Day 38

"Hakuna matata. Today is Life. Tomorrow never comes."

That is the quote of the town Matala. Which is where I visited for the past few days to build the new camp . It was a two hour drive from my camp and it had great scenery for the entire ride. Huge mountains all around you and once you get to the other side of the island you get to drive along the coast which has some of the most amazing views of crystal clear waters and sandy beaches. We arrived in the late afternoon on Monday and moved the supplies from the office to the camp site. On Tuesday myself and a Ivana (volunteer from Germany) sanded the entire kiosk and packed it in the truck. Of course by the time the pieces of wood were unpacked at the spot it belongs, it was high noon and the sun was pounding on us. Not the best of timing, especially with no shade but however difficult the work was it was finished in the end. I treated myself to a nice swim in the sparkling bay after a day of long and sweaty work.

The atmosphere of Matala is very laid back as you can tell from the quote and such a relaxing place to be. The town is very small and has a close community. Filled with hippie bars, funky clothing and hand made jewellery it shows the diversity the island has. The best part was walking through the strip to find a place for dinner and constantly getting comments such as "oh the turtle ladies! You are back!" along with a shot of raki (similar to Italian grappa). I learned in Matala if you work for Archelon and want free shots of raki... it is definitely the place to go.

The side trip was worth the extra work, and even with the three buses it took to get back to camp I would definitely go again! The funny thing about the journey was arriving back at camp and having this big sensation of getting back home. It's weird how a random campsite which is far far away from my actual home becomes a new home so fast.

Today was my first day back at camp and I had an exciting, early morning. I was on morning survey for sector A-C the longest one, which means waking up at 4:30 am to walk almost 5km of beach. It turned from a early morning to a exciting one after we found tracks on the beach. Following the tracks up the beach we found what appeared to be a nest. After digging in the sand for some time we ended up finding the eggs! This was my first sights of a real egg and it was so thrilling to see a real sea turtle nest. I know I sound very lame at the moment but after all the training I had to go through and many hours walking on the beach without finding anything, it makes it that much sweeter to see your work pay off.

Tonight the leaders and a bunch of volunteers are heading out to Platanas (the town over) to watch a gig at a place called Axos. The leaders know the band which we are told are very brilliant and who do covers of all sorts of songs. Even more good news I got put on a slide show for tomorrow night at a hotel in Heraklion. Now Heraklion is quite far from us, which means a long bus to get there and since we have a information table the next afternoon we stay the night. Let me clarify, not stay the night in town but actually get put up in one of the hotels rooms with a pass which gives us all inclusive access to food, swimming pool, drinks, etc. Did I mention this is one of the five-star hotels? No? Sorry, I will say this again in case my brother is reading, I get a free stay at a five star hotel.

Ahhhhh Hakuna Matata, it means no worries...