Posted by Sir H on January 13th, 2008 in Photo gallery, School activities, Uncategorized

The 1st and 2nd yr HS students went to Morong, Bataan last December 7-9, 2007 (yes, I know and I apologize for the very late post =) Anyway, here are some choice pictures. Enjoy!

We had a 1-km forest walk in the Subic Forest and Marine Preserve en route to Morong, Bataan.

I had the good fortune of meeting up with a friend, Dan Torre upon our arrival at the camp. So I asked him to give a brief talk about his work as a turtle conservationist for the Philippine government. Dan was collecting DNA samples of the sea turtles in Bataan.

Art Blanco’s group (Erica, Shane, Vinz, Erik and Mac-Mac) began working on the mural while the rest of the high school students cleaned the Turtle Pond

We saw our first nesting turtle on the first patrol night (Friday night, Dec 7). Marsha spotted her first.

Patricia Regala measured the turtle’s carapace.

Tired, sleepy but very happy, we posed for a picture with the pawikan before letting her go back to the ocean. She laid a total of 84 eggs. We would again encounter another nesting pawikan on our second patrol night (Saturday, Dec 8).

We had a coastal clean-up on Saturday (Dec 8).

We had lots of fun (at least I did =) on that trip as we enjoyed beautiful sunsets, beach volleyball matches and of course, a bonfire.

We wrapped up on Sunday (Dec 9) with a few words from Chairman Manolo Ibias. A founding member of the Bantay Pawikan Conservation Program, Sir Manolo shared with us his life story and conversion from turtle hunting and egg poaching to a life dedicated to protecting one of nature’s truly remarkable and ancient forms of life.

And of course, I am proud to present the finished mural of Art’s group. Cheers to Erika, Erik, Shane, Vinz, Mac-Mac and Art!