Cleaning up!

Have you ever taken part in one of these activities?

For me, last Sunday was the first time, and it was such a great way to begin!

Caju-Perú (Comité Ambiental Juvenil), a local organization that joins together volunteers and different groups run by young people with the commitment to preserve the environment and educate population, was celebrating its '8th birthday'. For the occasion, they organised a clean up in a place called 'Lomas de Lúcumo', in Quebrada Verde, Pachacamac.


When I got the invitation, I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't know the place and I only knew a couple of people there besides Tommy.

We woke up very early and went to the meeting point, where around a hundred volunteers congregated. I felt so old! I was probably one of the oldest in the group!


Two extremely crowded buses took us to Quebrada Verde. The place was grey and seemed like a lifeless hill from where we gathered. I was a little worried.


People from all ages and districts of Lima joined the campaign. It was a particular joy to see kids from the community proudly wearing vests that ID them as 'environmental promoters'.

We got instructions and were divided into five brigades. Each brigade took a different path, and armed with gloves and bags started our morning picking up the inorganic waste that we found along the trails.


The higher we got up the hills, the greener they became. Life started to show. It was an amazing climb, picking up lots of garbage, and enjoying the stunning views.

I used my right eye and hand to bird, and my left eye and hand to pick up waste. Right hand was in charge of binoculars, left hand was in charge of cleaning up. It was a bit hard not to stop every two seconds to enjoy the view, as the rest of the volunteers walked faster and focused totally on the goal. I have to admit that I couldn't do both, I was torn between them and kept trying to; but, eventually, I had to give up birding with the promise to return.


High up on the hill (that was our brigade's main goal), the fog and mist around us made me feel as if I was in a magical world. I felt a bit sad watching such a beautiful place and imagining the people who left all those things behind. It was also sad to think of getting back to the grey, super noisy and dirty city.


The way down was harder, it was foggy and slippery. My legs were shaking after four hours of climbing and jumping and generally moving around! I spend too much time in an office. I discovered that I lost some of my strength and drive for these things (it could also be that the average age of the volunteers was ten years younger than me!). But I am moving forward now, trying to do things I enjoy and believe in, together with people I love and care about.


It was an awesome experience that I plan to repeat. I loved the place, its simple beauty and its quiet trails. I loved the activity and the perfect company of great people with such different backgrounds, but united in one single goal. I loved to see so many young people involved in it.

It was awesome. Whatever I could have expected of it, this was by far, so much more. So much better.

UPDATE - Something fishy

Yesterday we visited the lagoon again, trying to find some answers and hoping for good news. We were not expecting this at all.


We found the fish that two days before were struggling for air.
They were dead.

Some of them at the bottom, some of them on the shore. A few small ones still fighting, breathing heavily and swimming on their sides.


The smell was very strong and the sight was sad, sad, sad.


Still nothing on the news. I don't want this to just dissappear. Last night I talked to my friend Yolanda, she's a young student and an activist for conservation of native flora and fauna. I met her a few months ago at the Wildlife Brigade. She said she was going to get a couple of friends from the university to go there and test the water, collect samples, and try to find out what is going on.


I recorded a short video too.
Sad.

Another lake 'disappeared' in Chile

The planet is getting warmer, and nature is paying too high a price for it.

This morning my mother told me something she heard on the news, a lake in Chile disappeared. PUF!! What horrible nightmare!

Lago Cachet, a lake of glacial origin is not there anymore… AND IT IS NOT THE FIRST TIME something like this has happened!! This Chilean lake is empty: 200 thousand million liters of water gone in a few hours. The filtration also produced big floods on the neighboring glacier, Colonia.

When mom told me such thing this morning I had to read it myself, I searched for it online, and all I could find was news about another lake in Chile that disappeared in May 2007… You can read about that one here, here and here.

This afternoon I finally found information in English here, here, here and here, and this site in Spanish has a video here. If you have any information on other similar things please let me know, I do want to know the reaction and ACTION in other places.

Not much coverage outside of the Internet is given here for this phenomenon - media monsters are just ignoring it or presenting the news as a ‘curiosity’ a ‘fun fact’ or a ‘mystery’ and I believe it is way too serious to just ignore it or treat it like that.

I want to ask you to please try to find more information on this, share it with your friends and family, discuss it and try to get more people to know about it. Education and knowledge is the key for a positive change!

I know that all kind of phenomenon related to Global Warming is happening around the world, and most of them have no press or have some without a big fuss. Ecosystems disappear, entire habitats and their resident species gone, and we keep on damaging the ONLY place we have to live!

Anyway, sorry for the overload of Mel-emotion on this post, but it makes me sooo angry and frustrated! I have faith in my fellow bloggers, especially the ones who visit this blog now and then, and in the small but good efforts they make to try to create cleaner, healthier and safer environments for their families and communities. I know you will understand what I feel; because I’m sure you feel it too.

Thanks for reading this, I just had to tell you.

Until I can post something bird-related, and just so this won't be left aside by the friends who follow this poor blog, I'll post interesting stuff I found or got from friends about issues that I'm sure most birders would appreciate.





This guy got comments both good and bad about his video, personally I believe it is an interesting aproach to a subject that should be taken in consideration by more people, and instead of all the arguments and fights around it, just DO something, a little something that could help even if it's small like a grain of sand.

After that video, he posted more replying to some of the subjects that came up after the one I posted here. I really recomend watching them, they can be found on YouTube, he uploads videos with nick name wonderingmind42.

So, if you have some time to spare, watch them and let me know what you think (you probably watched them months ago, but as I just decided to post them it would be great to have your ideas and opinions, alike or different, sharing information and discusion with respect are key points on finding probable solutions or paliatives for such and important matter!)

Oil spills kill

Today is October 15th... Blog Action Day!

Today, bloggers all over the world will unite to bring to light a single issue on everyone’s mind: the environment.

Every blogger registered on the Blog Action Day will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic, what this organization proposes is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

So, that's it, that's all I have to say today, I'll start checking out what other bloggers are posting today! Great to learn!