In the last few days I’ve received some of the best photographs ever taken at Playa Viva.  While we have been involved in this place for close to three years, the images that are captured there still do not cease to amaze me.  Just when you thought you saw all of Playa Viva, someone sends you slices of life from Playa Viva that refract the place in a whole new light. 

In late January, Daniel Camarena, an amateur photographer, naturalist and co-founder of Mexican non-profit Gente Como Nosotros (translates to “People Just Like Us”) spent 3 days in Playa Viva taking pictures of the wildlife.  His primary purpose for the trip was to photograph the birth and migration to the sea of the highly endangered Leatherback (Laud) turtle.  The turtle sanctuary, La Tortuga Feliz, had reported to us that a nest of Laud turtles had been found and the eggs were scheduled to hatch on that weekend.  Daniel and Gente Como Nosotros are in the process of deploying an environmental education  project in Mexico that will involve hundreds of schools and thousands of school children.  As part of this project, they wanted to capture the Laud Turtle for promotion and adoption by the school kids for environmental protection – we will provide you with more on this project as it gets formally released.

Daniel took photos of the volunteers of the turtle sanctuary at work in collecting and storing eggs safely in the sanctuary. He also got great images of the birds of Playa Viva and the landscape.  Enjoy PowerPoint below.

[slideshare id=1111801&doc=daniellaudppt-090306130232-phpapp02]