volunteer experiences with ecotourism and she's also now working with an incredible company where they are teaching the local community and the children all about the environment and bear bear has come on today to share the space with us to tell her her story and to tell us all about how to help the world the way she does and what all her passions are so thank you so much for being here well thank you so much for inviting me it's very nice what you said about me it's true I only speak the truth so it's it's incredible that you're here thank you so much I mean I I've mentioned already how amazing you are and I really would like everybody to meet you so would you please tell us um for those who who don't know who you are how you discovered your passion for Turtles and your passion for the environment well you're scaring you know Turtles for me when I was like little it it's something that I could only see in the in the television and in documentaries no I saw many videos of them come and go and eating whatever no and I thought that that was something that was out of my life not something that I never will be able to see and then um when I was studying my ID like my environmental engineer in Madrid so um suddenly I was looking for opportunities because I was like so into working with um wildlife animals but yeah like protecting conserving it and looking looking you know this I don't know working on this manifestation absolutely because I was really trying at the end um I don't know if it was Destiny because I was not looking anything outside Spain no I was just looking for internships and suddenly I um went with an association that was kawaungaiko project that they were doing ecotourism here in Oaxaca with local groups protecting Turtles and they and I just asked them no I am a student I want to do an internship like would you like me to stay there with you and they say yeah let's cover me whatever you know um amazing Mexico being a student with um I was working with a turtle Camp here in the coast of Oaxaca where I am right now working you're based in Oaxaca yes yeah and you have lots of different um volunteer opportunities which we'll come to in a minute I just want to hear your story exactly well in one of the turtle scam that I started is where I am working right now too among another programs no but yeah like I was like I feel I felt like I was in a paradise I was like reaching a dream you know that I thought that I never was able to do something like that no but I think your passion Your Enthusiasm you put that into the universe and it came straight back to you and you know it it's for you obviously yeah I it's and well at the end when I stayed there you know like the first time I went a second time to do my testes I I made like three trips wow and I understood that I needed to do something there to work there to live there because it was like something connected with this place well these places because I well into Oaxaca cost many different communities so yeah that's more more or less my story how did I get here that's so gorgeous so now you're in Waka now you um followed your intuition followed your dreams and now you're working with the the various communities can you explain to us um what would be a typical day with a volunteering experience with the with the turtles please well uh it's difficult to say how is a typical day because now that I get with five different communities every day is almost different well no yeah they work with the turtles specifically it's usually during the nights no the turtles they nest during the night so we have to protect them from vultures um many times it's very difficult because uh here there are two beaches that are the most important beaches for the Olive riddle sea turtle yeah they nest more than one million turtles in each beach every year they are the most powerful beaches for this species so for that many times there are so many turtles and they they are many poachers as well not enough volunteers yeah not enough space to protect them not than us and that's enough strong enough so well the idea with the volunteer is starting to make these people understand how um that there is other ways not to protect the time like to work also for them to but not exploiting them no because they think that there is no any income for them they are only Turtles and they only have to look for ways to survive to maintain their families and I I really understand sure but at the same time it's like you know here is people that is willing to be protecting them to pay to see them to have a gun so if there's educating the poachers as well yeah badly yeah we are we are doing that in fact many times that we go to the beach with the volunteer we start talking with them and try making them trying to understand what is the situation of these animals and they at the end of the conversation they always say ah yes yeah we we have to change now we have to look for other ways oh it's very amazing amazing and you've created that that's beautiful really beautiful well I I support I support because we always go with our local guys they are people from the community that they started to do this job and we just support them to do like we give them energy hands yeah no yeah oh but um I know you're saying it's not you and it is about community and it is all about you know we've I've spoken about with many people about this is it's it's um it's the feeling of being one and not separation but what I would like to say is don't [Music] um uh underestimate what you have created because it it's absolutely beautiful incredible and you're inspiring people you know you're inspirational with what you've created and with all the guys around you who love you sorry I'm gonna stop crying thank you I've got no Goosebump being tingly as well I do that when when the absolute truth is coming out from the heart and it's uh you know it's a real heartfelt conversation that happens so so when when you go out at night then um to to um protect the turtles are you collecting the eggs what's what's happening well um yeah there are some like two turtles camps they are um they have the nest in a hatchery that is like a place protected from animals dogs and also for people so they uh bury the nest right away that we find the turtle we collect the nest they are like usually 100 eggs in average per one bottle sure so in collection we bury them in this Hatchery and then he uh we wait for example in already ridden the space species it's 45 days that we have to wait until they hatch so we release them usually means or if they are um a cutting in during the afternoon or we have to wait until the sunset gorgeous so um so the olive Ridleys they are they the main Turtle where where the eggs come from would you say but there are also two species more for example now that is called season here more or less cold because it's just in the night it's fresh but look I'm gonna say yeah really cold looks really cold [Laughter] they win Turtle they call green or black turtle and um that they are like the most common ones also with like not that common as Olive riddle because they are really really endangered together with the leather back the leatherback sea turtle is the biggest one in the world it can be it can land two meters long so and they are like also super endangered for example last year in escovia I think we collected like um almost 40 almost 40 minutes of leatherback was amazing and amazing year because before we were collecting um like three nests per year because they were not investing so much here and like in the season of 2020 and 2020 nope sorry 2021 21-22. they collect like 60 nests um more or less so wow and I would just like say so full disclosure I have had the pleasure to be in Waka and I have had the pleasure of being with Beatrice and being on the night patrols and I cannot tell you there are no words how beautiful it is with the you feel the hearts of the energy from the turtles as they they come in and they're laying and the energy of the people around it's beautiful and to be able to help in such a gorgeous way that Beatrice has created I can't um I was thinking in Spanish I can't recommend this beautiful experience enough is what I'm trying to say so um I just felt it was really important because obviously I've been there and and I remember walking under the stars because there's no light pollution and uh or the the night patrols and with the waves crashing and then watching those beautiful creatures coming out of the water and you know and this just to trust with all the guides around us it's amazing so yeah I'm I'm one of your biggest fans [Laughter] yeah is the year that we could see like these leather box this amazing animals it was amazing it was incredible but there weren't um there weren't lots and lots it was a real honor to be able to see the the leatherbacks that we did so so going on from um so you mentioned escobia so there's there's five um communities that you're working with at the moment I understand can you tell us a little bit about the other communities and the other ecotourism opportunities and experiences yeah all of them are in Oaxaca Coast so here we like it's amazing there are many many other tourism projects beautiful but right now we are working with five communities one it's in Murray Utah well that is the beach the community is called ryoseco morayuta and escobilla are like very very similar they are like kind of far from each other okay and both of them has this arrivada nesting and they are the two most important in the world no is please sorry that's okay they are um a phenomenon where thousands of and thousands of sea turtles come to Nest at the same time all together they start talking together right in front of the beach and suddenly they decide at some point to come out all together you know like let's gather all babies yeah we are ready go and it's a matter of like yes survival no so they do this and in three three five nights they can be more than 10 hundred like one thousand one hundred thousand sea turtles in just three to five nights one hundred thousands good wow lots of poachers to talk to for example in one night easily You Can Count like 50 000 Turtles seventy five thousand turtles in just one night in the biggest one so so when so when you know the air about is approaching do you make sure that you have many many more volunteers ready well we usually uh try to gather the volunteers because the volunteers are going to stay longer you know like they are going to stay now our program is for 11 days oh wow okay so we gather these volunteers for 11 days so it's easily that managed to gather them in the right time no more or less of course this is another phenomenon can happen exactly yeah yeah there's no guarantees because nature does exactly what nature does so yeah for example the last the in 2021 we have a really cold uh cold so so the rivers were like doing things in our irregular way for example in January that they usually arrive they didn't arrive that that move because it was so cold for them so it's climate change also yeah this year we have like very regular arrivals like it was like pretty good with the movement because they are um following the moon effects which is yeah they come with the cinnamon so the babies will hatch during full moon 45 days after quarters so they come when the moon is is um is uh waxing so it's waxing moon up to yeah okay gorgeous so I was about to go off on one about planetary hours and the moon then because we'll we'll talk more about the communities because the the reason um I I was I was delighted to be there anyway but for me as well the moon means so much and the moon ties and obviously the moon um dictates the way of the tides and the waves and just the beauty of the turtles listening to the moon and the whole the whole feminine aspect of it because I'm sure you know we're going so much more into the divine feminine and in the world you know we're leaving behind this patriarchal system but it's it's about balance so it's it's not leaving um uh the the masculine behind it's about bringing in the feminine as well so there's lots of beautiful balance and I really found with your um with the experience I felt that beautiful balance as well because we were on the masculine side marching along the wall of the beach with the beautiful you know it was divine with the the Turtles coming out so yeah I I could talk about this all night how wonderful is yeah there are many experience so so the there's another experience I would love you to talk to us about is um there's an experience going to the Jungle can you talk a little bit about that exactly like this is another Community where we work um they are carrying one Jungle of one 1100 carriers a bit more they are 70 owners where they have like an amazing biodiversity and it's like um I don't know exactly in in English is this the word micro weather yeah the microclimates yeah absolutely microclimates yeah so it's like everything could be dry surrounding the the jungle but then you are right there it's Evergreen yeah and they have many animals there and cokers are some of them ocelots ears many many Wildlife that it's amazing because there are no cattle there no and there are many ticks too that means that that place is full of Life yeah you know yeah so so just go just to go back on what you said because I just like to to cover how beautiful this is so there's 70 owners of this entire area another visit none of it is used for any kind of um any farming or anything at all it's all beautifully well cared me between yeah they may uh natural reserve so officially this is a protected Natural Area gorgeous protected Natural Area beautiful yeah and they were doing these like without funds just because they wanted that that place that many of the people that they they are the owners they born there yeah so it's like they really love this place and they know it so well as well that are they the guides do they guide are they the guys in the jungle as well yeah so they know everything about the jungle wow everything like also one amazing thing that they have is the traditional medicine they have their Pharmacy a whole Pharmacy this is fetus this is for they have an amazing resource that they want to keep alive for the for the whole village so anytime that someone needs any any plans for a treatment and something they just grab it for them no so it's amazing so they just pop into the jungle there you go hey thank you gorgeous and the amazing results too so so that so that's in the jungle as well and we were talking before because I'd like to ask your opinion on a couple of things as well which is um in terms of sustainability and any advice you have for any of our listeners but what I would really like to talk to you about is the other wonderful incentive that you're working on at the moment with the pollination project and this is I understand teaching the children of the community about the environment could you talk to us a little bit more about that please well we started to do some environmental workshops with a we started with the bintanilla children no children from Italian that is the other third Community where we work they protect a Lagoon full of crocodiles and a biodiversity mangroves and so on Amazing so we wanted to give another step just not doing like some workshops like a few like one time in a month we wanted to create a group that can start to lead their own conservation activities that like environmental awareness campaigns that they can lead these kind of things so we started to this project with them and then we started another one in ventanilla and we are starting another one in Murray Utah and they are group of of children children yeah these are the children that they want to know more about the environment and learn more about like how to keep the research and the community in a good condition and in this project that um it's funded to for the pollination project we are focusing on hummingbirds look behind me yes when I saw your background it was like okay so that's absolutely gorgeous so you're you're you're teaching the children and there's an ongoing it's like almost like a school if you like but a beautiful school about the environment so they can respect their environment and um would you say it's you know you're creating I feel that you're creating the Next Generation to care for the environment so they're understanding their their surroundings and then they can teach as well is is that the incentive that's happening we call them environmental brigades oh it's starting to have their own logo their own name oh wonderful because like that Village is like full of mangroves and for example uh they are called the crocodile Turtles like a mix they make a beautiful drawings about like mixing Turtles with crocodiles um it's their own signal no they they the animals gorgeous so you you mentioned um Bentonia and the crocodiles and this is another experience for ecotourism as well isn't it could you tell us a little bit about lintonia as well please this community I think is one example one sample for conservation in the whole Oaxaca and I think for the community lead by Community it's also like an amazing sample no yes they've been working for almost 30 years right now 30 did you say 30 like from 90 years wow then aha they are in the in the in like uh four years they are making 30 years wow so um yes come on Lacey's amazing you know well they are protecting um full of mangroves like when you go there you see a biodiversity of birds a huge biodiversity of birds but also they started to make this Lagoon like a place to recover um the crocodiles population anyway what happened they want that they hate crocodiles because they are dangerous and they say no if you know how to deal with crocodiles they are like so nice and well they are there and that's it no wow so what's what's the benefits I mean obviously we love all animals but what what do um inventineer what what do the community there say that the the crocodiles benefit the area well they started to see that for example to show to the people crocodiles it's an amazing research because they are like they are slow they can't be seen you know yes and the people these that that is my fantastic for me I love to see them because that's so amazing animals so they they started to see that the people like them you know too um of course they were protecting their environment before because it was like okay let's stop exploiting it let's just start be having another source of income no um when I ask the people what did they have to change to start this project no or to keep this project going they started to tell me I stopped fishing I stopped farming I stopped yeah because because they they started to work on conservation no they saw another way exactly they are referencing mangroves they are and you say and at the end of course you need to feed your family and use you have to think ways so they think they thought okay I prefer to uh to protect my research and to show to the people and focus on that instead of doing another thing you know gorgeous yeah so you know and they like they have like all lemongrofs now well they are recovering because in June last year they suffered a hurricane nobody died like now that they know how to deal with it it's not dangerous anymore uh they know exactly what time they are going to come but it's true that the mangroves were super affected when I reached there I think I last two days because the road was like I am and you couldn't go by car um they were like super sad I like you know for example they're representative of the of the of this cooperative I saw him crying like an old guy that was working the whole life protecting that place he was like so sad that I was crying too oh my God nature nature works for itself too like if you leave it they will it will be recovered as well yeah and because they're so kind and beautiful and wonderful to Nature that's why it all works out for the best for them as well I think that is incredibly I keep using inspiration but it is Imagine That nearly 30 years ago they said right that's it we're not gonna we're not going to exploit nature or animals anymore and this is what we're going to do now I feel like I'm gonna cry it's just oh wow that's just gorgeous and so you're obviously helping them by bringing volunteers and the volunteers are helping the environment and then the volunteers are also telling everybody else so let's keep spreading the word basically yeah and also like if anybody is coming to to to to to be here in Oaxaca or they come together I always say no go to ventanilla and I always try to promote them in my website my um social networks not like if you are coming go to ventanilla go to and all the other projects that I am working uh for you know and yeah well I'm good you know of course well I'm I'm going to make sure that everybody's got all your um social media the website details so they can get in touch with you but we haven't finished talking yet I just um I feel I mean Vincent I mean obviously I was there in ventania and it was absolutely incredible the the um the way they were looking after us the way that we were welcomed into the community and all the beautiful food that was created whereas every day just on an open fire was absolutely incredible so um so we've spoken about the jungle we've spoken about ventania we've spoken about escobia and we've spoken about um the collabores we've spoken about the hummingbirds so um is there anything else that you would like to share with us I I would I know you're a huge advocate for sustainability um so would you like to share anything with us in terms of how we can help the environment how can we can start making little steps to start helping the environment from from where we are at the moment foreign well there are many many things that everybody can do and I think most of most of us we are aware of the things we need to change for the climate for the nature and so on I like these things can come to my mom to my mom always almost every day you know and one thing that I know that we have to work before starting something it's to work on our minds to discipline ourselves to focus you know because for example I can say uh eat less meat for example because of well these the cow meat they are the 15 50 yeah 15 of the pollution you know there are many things like that also like to avoid a plastic and like this disposable everything that we use just one time and that's it but it's a matter of first working in us and saying I don't want this in my life yeah so I'm not going to buy this or I'm going to stop eating this because of course not like you are craving many times for any kind of food or you are always eating when you know that is not good for your body or for the planet you know so first work into yourself and then start giving you know start helping their nature so so this is brilliant thank you I think that I feel they're really wise words thank you so first of all we need to create that habit we need to make that decision and once we make that decision we stick with that decision and so yeah I I understand exactly what you're saying so instead of saying oh well we'll just do that today it's like no no you've said you're not going to do that that's it now yeah yeah and being almost disciplined would you say yeah discipline like controlling your mind controlling these things that are telling you know like this team on that is always behind you you know one is a buy a new computer then yours is working no because you are no but first it's like first trying to think if you really want that then when you control you and yourself then you can start yeah thank you yeah and and I feel it's it's really important because as well um you know it said that it takes 21 days to change a habit so what I what I would um suggest for anybody who wants to change anything is give yourself those 21 days and just stick to it and then see how easy it is afterwards but obviously it's not preaching to people it's the world is changing so much and we're all more and more naturally making decisions to be healthier um I mean I've been vegan a number of years but it was a decision that I made on my own nobody forced me so that that's what I feel is really important when people I remember when I said I was vegan the amount to people said you're not going to have enough of this you're not going to have enough of this and try to talk me out of it and then later said actually you've made me go vegetarian but I didn't do anything it's and I feel it's exactly what you're doing it's by we when we make changes for ourselves it influences other people it's not saying to people do this do that it's just this is what I do and then people say oh that's interesting could you tell me a bit about that and you know for example how was no this uh proceed for you the exchange to be vegan for example no it's incredible at the beginning like you are like super not just trying to remind yourself you know yeah exactly I mean um we're digressing but just very quickly I was vegetarian anyway and it was because of uh um it was because of an allergy test that I had and so I had to avoid certain things that I not really been wanting to have anyway and then I ended up just thinking well I don't really enjoy it and now I know what happens I don't want any of that in my system thank you very much so yeah it was but it was in the same way that you studied um you know you you studied and then you were looking for internships because you were so enamored with turtles and you were so passionate about that in the same way that you put that out there to the universe that's what came for you you know in in the same way I was making changes to be healthier that's what came for me so it's I really believe and and what you say is so true is once we make that decision so would you say do you have a meditation practice do you do any kind of meditation I mean the meditation is walking along the beach at night with the turtles obviously it's also a kind of yeah completely because meditation can be in so many ways yeah yeah I I will I started a long ago um I this is an habit that is not always in my in my daily life but right now I am retaking it because yeah you need that foreign just because of this I we took it like maybe a month ago or something like that it's amazing because I was you know like this not fighting against my mind telling me that this is like because of course not like during this project I have many times that everything is so hard because right now I am doing this alone and yeah sometimes it's like I cannot do it I want to stop it I want just to work for her like meditation helps a lot to Focus myself now on these like what do you want or you don't want that you want to keep working you need that smile of the children every time that you do it works eat like these beautiful people that they are happy because they are people that they come volunteers that admire their job that they help them that there is like a this link between cultures and it's so beautiful to see how people really we it's really grateful for both ways both volunteers and communities you know so it's like no you're I'm not going to abandon but that's some things I need some we're all human and especially you've just you've just said it you're doing all of this on your own laughs so absolutely and we do have to work on on ourselves inside before we we go out and face the world I feel as well and again I say do not underestimate what you have created because it's incredible and there's so many people who will be listening to this who I know will want to meet you who I know will want to come to Waka and you know maybe um I'm sure you'd be interested in collaboration as well we can you know if people want to collaborate with you they can get in touch yes so you're not doing all on your own yeah yeah in fact I am looking for like of course I have to first in the first step but I am working on how to bring people longer periods that they can in the communities and also the projects and so I have some some ideas going on and but I I am I'm not just ideas I am really working on them no I know that when you say ideas you're doing that yeah yeah I'm doing it but it's true that it needs some steps before that I am doing right now but we can um if you would like to come back we can talk when when you've got a little bit more um determined exactly what that's going to be we can we can chat about it again and we can share with everybody what uh what that incentive is as well yeah completely it's necessius for sure wonderful so is there anything else that you would like to um share with us anything that you feel really passionately in terms of um well let's say about the community for example is there anything with the communities that you're working with um because I know when I was over um there was there was a there was a recording team there I won't mention from from which company but there was a recording team there wasn't there and did anything yeah did anything happen with that and I think they were like they the Italian one yeah this aha yes yes yes he posted it like a video of the new adventure projects uh in their web page that was keep the planets okay okay and some people contacted me and so on yeah it was very beautiful I posted in also yeah honestly I can't mention names so yes um but if you want me because and there's that on your website as well any information about that yep okay great so if you if you'd like to see what all that is about then um please do have a look on the website um I would just like to say thank you so much for all the wonderful work you do in the world you massively are an inspiration and the way you've inspired the communities the way you've inspired who would have been poachers to change the way of looking at their life and being more you know me being more at one with nature it's it's just so important I'm just keeping Mother Earth and Gaia in in such a beautiful way and respecting and caring because we're we're all here together aren't we we're not we're shouldn't be a hierarchy I feel you know we're all animals and humans is not that we should be this and plants and nature so thank you so much for the wonderful wonderful work that you do you are amazing thank you so much to you Ali I am so happy to see you again because we we talk many times after you leave but it's true that we didn't see each other all the time yeah we'll chat afterwards anyway and I would love you to come back on again as well please and um and and share more with us and I will post everything so you can get in touch with Beatrice and speak about collaboration speak about going on these incredible voluntary experiences I absolutely recommend them and um and also if anybody would like to donate to any of the causes as well that's possible to do as well so I will post all the information so thank you so so much for being here my gorgeous El Mundo thank you so much everybody and thank you so much Aline really really excited about this I wish you so many blessings with all that you're doing and it's just incredible thank you for you nothing
2023-03-02 21:14
