Charlie is now in the smallest country of Central America, El Salvador. Known as the Land of Volcanoes, El Salvador has frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity, but luckily no activity happened during our stay. It is the only country in Central America that does not have a coastline on the Caribbean Sea.
About half of all Salvadorans live in the countryside. They are poor and don’t have electricity or running water in their homes. There are many children in El Salvador who do not attend school because their parents cannot afford the transport to get them there. Rice, beans, and tortillas are the main foods in El Salvador. Most people cannot afford meat and do not have enough food to eat every day. Although it has it’s problems, Charlie found some beautiful places to hang out during his time there!
During Charlie’s stay in El Salvador we headed to the Pacific Coast to volunteer on a Turtle Sanctuary. The Green Sea Turtle is listed as an endangered animal because they are decreasing in numbers. The aim of the sanctuary is to help protect and save Sea Turtles from extinction by educating the locals on how and why they need to be protected instead of hunted.
For many years, people have hunted Sea Turtles for their meat or their beautiful shells. Now people are also digging up and collecting turtle eggs buried on the beach to be sold to restaurants. If this continues, the Sea Turtles will disappear from our oceans forever.
When born, Green Sea Turtles are only 5cm long but they can grow up to 1.5 meters and can weigh over 300kg, making them the largest of all the Sea Turtles. Green Sea Turtles can hold their breath underwater for up to one hour. They are strong swimmers and only venture onto land to lay their eggs. The female turtle will swim back to the beach she was born on to lay her eggs. She can lay between 100-200 eggs at one time, she will then burry them in a pit and return to ocean. The eggs take 2 months to hatch, once the baby turtles climb out of their eggs they must crawl across the sands towards the ocean trying to avoid predators, including sea birds and crabs.
Charlie was lucky enough to be able to watch baby see turtles hatch and make their way to the ocean. He hopes that all manage their journey through the ocean safely and return to the beach one day to lay their own eggs.
If you would like to learn more about Sea Turtles look at the Website below
Adventure Freeway.. Alaska to Argentina 