Last night I overheard some guests at the hotel talking about how land prices have jumped by huge amounts in a community called Juan Adrian. This because of a new highway under construction from the centre of the country to the west which is transforming Juan Adrian from sleepy mountain village into bustling, near-urban way-stop.

We all have heard about the world's shifting population, and how for the first time in history there are more people living in cities than in rural areas. For me this shift tends to be mostly invisible, and so it is a bit shocking to have such an in-your-face manifestation of global change. This also likely means more deforestation and erosion in a place that was otherwise stable. The area where the highway is going slices right through the very top of the Maimon watershed which feeds the Yuna river, which ultimately flows into Samana bay, a critical breeding area for humpback whales. Not that road building is going to immediately threaten whales, but everything is inter-connected, and protecting the source of the Maimon and Yuna river becomes more important and urgent than before.