Mangrove, as you may know, is an important habitat in the Caribbean and many tropical, coastal regions. It's a breeding zone for many fish species, supports unique birds and plants, stabilizes shorelines, purifies water--all in all a critical global ecosystem. The problem with mangrove is that it occupies the same kind of space that also happens to be ideal for tropical paradise hotels and resorts. If you've stayed in beachfront all-inclusive, you've probably been sleeping right on top of former mangrove swamp. Millions of hectares of mangrove have been chopped down, bulldozed in, and otherwise removed for the sake of tourism. I don't have anything against beach hotels--I have to admit I'm quite enjoying my stay here. This particular resort at least has, within their property, preserved a small area of mangrove as a nod to environmental responsibility. You might be able to tell that this particular mangrove is not the most spectacular ever, but it's something, and far ahead of what most resorts are doing. This morning, when I was taking these shots, I saw many guests walking by this small preserve, sadly unaware of what it might represent. I suppose that mangrove and tourism can co-exist. And I know there are folks working for that. But historically as we all know, dollars trump, well, everything. Maybe that's changing. One can only hope.

I think this boat was scuttled on purpose in front of the resort beach for the appearance and I suppose for snorkelers and divers. It gives you something interesting to look between naps.

Now and for the next few days at an all inclusive with my brother and his family. First time ever for me at an all inclusive. In fact my brother just offered me a drink from the mini fridge and at first I protested because of the charges to the room. Still not used to the all inclusive idea. There may not be many photos over the next few days. For those of you who take local transport, the way to get here is Expresso Bavaro a bus that runs from Santo Domingo to Punta Cana in about 3 hours, maybe 3.5. Don't get off at the Punta Cana airport though, like I did. I thought I would be able to take a shuttle from the airport straight to the resort, but no such luck. Instead I ended up taking 4 different local buses and spending about 2 hours to go 25 kms. Total cost 90 pesos or about 2 USD. I could have taken a cab direct for somewhere between 25-50 USD. The thing I should have done is take the Expresso Bavaro bus right to the end of the line, Friusa, and then one local bus to the resort.

I should probably mention that I think I had malaria. First time ever, at least as far as I know. And I'm not completely certain that I had it this time either. But Thursday during the day, I started feeling really tired. I didn't eat much lunch, and went home early from work. As the evening went on I was feeling progressively worse, with a fever and chills, headache, nausea, and diarrhea. I lay in my room in the dark, feeling terrible, and spending what little energy I had debating whether I had malaria or not. Finally I decided that it probably was. It was an important decision because I try to always carry an emergency dose of anti-malarial medicine with me, for exactly an occasion like this. So I dragged myself out of bed, got a glass of water (not that easy believe me), and started the treatment. The idea is that you take a whole bunch of medicine on day one, and knock out the parasite. This is followed up by several days of more mild doses to completely eliminate (hopefully) any residual bugs lurking in your blood. Maybe it was just psychological, but within minutes of taking the first dose, I started feeling better. The next day I was back at work, although still feeling a bit queasy, but by day 2 I was almost 100%. Today is my last day of drugs. Good thing I'm on vacation.

Whales in Samana Bay. Humpbacks I suppose. I'm a bit embarrassed to say I don't know for sure. One of these actually jumped out of the water, very spectacular I guess. Too bad I was looking the other way when it happened. All I saw was the green swirling pool of bubbles where it landed. I could have taken a picture of  that but decided not to. Still it was pretty exciting just being around them. And I have lots of shots of them doing less exciting things like this. 

And this is me actually on vacation. I  know this shot is totally cliche, but I can't resist. Samana is on the eastern part of the island, and while still a tourist destination is less developed than some other locations. Tomorrow we hope to go out into Samana bay and see whales which come here to mate in the winter. 

Some of you I know, think I'm on permanent vacation, so here's a picture of me doing something. We wanted to know soil depth in this field.

Part of the workshop over the last couple days has included meeting with a small group of farmers (about 10) and asking them to identify soil problems in their community. The post it notes below show their perception of soil problems ranked by importance. The top one you see there is burning, ie when farmers burn their fields before planting. There are a bunch of reasons why farmers do this, but the end result is they get a short term increase in crop yields, and a long term and permanent loss in soil productivity. The photo below shows a couple of fields (upper right) that have been burned. I think if you take a closer look you can see how it leaves those fields, vulnerable to erosion. There's a long list of reasons why burning fields is not a great practice in the long run. The objective of this week, as it has been in other countries, is to help farmers think about how to resolve these problems through their own observation and ingenuity rather than us as an organization swooping in with all the supposed answers. Easy to say, not so easy to do. A three day workshop  such as this is only a step in the journey. I wouldn't even say the beginning because we've been working at this a  long time. Slowly but surely we try to improve. Poco a poco.

I had forgotten that this week is Mardi Gras/Carnival. Which means a lot of people here are in a partying mood. It's pretty quiet in this little town right now, but the owner of the house where I rent a room has a grandson who takes part in the carnival parades. I asked if I could take a picture of the just the mask, and instead she made her granddaughter put the entire costume on. The more I look at this outfit, the scarier it looks to me. It's tough to see maybe, but the eyes are bloodshot, and there's two crocodiles squirming around on the side of the face. Not to mention the big shiny teeth. I'm not quite sure how the religious significance of this all works. Frightening spirits wander the world until Lent, when they disappear because it is such a holy time? In any case I hope that no such spirit is hanging around in the house tonight! Or ever for  that matter.

It's raining here. Which is only notable because Jan-February are usually dry months. So while getting rain in February is not 'freakish' weather, it does seem consistent with my experience of the last couple weeks, where rain in Tanzania was totally unexpected, we had a big and these days somewhat unexpected snow fall in Toronto, and now rain in the drier season here. Three anecdotal data points collected by me, a random traveller, do not a comprehensive climate study make, but it sure seems like something unusual is going on at the moment on a global level. Who knows, maybe the rest of the world is getting normal weather. Maybe rain and snow are actually following me around. Which would be really disappointing considering I'm actually taking vacation time next week to enjoy the Caribbean sun.

I have to say, I love the DR. It's true that, and someone accused me of this the other day, that I say that about every place I go. Which makes my statement seem somewhat less meaningful perhaps, but there's lots to love here. Beautiful weather, especially this time of year, hot, but not unbearable, beautiful people, lots of green trees, mountains, beaches, rivers, waterfalls, birds. Next week, when I take actual vacation, I'm hoping to see some whales. I'm excited about that since I've never seen one not in museum or aquarium. There's a list of animals I hope to see someday which includes leopards, crocodiles, gorillas, and chimpanzees. In the wild that is. Seeing them in captivity doesn't count. But, my week of work begins now. I hear someone at my door to pick me up.

One trip ends and another begins. Lately it seems I travel more than I stay in one place. Today's journey begins in Toronto and ends in the Dominican Republic. Work of course, but purely by coincidence, my brother and his family will be vacationing in the DR next week. So, I'm going to take a few days vacation and try to track them down at their resort. I'm looking forward to it, but tracking them down may not be straightforward, since there is no direct transport from where I will be on the island to where they will be on the island. Advice on the internet tells me I can take a series of local buses (guaguas) that will get me there but that remains to be seen. I will let you know how that goes. In the meantime, I'm focusing on the upcoming week which involves discussion with local staff of sustainable agriculture and research. Also will let you know how that goes.

But this morning my main objective is to nap on the plane.

Last installment for this trip, and another in my series of 'micro-vacations'. That is instead of wasting 6 or 8 hours sitting in an airport, I waste the same amount of time somewhere outside the airport. Sometimes that turns out to be interesting or fun, and sometimes, like today, it ends up with me wandering around aimlessly in the rain/snow without a proper jacket until I get so cold I decide to go back to the airport. This flight got into Amsterdam at 5:30 am for starters, and at this time of year, it doesn't get light until about 8:30 or so. Which means I also spent a good deal of time walking around in the dark, on mostly abandoned streets. Still, it wasn't a total loss. I managed to see about a dozen canals, 5000 bicycles, 3 cheese shops, 4 Starbucks, 5 shwarma places, and 6 McDonalds. 

I should also say that the train system here is quite good (this is well known), but I really think that the train system in Kuala Lumpur still wins for ease of use. I should start another blog just rating train systems. I've seen a bunch, and generally they're all really good, but I think the ticket machines in Kuala Lumpur win in the most user-friendly category, plus signs are available in 3 or 4 languages including English, which makes getting around pretty obvious. I did notice that Amsterdam also uses Bombardier trains. I guess trains is something Canada does well, I just never knew, because we seem to send the cool trains overseas. Too bad.

Some advice on staying healthy in the rural tropics. Do NOT do what this guy is doing, ie, going barefoot. Walking around in bare feet is a good way, among other things to pick up soil borne parasites. In this case, the individual in  the photo ignored such sound practice because  it was extremely muddy and he didn't want to wreck his shoes while trying to get his vehicle unstuck, calculating that in a low traffic area with few animals around he might be OK. Still not advisable. Such a person would be best advised to monitor his health carefully, and  possibly get some basic lab tests done upon arriving home.

Maybe this doesn't look like much, but this is a plot where farmers are doing their own experiment (Farmer Field School). This particular experiment happens to be about Conservation Agriculture, a type of tillage and soil management system where farmers try to disturb the soil surface as little as possible. Here you can see a plot where farmers have used a 'ripper' which basically cuts slices into the soil to allow moisture to be absorbed. Anyhow, the point is that farmers are trying several different conservation ag treatments on this same piece of land in order to figure out for themselves which one is best for their situation. Every week they meet and visit the plot, make observations and discuss/analyze what they've seen. This was really the purpose of the  visit to Tanzania this  week (like Burundi), not getting into various bad  situations with vehicles.

Really bad luck with vehicles this visit. I was driving this one when the wheel dropped right off the vehicle and went rolling ahead into the ditch. Fortunately this happened in a flat spot and in a populated area so we weren't stranded and the vehicle didn't end up anywhere disasterous. No one was hurt either in the car or passers by. Furthermore there just happened to be a guy (in the blue suit jacket) standing around at this intersection, on a Sunday who was knowledgeable about cars (may or may not have been a mechanic, I'm still not sure). So we spent the afternoon sitting/standing around until the wheel was back on, and then droving, rather tentatively back to our point of origin. Again fortunately we had only gone a few kilometres, and even in that distance we had to stop twice to re-tighten the lug nuts.