Jalova Monthly Achievement Report Jan 2016

The 15 mile challenge

Objective
One of the GVIs key objectives is to make contributions towards key global and local issues. On
January the 13th of 2016, the house of Jalovas caretaker Don Armando, one of our main local
supporters, was burnt down to ashes in a tragical accident. To help him build his home back to
what it was, Jalova base via GVI Charitable Trust created a platform to raise funds through the
accomplishment of a challenge: A walking or rowing competition along the 15 miles distance
that separates our base from Tortuguero town.

Summary
All staff members, interns and volunteers at Jalova participated in the challenge as two different
teams: The walkers versus rowingers. Not only they had a great time by both of them
accomplishing the challenge but they also encouraged their friends, family, and previous
volunteers to cheer for their team by donating for the cause. By the end of the challenge Jalova
had raised enough money for Don Armando to start buying materials to rebuild his new home.
Report

The GVI Charitable Trust allows the creation of emergency fund used to aid communities around
the world. A key person to the local community assisting in the smooth running and
maintenance of Jalova base in Tortuguero National Park is Don Armando, Jalovas neighbor and
caretaker that runs a coconut plantation next to our base. For years, Don Armando has been
delivering our food to base weekly and has showed his support to our cause by assisting us on a
daily basis with any issue that has ever arisen on base. On January the 13th of 2016 his house was
burnt down to ashes in an accident. To help him rebuild his house, volunteers and staff members
at Jalova set a challenge: walking or rowing the 15 mile distance that separates our base from
Tortuguero town to raise money to buy new construction material for his new home.
The challenge took place on Monday the 1st of February, and was achieved as two separate
teams: the boat team, rowing along the beautiful canals that connect our base to the dock in
Tortuguero town; and the walking team, walking through the jungle trail that leads to the same
place. Despite being physically very challenging, all volunteers in base participated in the event
to support the cause.
The journey turned up to be full of surprises for both teams. The walking team, assisted and
followed closely by one of the park rangers, had a very interesting journey bumping into all kinds
of wildlife along the trail. Among many others, they encountered several Spider monkeys, White
throated capuchins, different color morphs of Eyelash palm pit vipers, a snake, and loads, loads
of different anoles.

Photo: Volunteers participating in the walk challenge along the jungle trail.

But the most exciting part of the walk came when a few members of the team spotted a beautiful
female Jaguar crossing the trail right in front of them! One of the volunteers was the first one to
spot her and warned the group about what was expecting them around the corner. Interestingly
the Jaguar project leader was amongst them and told them how to behave around her, and
inform them about many different interesting facts about jaguars. Spotting of Jaguars in the wild
is a really rare event to experience, so we are sure that is a moment they will not forget.

Photo: The jag team: Jaguar project leader and happy volunteers who encountered the jaguar on the trail.

The boat adventure was not any less exciting than the walk. Despite being a small team the 5
rowers powered through the 15 mile distance making their way to Tortuguero in only 4 hours

and 30 min beating the walking team by hours. Along the way, they were lucky enough to spot
some rarely seen birds in the area: a few Cormorants and 4 Great green Macaws, being the
latter actually listed as critically endangered.

Photo: The boat time powering through the last ten minutes of their journey.

Upon their arrival to Tortuguero, both teams spent a few hours in town enjoying some rest,
sharing stories about the challenge and recovering from it. Back at base everybody was proud
of their personal achievement and kept encouraging their friends and relatives to donate. The
fundraising continued for a few weeks after the challenge and raised enough funding for Don
Armando to start purchasing new materials to rebuild his new home.

Ana Miguel, Scientific coordinator Jalova Hub.